Strauss' Morgenbl tter is an interesting example of a a work composed as a kind of 'response' to that of another composer. Jacques Offenbach, a French composer whose work served as competition for Strauss' own in Vienna, was commissioned to provide a new waltz by the Vienna Authors' and Journalists' Association to be performed at the January 12, 1864 'Concordia Ball'. This work was promptly nicknamed Abendbl tter by the journalists and Stauss,...