Im Fluge, op. 230

Im Fluge is a polka schnell bearing the opus number 230, from the run of quick polkas Strauss produced around 1860 while splitting his year between the Vienna carnival and the summer season at Pavlovsk. The title — in flight — describes the tempo rather than a programme, and the piece follows the standard shape of the genre: a headlong outer section, a trio that briefly relaxes the pressure, then a repeat and a short coda. Like most of the several hundred dances in his catalogue, it survives through the New Year tradition.