Waltz music may not have been invented in Vienna, but it was there that the Vienna Waltz as a dance and as a musical form started its worldwide success. Today three-quarter time, transformed into ‘the perfect movement’ of a rapid circular motion, is still a symbol of Viennese life.

The origins of Viennese Waltz are dated back to 12th/13th centuries and found in the dance called “Nachtanz”. The Viennese waltz originally comes from Bavaria and used to be called the “German”. However, other people question this origin of the Viennese waltz. An article which appeared in the Paris magazine “La Patrie”(THe Fatherland) on 17 January 1882, claimed that the waltz was first danced in Paris in 1178, not under the name waltz but as the Volta from the Provence. Presumably this is a dance in three-quarter rythem, which the French regard as the forerunner of the Viennese waltz.

.Probably the first waltz melody was “Das Lied vom lieben Augustin” written in 1679 in three-quarter time. It was introduced in Pairs in 1775, but it took some time before it became popular.

In the eighteen hundreds the waltz was considered to risqué for maidens and only married ladies were allowed to perform this dance.