The Work: Brahms' hungarian dances were originally written for two pianos. It was not until later that Brahms and others re-orchestrated the dances for full orchestra. Brahms composed 21 Hungarian Dances total. The hungarian dance No.1 is orchestrated for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, triangle, and strings. It was composed in 1874 and is one of four dances that Brahms re-orchestrated himself for full orchestra.
 
                                     Click here to listen to the original piano version

                                   ../Jamie%20Capes%20Sec.%20Methods%20/br_han01.mid

                                    Click below to here Brahms' reorchestration
 
                                                       Hungariandance1.vcd

                  Rhythm: All of Brahms' twenty-one hungarian dances are highly rhythmic, employing lots of hungarian folk rhythms. The hungarian dance no.1 also has a lot of gypsy music influence in it's rhythms. Many of the themes, including the opening theme, are based on dotted rhythms. These dotted rhythms are repeated frequently as the composer utilizes changing melody to keep the listener interested and the music driving forward
 

                   Melody: As with rhythm, the melody in the Hungarian Dance No.1 is strongly influenced by hungarian and gypsy melodies. Many of the melodic passages are also highly chromatic.When the hungarian dances were first heard they immediately became very popular because of the melodies' ability to stick in the listeners head.
 

                    Harmony: This dance is in the key of g minor. The key signature for g minor has two flats, b-flat  and e-flat. This piece starts in g minor explores d minor, and finally ends in g minor. As with all other musical aspects this works harmonic progressions are very typical of hungarian folk music.

             Form: The entire piece is in 4/4 meter and is marked Allegro molto .This dance essentially consists of three main sections. Although  there are more sections to the work, the other sections are based upon these three basic sectional ideas. There is one section within the work that starts at a slow tempo and them gets faster.  This is called an accellerando. Below you will find a chart showing the form of the Hungarian Dance No.1 This charts labels each of the themes and shows where each theme starts by measure numbers.