10077 – Hungarian Dance No. 1

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

arranged by Roger Harvey

Difficulty: Medium

Price: £20.00

Programme note:
Brahms wrote 4 books of Hungarian Dances, the first 2 in four-hand piano versions, later for 2 hands, and the 3rd and 4th only for 2 hands but later arranged for 4 hands. They were based on real Hungarian folk music which he had encountered while playing concerts with a Hungarian violinist and ex-freedom fighter, Eduard Remenyi. Apparently, Brahms and Remenyi spent long rehearsals perfecting the Hungarian idioms, a process that at times led to friction between them. In their published versions these tunes were spectacularly successful and contributed much to Brahms' rising profile.
He was encouraged to make some orchestral transcriptions as other arrangers and their publishers were already capitalising on their own versions. He arranged 3 dances from the first book in 1873. It seems that he took a great deal of trouble in these orchestrations, adding new material to the accompaniment and making sufficient expression markings to convey the Hungarian style he had learned so arduously.

Performance note:

Trumpet 1 should be a piccolo (or E flat) trumpet.
Trumpet 2 will benefit from the use of an E flat trumpet.
The higher trumpet parts should be leggiero and neat - avoid an overly aggressive approach in the high register.
The hairpins should be evident but not exaggerated.
The lower parts, 4th trombone and tuba should aim for a light, pizzicato-like style in all the quicker music.
The 'sostenuto' at D is considerably slower - play with a confident rather pompous style. These first 4 bars may move a little back towards the original tempo; make sure that the 5th bar is clean and once more 'a tempo'.
Letter E is also traditionally slower - commodo - and well characterised. Make sure the 3rd and 4th trumpet line from bar 3 is clearly heard - keep the arpeggio figures light.