In Our Time (BBC Radio 4) – "The Waltz"

Original Air Date: October 9, 2025
Host: Melvyn Bragg
Guests: Theresa Buckland (Professor of Dance History), Derek Scott (Professor of Music), Susan (Sue) Jones (Professor of English Literature)

Episode Overview

This episode examines the waltz: its origins, evolution, cultural and social impact, and the way it has been reflected in literature, music, and society from the 18th century to the present. The panel explores its revolutionary role in changing bodily interaction, its controversial allure, and how it became both a symbol of romance and a signifier of modernity and urban life.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Origins and Early Spread of the Waltz

• Roots in European Folk Tradition:
  • The waltz’s precise origin is hard to pinpoint but is rooted in turning couple dances of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
  • Dances such as Walzer and Dreher emerged in the mid-18th-century Germanic regions. [01:45]
• Arrival in Britain:
  • Brought over by aristocrats and soldiers, the waltz replaced the minuet by the early 19th century.
  • Its revolutionary aspect: partners faced and held one another while spinning as a couple, unlike previous side-by-side patterns.
  • “It’s often been referred to as a shift in body paradigm… a whole new realm of dancers came out, known as round dancers.” (Theresa Buckland, [03:12])

2. The Dance Experience

• Physical Feel:
  • Dancing the waltz (particularly the 19th-century rotary waltz) involves six steps per two bars in triple time, creating a whirling, sometimes dizzying and exhilarating effect. [04:03]
  • The dance could be dreamy or breathless depending on the tempo and included a radical intimacy unique for its time.

3. Music and Musical Innovation

• From Folk to Popular Art:
  • Waltz music became a distinct genre, with composers like Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss Sr. introducing novel musical devices and separating entertainment music from classical forms.
  • Innovation: Strauss’s use of the “Viennese note” and the Oom-pah-pah rhythm created strong musical identifiers for the waltz.
  • “That becomes a marker of the waltz and of the new popular style—if you’re a serious art musician, avoid that note.” (Derek Scott, [06:12])

4. Social and Cultural Transformations

• Scandal and Acceptance:
  • Early waltz faced moral outrage due to physical closeness and the intimacy of the hold, considered lascivious.
  • Gloves and dress codes attempted to mitigate concerns, but dress and bodily contact still made the waltz sensual, as reflected in Madame Bovary’s memorable waltz scene.
  • “Byron thought it was there all the way through… it becomes irresistible very quickly.” (Sue Jones & Theresa Buckland, [09:54])

5. Representation in Literature and the Arts

• Byron, Goethe, Austen:
  • Lord Byron satirized the waltz (1812-13), foregrounding anxieties about its impact, referencing Goethe’s Werther and its “out of body” waltzing. [10:29]
  • Jane Austen’s Emma describes the “irresistible waltz” as a setting for potential romance.
• 19th & Early 20th Century Literature:
  • The waltz often signified both excitement and transgression—seen in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Joyce’s Ulysses. [24:29]
  • Virginia Woolf used the waltz to explore freedom and disorder in The Voyage Out (1915). [32:13]
• In Ballet:
  • Vaslav Nijinsky’s Spectre de la Rose created a new interpretation of masculinity in waltz-driven choreography. [19:31]

6. Social Stratification and Gender Roles

• Who Danced, and How?
  • Strict etiquette dictated posture and proximity by class; closeness was considered vulgar among lower classes. [22:23]
  • Men’s engagement with the waltz changed: initially seen as unmanly, it became an expected social skill, though shifting educational values later led men to eschew dance in favor of “manly” pursuits.
• Wallflowers and Gigolos:
  • Gender imbalances at balls led to “wallflowers” (unpartnered women) and, later, professional male partners (“gigolos”) hired to dance. [30:35]
  • “They were called the gigolos. They didn’t mean… take the women to bed, it meant that the women were lonely, and they picked them up to dance.” (Theresa Buckland, [31:07])

7. The Waltz’s Continuing Evolution

• Changes in Form:
  • Late 19th-century saw the Boston waltz—more gliding, less balletic—as young people sought something new. [25:13]
  • The Merry Widow Waltz (1907) sparked another craze.
  • “It keeps getting an extra charge… the ballet roots come in, it goes better. It seems to be fading, then the English waltz comes in... It sort of recharges itself.” (Theresa Buckland, [27:48])
• Modern City Life and Modernism:
  • Waltz became tied to urban experience—instantiating a cosmopolitan rhythm (with local variants: Scottish, Irish, Geordie waltzes, etc). [34:34]
  • Modernist composers (Stravinsky, Ravel) used the form to explore fragmentation and darkness, as in Ravel’s La Valse and Liszt’s Mephisto waltzes.
  • “The waltz was seen as modern, not necessarily modernist.” (Melvyn Bragg, [41:15])

