This chapter examines the different music and dance traditions that influenced the development of the Viennese waltz. Dance historians traditionally trace the origins of the waltz in the folk dancing of alpine Central Europe, viewing the rise of the Viennese waltz as a shift away from the cultural influence of the aristocracy in wider social dance practice. Yet the early waltz dances of the Viennese ballroom were shaped by influences that included French courtly dancing as well as Austrian folk music. The early history of the waltz is furthermore complicated by the fact that variants of the waltz dance did not always correspond with specific musical variants in the eighteenth-century ballroom. The development of the waltz highlights the complex network of influences that shaped social dance culture in the public ballrooms of Vienna.

This chapter examines the political, social and economic factors that shaped the early development of Vienna’s public ball culture from the time Joseph II opened the imperial ballrooms to the public in 1772. The number of public dancing venues in the city expanded rapidly in the decades around 1800, resulting in an increased influence of the middle classes over Viennese dance culture, and the rise of a new area of professional musical life. These developments gave dance orchestras a prominent position in Vienna’s musical landscape, and contributed to the emergence of new listening practices associated with dance music.