Brahms, Johannes / orch. by Parlow, Albert

Brahms, Johannes – Hungarian Dances No. 5 & 6 for orchestra

(b. Hamburg , 7 May 1833 – d. Vienna , 3 April 1897)

orchestrated by Albert Parlow (1824-1888)

Preface
It is not an uncommon phenomenon in music history that many an occasional composition by a great master attains a popularity that reaches and even exceeds that of his monumental works – especially in circles outside art music connoisseurs. A prominent and fitting example of this is certainly the Piano Piece in A minor WoO 59 by Ludwig van Beethoven, known by the title Für Elise, although it is not really clear whether the name „Elise“ is not based on a misinterpretation of Beethoven‘s handwriting.1 The almost pop song-like fame of this rather short piano piece becomes particularly clear when one realises that its melody can even be found in everyday objects such as musical clocks.
A similar constellation can be seen in connection with the Hungarian Dances WoO 1 by Johannes Brahms: these are undoubtedly among his best-known and most popular works; however, the master did not see himself as the composer of the dances at all, but merely as their arranger, which was due to the fact that the musical material used by Brahms consists of a large number of Csárdás melodies taken from Hungarian folk music.2 Brahms expressed this in a prominent place in the first edition: the title page reads „Hungarian dances for pianoforte, four hands, set by Johannes Brahms. „3 Another indication that Brahms did not want to claim the role of creator and emphasise the folkloristic origin is also clear from the fact that he did not give the Hungarian dances an opus number, which is also the case with his arrangements of German folk songs.4 As far as the origin of the folk melodies used is concerned, in 1997 János Bereczky presented an extensive study of a number of themes whose origins had not yet been researched.5 Of the total of 21 individual dances, ten appeared in 1869 and a further eleven in 1880. Thus the Hungarian Dances were already written in the period in which Brahms had finally settled in Vienna. …

Full preface / Ganzes Vorwort > HERE