Historians generally mark 1860 as a watershed year in Johann Strauss II's development as a composer. It was at this point in his career that he began to expand upon the Viennese waltz as handed down to him by his father, Johann Strauss I, and Joseph Lanner, and to perfect the genre of which he became the undisputed master. Accelerationen, Op. 234, is usually cited as Strauss' first work in his new direction. Legend has it that the composer began writing the work in the early morning hours of February 14, just after he and his orchestra had performed at a ball in Vienna's Sofiensäle. A member of the dance committee of the Technical College of Vienna, which had commissioned a new waltz from Strauss to be played that very evening, approached the composer and asked to see the new work. When Strauss replied that he hadn't had enough time to write anything, the man looked so disappointed that Strauss composed the beginning of the waltz on the spot, on the back of a menu.

Accelerationen is laid out in a traditional scheme that includes an introduction, five waltz pairs, and a coda, but the characteristics of individual sections evince a clear change in Strauss' approach to the genre. The introduction seems to imitate the sound of spinning wheels with rapid violin tremolo, while surging, accelerating brass and low strings suggest a steam locomotive—allusions which could not have escaped the faculty and students of the Technical College. Strauss' innovations in the waltz itself are evident in the structure of the melodies. Each of the sixteen-measure waltz tunes falls into eight-measure halves, the second of which is a variation of the first. Strauss effects these variations through changes in orchestration, dynamics, and, more significantly, the rhythms and shape of the melody; thus, what initially sounds like mere repetition is actually more like the antecedent-consequent phrasing typical of Viennese Classicism. The coda is longer and more sophisticated than most of the preceding sections. For instance, the return of the first half of the third waltz takes place within 14 measures, not the full 16, before abruptly ceding to the second half. Additionally, Strauss truncates the return of the first waltz by a measure before the work's final gesture.

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