WALTZ COMING BACK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3382, 11 July 1927, Page 8

WALTZ COMING BACK.

(By Johann Strauss.) Hundreds of eminent musicians htive attacked jazz from every point of view during the last two or three years, with much of what they say. I heartily agree —jazz is not real music. Where so many of these critics have failed is not in their attacks on jazz, but in their failure to suggest a substitute. Some few have been so foolish as to attack dancing as well as jazz, but to most people it is obvious that dancing, in some form, is part of our life, and lias come to stay.

Probably never before has dancing been so uniformly popular, and it is for the musicians to provide music which will at once please the car and be sufficiently rhythmic for dancing. It is a commonplace that fashions come and go like waves. My observation leads me to believe that we are now rising on a wave which will bring the old waltz back into favor in every ballroom.

I-base my opinion on more than personal observation. Six weeks ago, a novel contest was held in Berlin. On one side, I conducted a. band playing Viennese waltzes, while on the other, a famous Englishman conducted a “Jazz” band, and everyone present was asked to vote on which music they preferred. The result came as a surprise to Charleston enthusiasts, for jazz only received one-third of the total votes!

AH dance music appeals in three ways—by its melody, its harmony, and Its rhythm. Now, while the Viennese waltz, which was brought to perfection by my uncle, appeals chiefly by its melody and harmony, modern jazz appeals almost entirely by rhythm. All dance music, of course, must have a strong rhythm, but while in the Viennese waltz the rhythm is just sufficient to make dancing easy, in jazz it is incessant, relentless and monotonous. In my official capacity I have conducted at scores of State balls in Vienna. I remember at one ball, long after midnight, taking a rest on a seat in the gardens. Neqr by were many other couples, looking a little tired. But as soon as the strains of a famous waltz floated through the windows on to the night air, the tired look disappeared from their faces, and the flowing melody tempted them back to the ballroom.

You have seen jazz have exactly the same effect on tired dancers? Of course, but whereas the beauty of the waltz seduces the dancers into movement. the incessant rhythm of jazz drives them. If you have any doubt that rhythm is more tiring than melody and harmony, make the experiment of dancing to a drum alone! Natives dance to percussion instruments alone, of course, but with them dancing is usually violent physical exercise as well as amusement.

To a great extent the war was responsible for the waning in popularity of the waltz. Everybody wanted to dance, and, while the waltz was a comparatively difficult dance to learn, any person with musical sense could learn to walk in time to the music could learn in five minutes. New dancers could not bo bothered to learn difficult steps.

But to-day that stage has passed. Dancers are no longer content merely to walk round the room. The Charleston is probably as difficult as the waltz, and dancers are prepared to spend many hours practising it. I have no doubt that before very long many of them will bo turning their energies to the waltz.

Not all syncopated music is bad— Bach wrote some very fine examples—but the Viennese waltzes have this advantage over modern dance music—they are graceful, and in themselves good music.