View source for Zoltán Kodály

{{Short description|Hungarian composer (1882–1967)}}
{{For|the town in India|Kodaly, Thrissur}}
{{western name order|Kodály Zoltán}}
{{Expand Hungarian|topic=bio|Kodály Zoltán|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Zoltán Kodály
| image              = Kodály Zoltán 1930s.jpg
| caption            = Kodály in the 1930s
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1882|12|16|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Kecskemét]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1967|3|6|1882|12|16|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Budapest]], [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]]
| education          = [[Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music]]
| occupation         = {{ubl| Composer | [[Ethnomusicologist]] | [[Music pedagogy|Music pedagogue]] }} 
| known for          = [[Kodály Method]]
| signature          = Zoltan Kodaly signature.svg
}}
'''Zoltán Kodály''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|k|oʊ|d|aɪ}}, {{IPAc-en|US|k|oʊ|ˈ|d|aɪ}};<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref><ref>{{cite EPD|18}}</ref> {{langx|hu|Kodály Zoltán}}, {{IPA|hu|ˈkodaːj ˈzoltaːn|pron}}; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, [[ethnomusicologist]], [[Music pedagogy|music pedagogue]], [[linguistics|linguist]], and [[philosophy|philosopher]]. He is well known internationally as the creator of the [[Kodály method]] of music education.

==Life==
Born in [[Kecskemét]], Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary, Kodály learned to play the [[violin]] as a child. In 1900, he entered the Department of Languages at the University of Budapest and at the same time Hans von Kössler's composition class at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music. After completing his studies, he studied in Paris with [[Charles-Marie Widor]] for a year.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zoltán Kodály (Composer, Arranger)|url=https://bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Kodaly-Zoltan.htm|access-date=July 22, 2022}}</ref>

In 1905 he visited remote villages to collect songs, recording them on [[phonograph cylinders]]. In 1906 he wrote a thesis on Hungarian folk song, "Strophic Construction in Hungarian Folksong". At around this time Kodály met fellow composer and compatriot [[Béla Bartók]], whom he took under his wing and introduced to some of the methods involved in folk song collecting. The two became lifelong friends and champions of each other's music.

[[Image:Kodály Zoltán Pécs.JPG|thumb|Statue of Kodály at Szent István square in [[Pécs]], Hungary]]
{{listen|hep=no|image=none
|filename=Zoltán Kodály - Duo for violin and cello (Op. 7, 1914) - U.S. Army Strings.ogg
|title=Duo for violin and cello (Op. 7, 1914)
|description=Performed by members of the [[United States Army Band|U.S. Army Band Strings]]
}}

Kodály's works show great originality of form and content, a blend of highly sophisticated mastery of the western European style of music,{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} including classical, late-romantic, impressionistic and modernist traditions, and on the other hand a profound knowledge and respect for the folk music of Hungary (including the Hungarian-inhabited areas of modern-day [[Slovakia]] and [[Romania]], as those territories were part of [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]]). Partly because of the [[Great War]] and subsequent major geopolitical changes in the region, and partly because of a naturally rather diffident temperament in youth, Kodály had no major public success until 1923. This was the year when one of his best-known pieces, ''[[Psalmus Hungaricus]]'', was given its first performance at a concert to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the union of [[Buda]] and [[Pest (city)|Pest]] (Bartók's ''[[Dance Suite (Bartók)|Dance Suite]]'' premiered on the same occasion.)

Kodály's first wife was [[Emma Sándor|Emma Gruber (née Schlesinger, later Sándor)]], the dedicatee of [[Ernő Dohnányi]]'s Waltz for piano with four hands, Op. 3, and ''Variations and Fugue on a theme by E.G.'', Op. 4 (1897).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RuMfn57fsEQC&pg=PA25 |author1=Ilona von Dohnányi|author2=James A. Grymes|title=Ernst von Dohnányi: A Song of Life|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=12 July 2002|isbn=978-0253109286}}</ref> Emma died in November 1958, after 48 years of marriage.

