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Sample sheet music

Title	Geisselhiebe
Category	Concert/wind/brass band
Subcategory	Concert polka
Instrumentation	Ha (concert/wind band)
Publisher's article no.	20111006
Price	36.00 EUR (incl. 10 % Austrian VAT)
Composer	Strauss, Johann Sohn
Arranger	Hafner, Gerhard
Opus no.	Op.60
Difficulty level	2
Duration	4:30
Additional info/contents	Polka by the young Johann Strauss, in which he expresses his revolutionary mood around the year 1848 through the use of the 'Marsellaise' in the trio. A profound composition that requires subtle music-making.
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Programme notes: Johann Strauss Sohn's last compositional contribution to the revolutionary year of 1848 is his polka with the opus number 60 Geisselhiebe. It can be seen as a musical response by the Kapellmeister and composer Strauss to press criticism of his music-making practice. On 3 December 1848, Strauss played the "Marseillaise", which had become a symbol of the will for freedom, at the request of the audience in the "Zum grünen Thor" hall in Vienna, which is also documented by police records. A few days later, the emphatically reactionary newspaper "Die Geissel" denounced this music-making by Johann Strauss in its column "Kleine Geisselhiebe" - probably decisive for the title of the polka. However, the audience was criticised for wanting to hear such revolutionary music and Johann Strauss was, so to speak, defended, saying that he had only complied with the musical wishes of the audience, for example for the "Marseillaise", in order to avoid riots. Johann Strauss responded to this with the polka Geisselhiebe. After four introductory bars, an "old Bohemian melody" is heard in order to do full justice to the character of the polka. Quietly, the first violins and clarinets begin to sing the "Marseillaise" at the beginning of the trio. This is followed by the "Fuchslied" (Fox Song) with the beginning of the text "Was kommt dort von der Höh'" (What comes from the heights there), as it was already quoted in the coda of the waltz "Burschen Lieder". Johann Strauss then cites those mocking cries of the peasants for the hunter Max from the first act of Weber's opera "Freischütz", in which it is denounced that Max was unsuccessful in the prize shoot, which is also expressed in this edition by corresponding "ha ha ha - calls". Weber's "Jägerchor" from the "Freischütz" is also heard briefly. In addition, the transition to the Trio and the coda are cat music, whose originality is also well expressed in this wind music edition. Promptly, on 15 December 1848, there was again a new massive criticism in the "Geissel", this time of the composer Strauss: which concludes that one should forgive him "therefore this fresh, green foolishness" - an allusion to his music-making in the "Grünes Thor" and to his "green", i.e. still immature, youth - in one. Johann Strauss Sohn's "Geisselhiebe" misconstrued compositions were to have an aftermath for him when he applied for the position of Court Ball Music Director in 1856. Then, all of a sudden, the old police protocols of 1848 were dug up: "The police authorities reported to the Obersthofmeisteramt on 20. 5. 1856 that Johann Strauss' is also said to have performed a quodlibet with reminiscences of such tonalities from 1848 in public places during the state of siege of Vienna'." Half a year later, in the summer of 1849, Johann Strauss' son made a musical bow to the Emperor with his Opus 67, the "Emperor Franz Joseph March", which was premiered "on the occasion of the Emperor's All-Highest Birth Feast" in Dengler's beer hall in Vienna - Fünfhaus.

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