Death
Josef Strauss was sickly most of his life. He suffered fainting spells and intense headaches. During a tour to Poland in 1870, he fell unconscious from the conductor's podium while conducting his 'Musical Potpourri'. It is not sure if he fainted and hit his head or simply became unconscious. His wife brought him back home to Vienna, to the Hirschenhaus, where on 22 July 1870 the engineer, designer, musician, and composer died. A final diagnosis only reported a decomposition of blood. There were rumors that he was beaten by drunken Russian soldiers after he allegedly refused to perform music for them one night. His cause of death was not determined as his widow forbade an autopsy. Originally buried in the St. Marx cemetery, Strauss was later exhumed and reburied in the Vienna Central Cemetery, alongside his mother Anna. His dance pieces might have surpassed that of his older brother, had he survived, as Johann was by then concentrating on writing music for operettas and other stage works.
Read more about this topic: Josef Strauss
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Perhaps it is nothingness which is real and our dream which is non-existent, but then we feel think that these musical phrases, and the notions related to the dream, are nothing too. We will die, but our hostages are the divine captives who will follow our chance. And death with them is somewhat less bitter, less inglorious, perhaps less probable.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“They can rule the world while they can persuade us
our pain belongs in some order.
Is death by famine worse than death by suicide,
than a life of famine and suicide ... ?”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“You mustn’t be afraid of death. When this ship sailed, death sailed on her.”
—Charles Larkworthy. Denison Clift. Anton Lorenzen (Bela Lugosi)