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.
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Famous quotes containing the word death:
“To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
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—Chinese proverb.
Zhaungzi.
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