Waltzes of the Americas - Polly Ferman

Emerging as a sensation during the Napoleonic era, the waltz spread from its native Austria to all parts of the world, crystalizing for generations a new image of elegance, more dashing and suggestive of intimacy and gaiety than anything previously permissible on the dance floor. Starting as a genteel folk dance akin to the Landler, the romantic imagination quickly found that the waltz lent itself to especially tender musical sentiments. In the Americas as well as Europe, the popularity of waltzes motivated composers and publishers to turn them out in great numbers, most of this in sheet music destined for the parlor piano. Toward the end of the 19th century, when native American composers began to find their distinct voices, there emerged a varied literature of native instrumental waltzes.