Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Ländler
The ländler is a folk dance in 3/4 time which was popular in Austria, south Germany and German Switzerland at the end of the 18th century.
It is a dance for couples which strongly features hopping and stamping. It was sometimes purely instrumental and sometimes had a vocal part, sometimes featuring yodelling.
When dance halls became popular in Europe in the 19th century, the ländler was made quicker and more elegant, and the men shed the hobnail boots which they wore to dance it. It is thought to have evolved into the waltz.
A number of classical composers wrote ländler including Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. In several of his symphonies Gustav Mahler replaced the scherzo with a ländler. The Carinthian folk tune quoted in Alban Berg's Violin Concerto is a ländler, and another features in Act II of his opera Wozzeck. The "German Dances" of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn also resemble ländler. Britten's Peter Grimes features a Ländler in the scene where a dance night is occurring in the Hall.
The movie The Sound of Music features a scene where the protagonists Maria and Captain von Trapp dance the ländler.
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