Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) was a German composer, who was very successful with his 21 Hungarian Dances for piano four-hands. The gypsy melodies used in these are not original folk tunes, but Brahms probably copied them from a Hungarian violinist with whom he traveled for a long time as an accompanist at the piano. All dances were orchestrated; most of them by great contemporaries, including Antonin Dvorak (who himself composed two successful series of Slavonic Dances).

Hungarian Dance No.1 is in 2/4 time (as are all 21 Hungarian Dances!), is rich in syncopation, and has a fast tempo; typical is the sudden stop via an unexpected fermata, after which a fast tempo is resumed (bar 88), an approach that occurs more often in these 21 dances.