Johann Strauss I

Johann Strauss I (1804–1849) was an Austrian composer born in Leopoldstadt. Orphaned young and apprenticed to a bookbinder, he learned the violin, played in Joseph Lanner's orchestra and founded his own band in 1825. His Little Doves Waltz established his reputation at the Vienna carnival in 1826.

His waltzes, polkas and galops made Vienna dance, and his tours took him across Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain. With Lanner he transformed the waltz into a Viennese institution, earning the nickname Father of the Waltz and paving the way for his sons Johann, Josef and Eduard. His best-known work was the Radetzky March of 1848.