Josef Strauss - Souvenir-Polka, Op. 140 (1862)

Josef Luckhardt Strauss (20 August 1827 – 22 July 1870) was an Austrian composer. He was the brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries.

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Souvenir-Polka, Op. 140 (1862)

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Hilgers

Josef Strauss composed his Souvenir-Polka, Op. 140 in 1862–1863 IMSLP+1. It is a short, light-hearted polka for piano, part of his prolific output of dance music in the Romantic period and is one of many polkas and waltzes he wrote, often in the Viennese tradition of lively, salon-style dance music.

While the score itself does not name a specific dedicatee, the composition date and style place it firmly in the mid-1860s, a period when Josef Strauss was active in Vienna and producing works for the Viennese public and concert halls. His brother Johann Strauss II was also a major figure in Viennese music at the time, and Josef often collaborated with him, but Op. 140 is generally attributed to Josef’s own authorship without a named dedication in the published score.