Work Information
- Composer:
- Johann Strauss II (1825–1899)
- Title:
- Where the Lemon Trees Blossom (Wo die Zitronen blühen / Wo die Citronen blüh’n!), Op. 364
- Original title:
- Bella Italia
- Year of composition:
- 1874
- First performance:
- 9 May 1874, Teatro Regio, Turin; Julius Langenbach’s orchestra, conducted by the composer
- Genre:
- Viennese orchestral waltz
- Period:
- Romantic
- Structure:
- Introduction – three numbered waltz sections, each with two principal themes – extended coda
- Duration:
- Approximately 9–10 minutes, depending on tempo and repeats
- Instrumentation:
- Orchestra comprising 2 flutes (the second doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, harp, timpani, bass drum and cymbals, and strings.
Before the familiar waltz step takes hold, Strauss allows a melody to move quietly through the orchestra. The music begins softly and without haste, as though the dance were gradually taking shape within it. When the first principal theme arrives, the three-beat accompaniment welcomes a melody already poised to move. This passage from a measured breath to a gently swaying line gives Where the Lemon Trees Blossom its distinctive opening: motion emerges from stillness, carrying something of its softness into the dance.
Strauss wrote the work for his Italian tour of 1874, the year in which Die Fledermaus opened a new chapter in his writing for the stage. At its first performance, it bore the title Bella Italia, immediately linking the composition to the country and its audience. The music of Vienna was travelling, meeting new listeners and offering a newly composed waltz as a greeting to the place that welcomed it.
The title that eventually prevailed brought with it a more indirect presence of Italy, familiar through German-language literature. The phrase about the country where lemon trees blossom comes from Mignon’s song in Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. This literary association places the music beside an image of beauty and distance, while leaving its melodies free of any prescribed characters or episodes. The composition remains an instrumental waltz, its form shaped by its origins in dance and by its own musical logic.
That logic rests on Strauss’s ability to give each melody a recognisable character while making it part of a longer journey. Some phrases unfold in broad, singing lines above the accompaniment; others come alive through brief responses and small pauses. The 3/4 metre maintains continuity, while articulation, harmony and dynamics change the music’s bearing within the same world of dance.
Towards the end, the return of earlier themes brings the listener’s memory into play. Melodies that first appeared as something new now acquire the meaning of a reunion. Variety and thematic memory are the work’s two guiding principles: the three waltz sections extend its journey, and the expansive coda reconnects its principal moments until the music comes home to the G major in which it began.
Movements / Structure
The waltz unfolds as a continuous work, with no breaks between its large sections. The three numbered divisions in the score identify groups of dances, each containing two principal thematic areas, repeats and internal contrasts. The introduction prepares the way into this world, while the coda carries the journey well beyond the presentation of the third waltz. G major and the closely related key of D major provide the main tonal points of reference.
| Section | Tonal direction and function |
|---|---|
| Introduction: Andantino, followed by Più moto | Begins in G major; gentle melodic preparation and a gradual gathering of speed towards the dance. |
| Waltz 1 | G major; introduces the principal lyrical melody and a complementary theme. |
| Waltz 2 | D major; livelier articulation and greater mobility. |
| Waltz 3 | G major as its principal starting point; a broad phrase contrasts with a more active second theme, followed by a return to the opening section. |
| Coda | Recalls themes from the second and first waltzes, with energetic transitions, a reminiscence of the introduction and a final close in G major. |
The coda’s place in the work is essential to an understanding of the whole. Once the three groups of dances have been heard, the music has assembled enough material to embark on a second, retrospective journey. Earlier melodies return among fresh connections and climaxes, allowing the composition to be heard through the relationships it creates between its beginning, its unfolding middle and its ending.
Musical Analysis
The Introduction: Movement Takes Shape Within the Phrase
At the outset, attention rests on the melody’s breathing. The Andantino marking and very soft dynamic allow sustained notes to sound clearly, giving small shifts in the line greater expressive significance. G major establishes the initial orientation, but the harmony remains in motion beneath the melody. Chromatic inflections subtly alter its colour, as though the calm surface already contained the impulse for what is to come.
The 3/4 metre is present from the opening. The restrained atmosphere arises chiefly from the organisation of the accompaniment and the time allowed for the phrase to develop. The regular dance pattern, with a bass note on the first beat and lighter chords on the next two, has yet to assume the dominant role it will play in the waltzes. The listener therefore encounters a triple pulse whose delivery remains freer for a while, before it becomes an unmistakable dance step.
