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Piano sheet music for kids · Classical · Level 6: Moving on
Hungarian Dance No. 5
Free beginner piano sheet music: A minor, 2/4, 16 bars. Press Play to hear it on a real piano, slow it down, or hear one hand at a time; click any note to start from there; print it for the music stand.
About this arrangement
Brahms’ most famous Hungarian dance (1869), a fiery csárdás. Brahms wrote it in F sharp minor for piano duet, and the best-known orchestral version is in G minor; here it is in A minor, so only G sharp needs a black key. The tune is built from long notes, dotted crotchets (dotted quarter notes) held for a beat and a half, each followed by a quaver or two quick semiquavers (sixteenth notes) that flick on to the next, and bars 13 and 14 run in semiquavers. The right hand moves from the A below middle C up to the E in the treble. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on every beat, like the band behind the dancers.
Practice tip: Count the dotted crotchets carefully, “one and two”, and play the semiquavers after them late and quick, so they spring into the next long note. Once it is secure, try it faster: the dance should feel as if it wants to run away.
A short history
Johannes Brahms grew up in Hamburg, and as a young man he toured as accompanist to the Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi, who introduced him to the csárdás and the style of Hungary’s Romani bands. He published his Hungarian Dances for piano four hands, two players at one piano, in two sets, in 1869 and 1880, and they sold so well that they made his name with the wider public.
Brahms published the dances without an opus number, as arrangements rather than original works, believing he was setting folk tunes. No. 5, though, is based on a csárdás called “Bártfai emlék” (Memories of Bártfa) by the Hungarian bandmaster Béla Kéler, who complained.
Brahms orchestrated only three of the dances himself. Others arranged No. 5 for orchestra, among them Albert Parlow, whose version of 1876 is in G minor.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Johannes Brahms, 1869
- Key
- A minor
- Time signature
- 2/4
- Length
- 16 bars
- Tempo
- Allegro, crotchet = 96
- Difficulty
- Level 6: Moving on (piece 192 of 201)
- Type
- Classical
- Hands
- Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left
- Copyright
- Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use
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