Romantic Period - Early 19th Century

Franz Schubert (1797 - Vienna - 1828) wrote some 450 dances. In contrast to other composers of his day, Schubert wrote comparatively few of the ever-popular waltzes for the dance-frenzied viennese public and preferred simpler forms for private use in a small circle of friends. He didn't consider these works to be anything special. Whether or not this was practical dance music is questionable today because many of Schubert's compositions seem to be more character pieces which emphasize the movement and rhythm of a particular dance.

The Deutsche Tanz (1823)(German dance) presented here is a fast dance in triple time, in which the couple turns in circles. It developed into the counterpart of the French menuet in the 18th c. (E. Stadler)