Hungarian Rhapsodies virtuoso pianist as well as a composer). Liszt incorporated many themes he had heard in his native western Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, though many were in fact tunes written by members of the Hungarian upper middle class, or by composers such as József Kossovits, often played by Roma (Gypsy) bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. Within this structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation—the "lassan" ("slow") and the "friska" ("fast"). At the same
Hungarian Dances (Brahms) 4 and 7), Paul Juon (No. 4), Martin Schmeling (1864–1943) (Nos. 5 to 7), Hans Gál (Nos. 8 and 9), (Nos. 5, 6 and 11 to 16) and (Nos. 4, 8 and 9). More recently, Iván Fischer has orchestrated the complete set. Brahms's "Hungarian Dances" were influential in the development of ragtime. See, for example, the role of German-American piano teacher Julius Weiss in ragtime composer Scott Joplin's early life and career. The earliest known recording of any movement of Hungarian Dances was a condensed piano-based rendition of Hungarian Dances No. 1, from 1890, played by Brahms himself, and was