Composer, born in Scheibbs, Austria. He was trained as a musician in the emperor's service, and won fame throughout Europe as a violinist. In 1679 he became Kapellmeister to Leopold I, but the following year died of the plague in Prague, where the court had fled from the great epidemic in Vienna. The first to adapt the tunes of the Viennese street musicians and Tyrolean peasants to the more sophisticated instrumental styles of the court, he is often regarded as the true father of the Viennese waltz.