Thirteen months later, in December 1959, Kodály married {{ill|Sarolta Péczely|hu|Péczely Sarolta}}, his 19-year-old student at the [[Franz Liszt Academy of Music]] with whom he lived happily until his death in 1967 at the age of 84 in [[Budapest]].<ref>{{cite book |author=David Mason Greene |title=Greene's Biographical Encyclopedia of Composers |publisher=The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-385-14278-6 |pages=1122–1123}}</ref>

In 1966, Kodály toured the United States and gave a special lecture at [[Stanford University]], where some of his music was performed in his presence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kodaly.hnu.edu/the-kodaly-philosophy.cfm|title=Kodály Center for Music Education :: The Kodály Philosophy|access-date=2014-11-21|archive-date=2019-10-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002193556/http://kodaly.hnu.edu/the-kodaly-philosophy.cfm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Kodály methodology of musical education==
{{main|Kodály method}}
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2015}}
Throughout his adult life, Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods as well as composing plenty of music intended for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague [[Jenő Ádám]] (14 years his junior), he embarked on a long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books.

The goals of the Kodály method can summarized into the following points:<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Kodály Concept – Organization of American Kodaly Educators |url=https://www.oake.org/about-us/the-kodaly-concept/ |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=www.oake.org}}</ref>

* Music is for everyone. 
* Music teaching should be sequential and begin with the child in mind. 
* Children should be taught music from an early age. 
* The sequence should be logical and follow the same process children learn language. 
* Music classes should be enjoyable and engaging. 
* Singing is the first and most valuable tool for learning musical concepts. 
* Teachers should pull from quality folk song materials in the "mother tongue" of the students.

The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for the [[Kodály Method]]. Although Kodály himself did not write down a comprehensive method, he did establish a set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely taken up by pedagogues (above all in Hungary, but also in many other countries) after [[World War II]]. His practices also have evolved [[Kodály Method#Hand signs|Kodály hand signs]].

In the motion picture ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'', a visual learning aid distributed to members of a conference of [[Ufology|ufologists]] was named the Kodály Method and referenced musical notes as hand signals.

==Legacy and memorials==
[[Image:Zoltan Kodaly Commemorative Plaque.jpg|thumb|right|Commemorative plaque in [[Andrássy út|Andrássy Avenue]], Budapest]]
The city of  [[Pécs]] commissioned a life-sized bronze statue, located in Szent István square, in his honour in 1976. The sculptor, Imre Varga, positioned the statue so that its back is to the [[Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, Pécs|Cathedral]] and it faces a former children's playground, reflecting the central importance to Kodály of musical education for children. He is depicted as an aged man, walking among horse-chestnut trees.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.iranypecs.hu/en/article/statue-of-zoltan-kodaly|title=Kodály Statue – Pécs|website=www.iranypecs.hu|access-date=14 July 2018|archive-date=16 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316190703/https://www.iranypecs.hu/en/article/statue-of-zoltan-kodaly|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2016, another life-size bronze statue of sitting Kodály by the same sculptor Imre Varga was installed in the northern part of the Buda Castle park. 47.5052182N, 19.0319091E

At one point during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], the Workers Councils proposed to form a government with Kodály as president "because of his great national and international reputation."<ref>{{Cite book|last=James|first=C.L.R.|title=Facing Reality|publisher=Bewick/ed|year=1974|isbn=0935590056|pages=12}}</ref>

==Selected works==
{{Category see also|Compositions by Zoltán Kodály}}
;Stage works
* ''[[Háry János]]'', Op. 15 (1926)
* ''[[Székelyfonó]]'' (The Spinning Room) (1924–1932)

;Orchestral
* Idyll ''Summer Evening'' (1906, revised 1929)
* ''[[Háry János#Suite|Háry János Suite]]'' (1926)
* ''Dances of Marosszék'' (1929; orchestration of the 1927 piano set)
* Theatre Overture (1931) (originally intended for ''Háry János'')
* ''[[Dances of Galánta]]'' (1933)
* Variations on a Hungarian folk song (''Fölszállott a páva'', or ''The Peacock Roared'', 1939)
* Concerto for Orchestra (1940)
* Symphony in memoriam [[Arturo Toscanini|Toscanini]] (1961)

