You know the “Moonraker” scene: Bond is being attacked while riding a gondola in Venice. His gondoleer is killed by the knife-throwing coffin bloke who soon enough gets it as Bond simply throws back one of mister-coffin-who-really-belongs-in-a-60’s-batman-episode. Then a chase commences, as it turns out Bond’s gondola is probably slightly modified by Q branch.
As Bond emerges from the waters on to St Mark’ square (that very scene had to be reshot numerous times when the gondola fell over) and drives along the squares and streets of Venice a piece of classical music is played for some comedy relief, typical of the Moore era.
The piece of music is the “Trisch-Trastch-Polka” (opus 214) written by composer Johann Strauss II in 1858. The Tritsch Tratsch is according to the most accepted theory related to the gossip of high society Vienna at the time. The Tritsch Tratsch means in this theory “Chit Chat””.
Johan Strauss II (1825-1899) was the most successful member of the composing Vienna family Strauss. His younger brothers, Josef and Eduard, are also known for their light music, waltzes, polkas, which Johann also wrote. Their father Johan Strauss I was also a composer and most people have heard his most famous piece “The Radetzky March”,
They were all responsible for the immense popularity of the wlatz in Vienna during the 19th century.
Johann Strauss II’s best known pieces of work include “The Blue Danube”, “Kaiser-Walzer”, “Tales from the Vienna Woods”, and the “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka“, as well as his operettas: “Die Fledermaus” and “Der Zigeunerbaron.”
007 Under the Mango Tree 
Posted on July 29, 2013
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