As the introduction progresses, more agile melodic lines extend the opening contour and enliven the texture. Più moto strengthens this change; the crescendo increases the volume, while stringendo calls for a more urgent forward movement. These different instructions work together to give anticipation a direction. The music prepares the arrival of the waltz through its own acceleration and gradual gathering of strength.
Just before the first theme, however, that momentum encounters brief suspensions. Rests and fermatas interrupt the immediate flow, setting the new entrance apart. The gentle melody that follows consequently feels like a fresh arrival. After the gathering motion and the momentary pause, the accompaniment settles into its regular step, and the phrase can begin to float above it.
The First Waltz: A Melody Above the Dance Step
The principal melody enters in G major, quietly and with the marking dolce. Its singing character is immediately recognisable, yet its natural ease arises from a carefully balanced relationship between the melodic line and the accompaniment. The bass anchors each bar, and the next two beats complete the harmonic movement, while the melody draws the individual steps into longer phrases.
The upbeat—a note before the first strong beat—helps establish this continuity. The phrase begins to move before the accompaniment provides its full support, so that its first arrival feels like the natural outcome of the melodic impulse. Within the theme, a characteristic pattern of dotted crotchet, quaver and crotchet recurs, leading into more sustained notes in the following bar. The small movement to a neighbouring note, and the lingering that follows, give the melody its gentle curve.
For a listener without a background in music theory, this feature can be heard as a brief dip or shift in the melodic voice, followed by a little more time spent on one note. Meanwhile, the accompaniment continues to step forward. Melodic movements of different lengths above the same dance pattern create the impression that the phrase has its own breathing, while remaining connected to the shared pulse.
A similar delicacy shapes the harmony. Certain melodic notes find a more settled relationship with the accompaniment a little later, as they move towards resolution. Tonic and dominant keep the main points of orientation clear; the intervening harmonies supply the small fluctuations that make the route more supple. The cadences sound clear and expected, but the music reaches them through subtle changes of tension and colour.
The second theme of the first numbered section shifts the balance of articulation. Sustained notes meet shorter responses, rests and more active melodic links. The group of dances thus gains an internal breadth: the continuity of the opening melody is complemented by another kind of movement, distributing its weight differently between lingering notes and brief gestures. The repeats allow time for both themes to become familiar, preparing the listener to recognise returning material in the coda.
The Second Waltz: Livelier Movement, Brief Breaths
With the move to D major, the music enters a region closely related to its opening G major. The relationship between the two keys preserves a sense of coherence, while the new melody brings a clear change of character. Upbeats and smaller melodic units give the phrase greater animation; rests between the responses open little gaps through which its lighter articulation becomes audible.
After the first theme’s broad curve, the alternation of movement and brief interruption refreshes the experience of the dance. The waltz continues to advance, but the melody distributes its presence differently within the bar. The accompaniment maintains the step even when the upper line withdraws for a moment. The rests therefore have an active role: they bring the next response into sharper focus and add flexibility to the phrase.
The second thematic section and the changes in dynamics develop this mobility further. Brief slowings and returns a tempo appear in the score, allowing melodic turns a little time before the previous pace resumes. The interpretative challenge lies in their proportion. A momentary delay can give a phrase ending room to settle, while preserving the feeling that the dance step remains within reach and that the music can regain it effortlessly.
The Third Waltz: A Lyrical Phrase and Its Animated Answer
The third numbered section begins in G major, bringing new material into the work’s principal tonal region. The return to this key feels like a rediscovery of familiar harmonic ground, while the fresh melody keeps the journey open. Sustained notes and the gentle connections of the opening phrase offer a broader breath after the more nimble movement of the second waltz.
Within the theme itself, the alternation of mezzo forte and pianissimo changes the weight of successive ideas. The music can make its presence more clearly felt, then withdraw into a more discreet answer. This shift creates depth within the phrase: the dynamics serve its internal expression and help the listener distinguish its turns.
The second theme brings a more pronounced change of energy. Short, repeated gestures make the rhythmic activity more apparent, drawing attention towards the persistence of small figures. The contrast finds its own place within the third section: the music moves away from its initial bearing, takes on a more animated surface and prepares the reappearance of the opening passage.
The marking Da capo al Fine in the historical piano edition specifies precisely this return. The opening section is heard again after the contrasting second theme, restoring the balance of the group before the coda begins. The listener already knows the melody and can now recognise it from a different point along the journey. This smaller return within the third waltz anticipates the more extensive recollections that follow at the end of the work.
The Coda: Melodies Encounter Their Own Past
With the entrance of the coda, the composition opens out into one last substantial journey. Its lively opening material supplies fresh impetus, but the listener now has a rich enough store of melodic memories to follow the reappearances. Themes from the second and first waltzes return, connecting distant moments in the composition and changing the function of familiar material: each melody is now heard with a memory of its earlier presence.
