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Music of Austria

Vienna has long been an important center of musical innovation. 18th and 19th century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Hapsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig von Beethoven and Johann Strauss, among others, were associated with the city. During the Baroque period, Slavic and Hungarian folk forms influenced Austrian music. Vienna's status began its rise as a cultural center in the early 1500s, and was focused around instruments including the lute.

Schrammelmusik

The most popular form of modern Austrian folk music is Viennese schrammelmusik, which is played with an accordion and a double-necked guitar. Modern performers include Roland Neuwirth, Karl Hodina and Edi Reiser.

Schrammelmusik arose as a mixture of rural Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Moravian and Bavarian immigrants crowded the slums of Vienna. At the time, waltzes and ländlers mixed with the music of the immigrants absorbing sounds from all over central and eastern Europe and the Balkans. The name schrammelmusik comes from two of the most popular and influential performers in schrammelmusik's history, brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel. The Schrammels formed a trio called N'Dusseldorf along with bass guitarist Anton Strohmayer and helped bring the music to the middle- and upper-class Viennese, as well as people from surrounding areas. With the addition of a [[clarinet]ist, George Dánzer, schrammelmusik's form settled on a quartet.

Neuwirth is a younger performer who has incorporated foreign influences, most especially the blues, to some criticism from purists.

Alpine New Wave

The band Attwenger released Most in 1991, kickstarting the Alpine New Wave of folk and punk rock that soon came to include bands like Die Knödel and Broadlahn.

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