‘The Blue Danube’ - Johann Strauss II, 1867
If you’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, or if you’ve graduated secondary school in Ireland, or if you’ve ever been to Vienna, you’ll surely have heard ‘The Blue Danube‘. It’s such an ubiquitous piece of classical music that it’s featured as muzak on fairground rides, in Disney cartoons, and is effectively the unofficial national anthem of Austria. It’s also the song that got me into classical music.
I visited Vienna back in 2001, when I was inter-railing, and thought it was such a beautiful city, with lots of faded Habsburg glamour bustling side-by-side with the cosmopolitan feel of a modern German city. Vienna has been the home of much history, from Mozart, the Ruprechtskirche, the focal point of the Anschluss, the big wheel from The Third Man and Before Sunrise and the Viennese cafes that served as breeding grounds for ideas that defined much of 20th century Europe.
But, as usual, I digress. ‘The Blue Danube’ was first noticed by me when watching the famous “mothership” sequence in 2001. Only later did I realise that I’d waltzed to it at my “grad”. As I started to listen to Lyric FM, I used to plague them with requests for this lovely piece. Usually they acquiesced. Here’s the famous scene from 2001 - watch and listen.
Last 5 posts by Dave
- 'Sunflower' - Paul Weller, 1993 - December 18th, 2008
- 'Brilliant Mistake' - Elvis Costello, 1986 - December 16th, 2008
- 'Icky Thump' - The White Stripes, 2007 - December 11th, 2008
- 'Careering' - Public Image Limited, 1979 - December 10th, 2008
- 'We'll Meet Again' - Vera Lynn, 1939 - December 5th, 2008