The return of the second waltz’s first theme recalls its distinctive movement within this new closing context. Later, the principal melody of the first waltz brings back its lyrical curve and familiar dotted rhythm. Recognition matters all the more because other melodies have occupied the intervening space. These returns connect the recent listening experience with the beginning of the dance sequence, while sustaining the direction towards the end.
Between the familiar themes, continuous quaver movement and sequences form energetic bridges. A small figure recurs at a different pitch, retaining its rhythmic and melodic identity while changing its harmonic position. Repetition itself can generate momentum in this way: the music preserves something recognisable as it moves towards a new arrival. Changes in dynamics shape the balance between these active connections and the quieter moments of reunion.
Shortly before the final surge, Tempo ritenuto makes room for material related to the introduction. The accompaniment briefly loses its regular dance feel, and the melody’s breathing recalls the opening once more. This reference extends thematic memory beyond the waltzes themselves: the music also returns to the atmosphere that preceded the dance. The ending gains a sense of elapsed time, bringing the first anticipation close to the experience of everything that followed.
The subsequent Tempo I restores the motion, and the accented closing chords establish G major firmly. The conclusion has the expected orchestral energy, having first allowed one last quiet breath. The breadth of the coda earns its place: it has given the melodies time to meet again and found room for the opening atmosphere within the ending, before the dance reaches its definitive close.
The Viennese Waltz Step and the Freedom of Performance
The characteristic waltz accompaniment provides a simple, readily audible foundation. A low note or bass supports the first beat, and lighter chords complete the next two. The continuing presence of this pattern allows the melody to shape broader curves, anticipate the beat with an upbeat, or linger expressively on a note. The feeling of sway grows from the partnership between the regular step and the freer breathing of the phrase.
In the Viennese performance tradition, the three beats are often separated by intervals that are less than perfectly equal. The familiar practice is associated especially with a slightly anticipated second beat. This displacement gives the accompaniment a distinctive inner motion, but its meaning depends on the phrase and the tempo. Its timing remains flexible across the work. The degree and placement of that freedom require sensitivity to what the melody is doing at each moment.
In Op. 364, the written instructions to slow down, accelerate and return to the previous tempo provide further points of reference. A phrase may linger at its resolution, briefly check its momentum or gather speed towards an arrival. When these changes grow naturally from the flow, the listener feels the freedom while retaining a sense of the dance. The gentleness of the first theme and the livelier articulation of the later sections then acquire distinct identities within the same musical world.
The balance of orchestral sound calls for comparable care. The strings offer the possibility of a continuous, singing line, while the winds vary the palette and its harmonic support. The harp broadens the colour, and brass and percussion lend weight to the climaxes. The orchestra’s rich resources are most effective when room remains for the discreet phrases. The soft opening and the withdrawals along the way help the stronger moments register as genuine arrivals, with a different scale and intensity.
🪶 A Chapter in the Life of the Work
The Waltz That Returned with a New Name
Before the journey to Italy, the story of this waltz had a starting point far from Vienna. In Baden-Baden, Strauss had come to know Julius Langenbach’s orchestra from Elberfeld. The connection outlasted that first encounter: when Vienna hosted the World Exhibition of 1873, Johann supported the ensemble’s appointment as the exhibition’s official orchestra. Langenbach’s musicians had already become part of his working life before the need arose for them to accompany him to another country.
The following spring, Die Fledermaus had just received its first performance, and Strauss was preparing to leave for Italy. The family orchestra, under his brother Eduard, remained committed to engagements in Vienna; Langenbach’s ensemble was chosen for the tour. Music that audiences recognised as quintessentially Viennese would thus travel with an orchestra from Germany, led by the composer himself. Its route offers a glimpse of how international the world of the waltz had already become, even as its connection with the Austrian capital remained strong.
On 1 May 1874, Strauss left Vienna. The tour programme included a new work written for the occasion, with a title addressed directly to the country about to hear it: Bella Italia. A few days later, on 9 May, the music received its first performance at the Teatro Regio in Turin, under his direction. The melodies now known as Where the Lemon Trees Blossom first appeared under another name, in the tangible circumstances of a visiting concert tour.
The original title made the work’s connection with its first occasion clear at once. “Beautiful Italy” was the place welcoming Strauss and, at the same time, the recipient of his musical greeting. The composition remained rooted in the melodic and rhythmic language of the Viennese waltz; its new circumstances gave it a different public identity, before its melodies continued their life beyond the journey for which they had been written.
