Heard It in an Ad · Story 12
1968 · the film 2001: A Space Odyssey
Spaceships that waltz: The Blue Danube
In a 1968 film, a space station turned in time to a nineteenth-century Viennese waltz.
In the silence of space, a giant wheel-shaped station slowly turns while a spacecraft drifts towards it. The soundtrack, astonishingly, is a nineteenth-century Viennese waltz.
Where you heard it
Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey set the approach and docking of a spacecraft with a space station to Johann Strauss II's The Blue Danube. Back on Earth, the Vienna Philharmonic plays it as an encore at its New Year's Concert every year. After the first few notes the applause stops the music, the players wish everyone a happy new year, and then they begin again.
The real story
The waltz was first presented in Vienna in 1867, originally as a song for a men's choir. The purely orchestral version later became the more beloved one.
Tell a friend
The Blue Danube started life as a song for a men's choir, and in a film it became the music for docking a spaceship.
Johann Strauss II1825–1899Read the story of Johann Strauss II →