8. Gender, Sexuality, and Morality

• Association with Women and Romance:
  • Waltzing held dual connotations: grace and romance, but also sensual temptation.
  • “The waltz is associated with women very much… with two sides, the angel and the devil in their makeup.” (Asma Khalid, [34:03])
• Polarization in Society:
  • The waltz crossed class boundaries, providing a unique kind of cultural unity through urbanization—but societal anxieties persisted, enforced by dance etiquette and social hierarchies.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “It’s often been referred to as a shift in body paradigm… a whole new realm of dancers came out.”
  – Theresa Buckland, [03:12]

• “That becomes a marker of the waltz and of the new popular style—if you’re a serious art musician, avoid that note.”
  – Derek Scott, [06:12]

• “…the main ceremonial dance in high society was the minuet… The revolutionary aspect of the waltz was that the man and woman turned to face one another, and then they spun round on their own axis… So this was totally revolutionary.”
  – Asma Khalid, [01:45–03:10]

• “Irresistible very quickly… Jane Austen’s narrator in Emma talks about the walls… the irresistible waltz.”
  – Sue Jones, [09:57]

• “Byron kind of sets a certain tone for the literary responses to the waltz… because he introduces… a reference to Werther… a kind of transportation of the body beyond the body.”
  – Sue Jones, [10:29–11:54]

• “Her head falls on the viscount’s chest… she collapses onto her chair… when she’s on her deathbed… the thrill of her life. She remembers that waltz.”
  – Melvyn Bragg, on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, [15:08]

• “The waltz was easy to dance… Mark Twain said it was the only dance he could do. All you had to do was whirl your partner round and try not to bump into the furniture.”
  – Melvyn Bragg, [18:46]

• “Spectre de la Rose… tells the story of a young woman being driven by the spirit of the waltz… embodied by Nijinsky.”
  – Sue Jones, [19:31]

• “Anyone can do it, and yet… there’s an interesting aspect with the Victorian, you couldn’t really do much in the way of improvisation… But in this new style of waltzing, you could stride off into new directions.”
  – Asma Khalid, [31:32–31:58]

• “There’s a kind of potential for fragmentation as well as for harmony and getting together.”
  – Sue Jones, referencing Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out, [32:13]

• “The waltz is associated with women very much, and because it’s regarded as very graceful. But of course... as having two sides, the angel and the devil…”
  – Asma Khalid, [34:03]

• “The unity… is the unity of the urban experience. These are no longer country dances.”
  – Melvyn Bragg, [34:34]

• “It’s very difficult to know, but certainly there’s something about the waltz that made it a cosmopolitan genre.”
  – Melvyn Bragg, [35:57]

Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment/Discussion Point | |---------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:45 | Waltz origins and the shift from minuet; radical body paradigm | | 04:03 | How it feels to dance the waltz | | 06:12 | Musical innovation: Lanner, Strauss, the ever-evolving waltz form | | 10:29 | Byron, Goethe, Werther, and early literary reception | | 13:30 | Social concerns: proximity, "illicit activities" in candlelit ballrooms | | 15:08 | The sensual waltz in Madame Bovary | | 19:31 | Gender, masculinity, and Nijinsky’s “Spectre de la Rose” | | 22:23 | Dance style as a class marker | | 25:13 | Gliding Boston waltz, the Merry Widow craze, musical cross-pollination | | 27:48 | The waltz's persistent renewal through music and culture | | 31:07 | “Gigolos” as male dance partners for hire | | 32:13 | Virginia Woolf and the waltz as creative/fragmentary form | | 33:24 | Dark side of the waltz: Mephisto waltzes, Salome, “Delilah” | | 34:34 | Urbanization and local “waltzes”—making it universally cosmopolitan | | 41:15 | Modernity and the waltz: industrial rhythms, electric age | | 46:10 | Role in novels: George Eliot, artificiality, and realism in dance scenes | | 49:35 | Sheet music democratization; female musicianship; “Leichter Musik” | | 50:29 | Social hierarchies in the ballroom; theater and mass pop culture |

Bonus Material and Further Reflections

Showmanship and Business

• Strauss Sr. was a musical superstar, leading from the violin, thrilling crowds, and innovating with public concerts, creating a template for popular musical celebrity. [43:47]
• Anna Strauss, his wife, managed family business affairs after he left—a rare acknowledgement of a woman's business acumen in 19th-century music. [48:26]

The Waltz and National Character

• The English were prized for “restraint, elegance, and naturalness,” considering French styles more affected. These national stereotypes were projected onto dance etiquette. [45:25]

Literature and the Waltz

• George Eliot’s “waltzes as artificial,” used to illustrate moral turpitude or realism, offers a counterpoint to notions of waltz naturalism. [46:10]

Class, Inclusion, and Dance Halls

• Sheet music, theater, and dance houses facilitated the spread of the waltz across classes but maintained social hierarchies even on the dance floor. [49:53]

Conclusion

The waltz traversed continents and classes, becoming at once an emblem of tradition and an engine for modernity, social change, and artistic innovation. Universally adaptable, it both mirrored and influenced evolving ideas about gender, class, morality, and the joy (and risk) of giving oneself to movement and music.

Further Listening

• For more on cultural history, listen to the next episode: Julian the Apostate: The Roman Emperor Who Restored Paganism.

(Summary crafted in the spirit of the episode's deep, accessible, and often wry tone.)