Hungarian dances
The Hungarian Dances No. 1–21 o.op. (WoO 1) by Johannes Brahms are originally works for piano four hands . They are among his most popular works.
Emergence
The Hungarian Dances were written in the original four-hand piano version between 1858–69. Dances nos. 1–10 were published in two issues in 1869, and numbers 11–21 in 1880 in two further issues. In 1872 Brahms composed the first 10 dances for piano solo. With the exception of numbers 11, 14 and 16, these are not original ideas of Brahms, but rather adaptations of found melodies. However, the originals are not original folk songs by Hungarian Roma , as is often assumed, but Brahms had got to know the themes from the violinist Eduard Reményi ; some of them may have come from Reményi himself and some from other composers of Hungarian folklore of this period.
For three of the dances (Nos. 1, 3 and 10) Brahms wrote orchestral arrangements in 1873 that on February 5, 1874 conducted by the composer in Leipzig premiere were. The remaining dances were orchestrated by other arrangers, especially those of the first two volumes (No. 1–10) also several times by various arrangers in the 19th ( Hallén , Parlow , Dvořák ) and 20th (Schollum, Schmeling, Gál ) centuries. In some of the dances the key was changed. The violinist Joseph Joachim , a friend of Brahms, created a virtuoso arrangement of all Hungarian dances for violin and piano.
The dances
No. | Tempo designation | Key piano version |
Key for orchestral version |
Known orchestrations (year of publication) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Allegro molto | G minor | G minor | Johannes Brahms (1874) |
2 | Allegro non assai | D minor | D minor | Andreas Hallén (1894) |
3 | Allegretto | F major | F major | Johannes Brahms (1874) |
4th | Poco sostenuto | F minor | F minor / F sharp minor * | Andreas Hallén * (1894), Paul Juon * (1908), Robert Schollum (1955) |
5 | Allegro | F sharp minor | G minor | Albert Parlow (1876), Martin Schmeling (1864–1943; 1928) |
6th | Vivace | D flat major | D major | Albert Parlow (1876), Martin Schmeling (1928) |
7th | Allegretto | A major | F major / A major * | Andreas Hallén * (1894), Martin Schmeling (1928) |
8th | Presto | A minor | A minor | Robert Schollum (1955), Hans Gál (20th century) |
9 | Allegro non troppo | E minor | E minor | Robert Schollum (1955), Hans Gál (20th century) |
10 | Presto | E major | F major | Johannes Brahms (1874) |
11 | Poco andante | D minor | D minor | Albert Parlow (1881) |
12 | Presto | D minor | D minor | Albert Parlow (1881) |
13 | Andantino grazioso | D major | D major | Albert Parlow (1881) |
14th | Un poco andante | D minor | D minor | Albert Parlow (1881) |
15th | Allegretto grazioso | B flat major | B flat major | Albert Parlow (1881) |
16 | Con moto | F minor | F minor | Albert Parlow (1881) |
17th | Andantino | F sharp minor | F sharp minor | Antonín Dvořák (1880) |
18th | Molto vivace | D major | D major | Antonín Dvořák (1880) |
19th | Allegretto | B minor | B minor | Antonín Dvořák (1880) |
20th | Poco allegretto | E minor | E minor | Antonín Dvořák (1880) |
21st | Vivace | E minor | E minor | Antonín Dvořák (1880) |
reception
Brahms' Hungarian Dances have been used in various films and series, including Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator , Bugs Bunny, and Ren and Stimpy .
literature
- Burkhard Rempe: Hungarian dances. In: Wulf Konold (Ed.): Lexicon Orchestermusik Romantik A – H. Schott, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7957-8226-0 , pp. 99-101
Web links
- Hungarian Dances for Piano Four Hands : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
- 21 Hungarian dances 4-hd as pdf and midi for free
- On the question of the composer of the original artwork (from the middle of the page) . From the Brahms biography by Max Kalbeck 1921