Spanish Dances

The Spanish Dances (Spanish: Danzas españolas, first published title: German: Spanische Tänze) are a collection of eight pieces for violin and piano composed by Pablo de Sarasate between 1877 and 1882 and published in four books, each book combining two dances contrasting in rhythm and character.

The Spanish Dances proved to be a great commercial success, and another ten pieces were listed in Simrock's catalogue as books V to XIV, though none of them (including El canto del ruiseñor, Op.

23, was composed in summer 1879 and dedicated to Hugo Heermann, a German violinist Sarasate had met in Frankfurt that year.

Book IV was dedicated to Leopold Auer, whom Sarasate had met in Saint Petersburg at the end of 1881.

Leopold Auer, the dedicatee of Book IV, described the Spanish works of Sarasate as "original, inventive and effective concert pieces, so warmly coloured with the fire and romance of his native land".

Cover of the first edition of Book I