| Biography, Lectures, and Research Links: |
Malaspina Great Books -
Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967)
Biography
Blog Zoltan Kodaly
Zoltan Kodaly was born at Kecskemet on 16 December 1882, and died Budapest, 6 March 1967. Brought up in the country, he knew folk music from childhood and also learnt to play the piano and string instruments, and to compose, all with little tuition.
In 1900 he went to Budapest to study with Koessler at the Academy of Music, and in 1905 he began his collaboration with Bartok, collecting and transcribing folksongs. They also worked side by side as composers, and Kodaly's visit in 1907 to Paris, bringing back Debussy's music, was important to them both: their first quartets were played in companion concerts in 1910, marking the emergence of 20th-century Hungarian music. Kodaly, however, preferred to accept rather than analyse folk material in his music, and his style is much less contrapuntal and smoother harmonically. His major works, notably the comic opera Hary Janos, the Psalmus hungaricus, the Peacock Variations for orchestra and the Dances of Marosszek and Galanta draw on Magyar folk music (unlike Bartok, he confined himself to Hungarian material). His collecting activity also stimulated his work on musical education, convincing him of the value of choral singing as a way to musical literacy. He taught at the Budapest Academy from 1907, and after World War II his ideas became the basis of state policy, backed in part by his own large output of choral music, much of it for children, as well as other exercise pieces, and was widely used as a model abroad. [Adapted from Karadar]
The Great Books: Zoltan Kodaly
This web page is part of a biographical database on Great Ideas. These are living ideas that have shaped, defined and directed world culture for over 2,500 years. By definition the Great Ideas are radical. As such they are sometimes misread, or distorted by popular simplifications. Understanding a Great Idea demands personal engagement. Our selection of Great Ideas is drawn from literature and philosophy, science, art, music, theatre, and cinema. We also include biographies of pivotal historical and religious figures, as well as contributions from women and other historically under-represented minorities. The result is an integrated multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary database built upon the framework of a Great Books Core List developed by Mortimer Adler (1902-2001).
Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Zoltan Kodaly. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Zoltan Kodaly. Post Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books Copyright 1995-2005.
|
Zoltan Kodaly
Great Books Online: Amazon Search
