Moulinet-Polka, op. 57

The Moulinet polka belongs to the early part of Josef Strauss's catalogue, written in the late 1850s, within a few years of the debut he had never wanted. Trained as an engineer and a designer of machinery, he took up the baton in 1853 only to cover for his brother Johann, who had collapsed from overwork, and told his family it was a temporary arrangement; he spent the remaining eighteen years of his life in the family business. The title names a figure of the quadrille in which the dancers turn about a centre like the sails of a mill.