Johann Strauss I

Johann Baptist Strauss I was born on 14 March 1804 in Austria and made his name writing light music in the Romantic Period - waltzes, polkas, galops - that he and Joseph Lanner pushed into the popular imagination until they became the city's pulse. The work that outlasted everything was the Radetzky March, named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, a piece of occasion that somehow became permanent. He had three sons - Johann, Josef, Eduard - and what he built became the platform they stood on, the dynasty already humming when he handed it over. He died on 25 September 1849, forty-five years old, with Vienna still dancing.