;Chamber or instrumental
* Adagio for Violin (or Viola or Cello) and Piano (1905)
* Intermezzo for String Trio (1905)
* Seven Pieces for Piano, Op. 11 (1918)
* String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 (1909)
* Cello Sonata, Op. 4 (1910)
* Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 (1914)
* [[Sonata for Solo Cello (Kodály)|Sonata for Solo Cello]], Op. 8 (1915)
* Capriccio for Solo Cello (1915)
* String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10 (1916–1918)
* ''Szerenád (Serenade)'' for 2 Violins and Viola, Op. 12 (1920)
* ''Marosszéki táncok'' (''Dances of Marosszék'', piano, 1927)
* Organ Prelude ''Pange lingua'' (1931)
* ''Organoeida ad missam lectam'' (''Csendes mise'', organ, 1944 but reworked later, around 1965) : ''Introitus'', ''Kyrie'', ''Gloria'', ''Credo'', ''Sanctus'', ''Benedictus'', ''Agnus'' and ''Ite, missa est''
* ''Epigrammak'' (1954)

;Choral
* ''Este (Evening)'' (1904)
* ''[[Psalmus Hungaricus (Kodály)|Psalmus Hungaricus]]'', Op. 13 (1923)
* ''Mátrai képek (Mátra Pictures)'' for choir a cappella (1931)
* ''Jézus és a kufárok (Jesus and the Traders)'' for choir a cap (1934)
* ''Ének Szent István királyhoz (Hymn to St Stephen)'' (1938)
* ''[[Te Deum (Kodály)|Te Deum for Buda Castle]]'' (1936)
* ''Te Deum of Sándor Sík'' for choir a cappella (1961)
* ''Missa brevis'' for choir and Organ (1942, orchestrated 1948)
* ''[[Laudes organi]]'' for choir and Organ (1966)
* ''Adventi ének (Veni, veni, Emmanuel)'' for choir a cappella
* ''114. Genfi zsoltár'' for choir and organ

==See also==
* [[Solfège]], a music education method used to teach pitch and sight singing

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
<!-- ISSNs or ISBNs needed -->
* Breuer, János (1990) ''A Guide to Kodály''. Budapest: Corvina Books
* Dalos, Anna (2020) ''Zoltan Kodaly’s World of Music' '' Oakland: ''University of California Press.'''
* Eösze, László, Micheál Houlahan, and Philip Tacka), "Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967)". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' Volume 13. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2002. pp.&nbsp;716–26
* ''Folk Music of Hungary'', New York: Praeger, 1971
* Lendvai, Ernő (1983) ''The Workshop of Bartók and Kodály''. Budapest: Editio Musica Budapest

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://kodaly.hnu.edu/home.cfm The American Folk Song Collection – The Kodály Center at Holy Names University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403193741/http://kodaly.hnu.edu/home.cfm |date=2014-04-03 }}
* [http://www.kodaly-inst.hu/ The Kodály Institute, which educates musicians according to Kodály's practice]
* [http://www.iks.hu International Kodály Society]
* [http://www.oake.org/ The Organization of American Kodály Educators]
* [http://www.kodaly.org.au/ The Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia]
* [http://www.britishkodalyacademy.org/ The British Kodály Academy (Registered Charity)]
* [https://www.slke.org/ The Spanish Kodály Society]
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{{Zoltán Kodály}}
{{Herder Prize}}
{{Neoclassicism (music)}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kodaly, Zoltan}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian conductors (music)]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian linguists]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Hungarian musicologists]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Béla Bartók]]
[[Category:Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery]]
[[Category:Catholic liturgical composers]]
[[Category:Classical composers of church music]]
[[Category:Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music]]
[[Category:Herder Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Hungarian classical musicians]]
[[Category:Hungarian male conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Hungarian ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:Hungarian folk-song collectors]]
[[Category:Hungarian music educators]]
[[Category:Hungarian opera composers]]
[[Category:Hungarian male opera composers]]
[[Category:Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1945–1947)]]
[[Category:People from Kecskemét]]
[[Category:Pupils of Hans von Koessler]]
[[Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists]]