Danza Number 5!

You’re listening to Johannes Brahms and the Banda de Estado Mayor de Mexico. That’s right, a Hungarian danza by a Mexican banda.

You’re on the Sound Beat.

Brahms composed 21 danzas, basing them on Hungarian folk themes. Mostly…in fact, he thought this one, number 5, was based on a folk song, but that song turned out it to be an original composition by Béla Kéler.

You may have heard it in the Charlie Chaplin film “The Great Dictator”, in which Chaplin shaves a man to the tune. Brahms himself was cleanshaven until his mid-30’s. And, by the way, described as “Herculean”. Though A late-comer to the no-shave game, he ended up with a magnificent specimen towards the end.