Josef Bayer was an Austrian composer and conductor born in Vienna in 1852 who worked chiefly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was associated with the Vienna Court Opera, composing dances, ballets and operettas. His music combined late-Romantic orchestration with Viennese dance forms and theatrical elements, contributing to the city's ballet and light-opera repertoire with works such as the ballet Die Puppenfee.