By the summer of the same year, when the work was presented in Vienna, its name had changed. Langenbach’s orchestra played it again, this time with Langenbach himself conducting, and Bella Italia had become Wo die Citronen blüh’n!. Italy was still present in the title, now through a phrase that German-speaking listeners could recognise from Goethe. The passage from one name to the other changed the frame in which the same music was introduced.
In Mignon’s song, the question “Kennst du das Land, wo die Citronen blühn?”—“Do you know the land where the lemon trees blossom?”—evokes a distant place through concrete images: lemon trees, dark foliage, glowing oranges and a gentle breeze. The longing to travel towards that place gives the images their emotional direction. Strauss’s title draws on this literary memory and allows it to accompany an instrumental work. The nostalgic reading it invites is a connection the listener can make with the waltz; the evidence leaves the themes free of a prescribed programme and the composer’s private feelings unclaimed.
Within a few months, then, the work had acquired two names that preserved different aspects of its history. The first recalls the actual destination of the tour and the immediacy of its first encounter with an Italian audience. The second brings Italy to Vienna as a literary image, available even to people who had never travelled there. The change reveals how a composition can retain its melodies while finding a different place in its listeners’ imagination.
When the principal lyrical melody returns in the coda, after the more animated sections and the connecting passages, a listener today can encounter this story in the sound itself. The melody is familiar, but it is now heard after a period of absence. Its first appearance already belongs to the work’s past, and its return draws that past close to the ending. The waltz’s two names remain as two frames around this audible movement: a journey that took place, and a country that continues to call through memory.
🎧 Listening Guide
A first hearing can follow a few places where the music’s bearing changes clearly. The quiet introduction, the gentle entrance of the first waltz and the recognition of themes in the coda are enough to make the larger journey audible, without requiring every detail to be followed at once.
- The opening before the dance. The music is already in 3/4, but the accompaniment has yet to establish the regular dance step. The change in texture and the gathering motion make the entrance of the first waltz a clear point of arrival.
- The curve of the first theme. The dotted figure and the more sustained note that follows provide a useful means of recognition. The melody moves, then lingers briefly, while the accompaniment continues beneath it.
- The small pauses in the second waltz. Short melodic responses leave gaps that lighten the articulation. Attention to the accompaniment reveals that the dance movement remains present even when the upper line momentarily withdraws.
- The contrast within the third waltz. The broad opening phrase meets a more active second theme. The reappearance of the first section completes this smaller journey before the expansive concluding section begins.
- The reunions within the coda. Earlier themes return among energetic connecting passages. Recognising them gives the ending its own direction and helps reveal its relationship with what came before.
- The last quiet breath. Before the closing chords, the music recalls the introduction once more. This brief withdrawal heightens the return of motion and the final establishment of G major.
On a later hearing, the relationship between pulse and phrase offers a further point of interest. The melody may linger expressively at a resolution or begin before the strong beat, while the accompaniment continues to provide orientation. This focus makes clearer the point at which the written music meets the subtle freedom of performance.
🎶 Further Listening
These three recordings offer different starting points for comparison: the Viennese recording tradition, a live concert performance, and the work’s place within a systematic edition of Strauss’s orchestral output. The suggestions below provide ways into the music’s delivery, leaving the relative merits of the interpretations open to the listener.
- Willi Boskovsky – Vienna Philharmonic, Decca. This recording provides a starting point for exploring the Viennese tradition of the repertoire. The relationship between the accompanying step and the melodic curve, especially in the first waltz and its returns, offers a specific focus for listening.
- Zubin Mehta – Vienna Philharmonic, New Year’s Concert 2007. The live concert setting draws attention to the continuity of the larger journey. The preparation of the first entrance and the balance between quiet recollections and the final climax are useful points of comparison.
- Alfred Walter – Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice, Johann Strauss Edition, Vol. 2, Marco Polo 8.223202. This systematic recording project places the work within the composer’s wider orchestral repertoire. Comparison with the two Viennese performances can centre on the pace of the dance sections, the articulation of brief figures and the time allowed for lyrical phrases to breathe.
📚 Further Reading
- Michael Rot, ed. – Wo die Zitronen blüh’n, Op. 364, Strauss Edition Wien / Neue Johann Strauss Gesamtausgabe, VGH 359-11. The critical orchestral edition, together with its account of the sources and editorial decisions, offers the most substantial next step towards a detailed study of the orchestration and musical text.
- Norbert Rubey – Where the Lemon Trees Blossom / Waltz, op. 364, Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester. Rubey’s historical account illuminates the touring orchestra, the history of the two titles and the work’s appearance in Vienna. It is particularly useful for connecting the waltz with the actual circumstances of its early life.
