Brahms' oeuvre is a rich treasury of Hungarian-style musical elements. Many threads linked him to the Hungarian music scene: he knew Ede Reményi, with whom he went on concert tours; he was a friend of József Joachim, who served in the court of the King of Hanover; he gave concerts in Pest, and once even went to Transylvania; and his extant music library in Vienna contains many collections of Hungarian songs and dances. Brahms originally wrote the Hungarian Dances, a cycle of 21 pieces, for piano for four hands, and versions for other instrumental combinations were made later. In 1869 the first ten pieces were published in two booklets, then in 1880 pieces 11-21, also in two booklets. The works became popular immediately, and made Brahms well known.

The Hungarian-style musical material Brahms made use of is very varied, and includes folk songs, folk-style art songs, verbunkos (recruiting songs), and czardas. One of the special features of this publication is that we give excerpts from the facsimiles of all the more important nineteenth-century Hungarian publications that may have served as sources for material for Brahms while he was composing.