“Real children of the Puszta and the Gipsies” is how Brahms himself described the Hungarian Dances writing to his publisher Nicolaus Simrock. The composer added to the quoted extract: “i.e they’re not of my begetting, I simply brought them up on milk and bread”. His picturesque phraseology refers to the fact that the Hungarian Dances are not original compositions in the strict sense of the term, but are for the most part arrangements of borrowed material.

If we want to remain faithful to the facts of music history, then we must also remember that the 21 pieces Brahms put down on paper were not for orchestra, but for piano duet. The composer himself made the orchestrations of no.s 1, 3 and 10 and according to his notes he intended to orchestrate more of them. Among others some orchestrations show the fine art of Dvorák.

Some dances contain true folksongs and a few are original compositions in which Brahms used the pseudo-folk Hungarian art music idiom. The Hungarian Dances by Brahms are simpler than Liszt’s Hungarian rhapsodies: dance elements with 3-part scructures. From end of the 19th century Hungarian Dances became unbelievably popular and became favorite encore pieces for symphonic orchestras.