- Zoë Alexis Lang – The Legacy of Johann Strauss: Political Influence and Twentieth-Century Identity, Cambridge University Press, 2014. A study of Strauss’s later reception and the relationship between his music and Austrian cultural identity. It supplies a wider context for the historical image of the Viennese waltz, rather than a dedicated analysis of Op. 364.
🔗 Related Works
- Johann Strauss II – The Blue Danube, Op. 314. Its longer succession of dance groups and concluding return of themes allow a comparison between two different scales of organisation within the same formal tradition.
- Johann Strauss II – Tales from the Vienna Woods, Op. 325. Here, the presence of a place in the title is associated with a distinctive instrumental colour and an extended introduction, offering a different way for a geographical image to meet the orchestral waltz.
- Josef Strauss – Sphärenklänge, Op. 235. Its symphonic breadth and lyrical character expand the dance form in a different expressive direction. The comparison illuminates the variety that can develop within the shared style of the Strauss family.
- Carl Maria von Weber – Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65. The introduction and epilogue frame the dance sequence, inviting consideration of how important the music preceding the main waltz, and the music following its completion, can become.
- Ambroise Thomas – Mignon: “Connais-tu le pays”. The direct vocal treatment of Goethe’s image offers another encounter with the country of a longed-for return. A comparison makes clear the distinction between setting words to music and evoking a literary source through the title of an instrumental work.
🎼 Closing Reflection
When a familiar melody returns, the time that has passed can be heard within it. In Strauss’s Where the Lemon Trees Blossom, the first gentle curve rejoins the dance towards the end, bringing close a moment that had receded. For a little while, the movement continues, and memory finds room within it to breathe.
📖 References & Sources
The form, metre, principal tonal regions, repeats and course of the coda were checked against the historical piano edition of 1874. The instrumentation was cross-checked with the publisher’s entry for Michael Rot’s modern critical orchestral edition. The account of the tour and the two titles draws on the attributed notes of the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester and the booklet accompanying the Johann Strauss Edition, while the literary reference was checked against Goethe’s original text in the digitised 1795 edition. The complete modern orchestral score was unavailable for direct examination; the historical piano edition informed the formal and harmonic reading and was not used as evidence for specific assignments of musical material to orchestral instruments.
Scores
- Johann Strauss II – Wo die Citronen blüh’n!, Walzer, Op. 364. Piano edition, Vienna: Friedrich Schreiber, [1874], plate number C.S. 23.469. Digitised copy, IMSLP no. 323296.
- Michael Rot, ed. – Wo die Zitronen blüh’n, Walzer für Orchester, second edition, Strauss Edition Wien / Neue Johann Strauss Gesamtausgabe, VGH 359-11. The publication details and stated instrumentation in the publisher’s catalogue entry were used.
Primary Literary Source
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Vol. 2, 1795, Book Three, Chapter One: Mignon’s song, “Kennst du das Land? wo die Citronen blühn”. Deutsches Textarchiv.
Historical and Performance Sources
- Norbert Rubey – Where the Lemon Trees Blossom / Waltz, op. 364. Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester / Kulturverein Wiener Blut; English translation by Leigh H. Bailey.
- Johann Strauss II Edition, Vol. 2, Marco Polo 8.223202. Recording booklet, section “Where the Lemon-Trees blossom! Waltz op. 364”, and performer credits.
- Chanda VanderHart and David M. Weigl – “Hand in Hand; Strauss’ Kaiser-Walzer as a case study of interdisciplinary collaboration in digital musicology”. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 41, Supplement 1, 2026. The discussion of Viennese rhythmic practice was consulted; the study concerns the Emperor Waltz, rather than Op. 364 specifically.
- Decca – official listing for Johann Strauss: Waltzes, Wiener Philharmoniker / Willi Boskovsky, catalogue number 4434732; recording programme details.
- ORF Ö1 – broadcast programme for the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, 1 January 2007, Zubin Mehta.
- Musikproduktion Höflich, Repertoire Explorer – editorial prefatory material for the overture to Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon; the relationship of the romance “Connais-tu le pays” to Goethe.
A Note on the Dates
The first performance in Turin on 9 May 1874 is confirmed by the historical documentation. For the first Viennese presentation, the Marco Polo booklet gives 10 June 1874, whereas Norbert Rubey gives 10 July 1874, at the halls of the Horticultural Society, with Julius Langenbach conducting. As the discrepancy could not be resolved through a contemporary record of the event, the main text retains the cautious wording “in the summer of 1874”.