Zoltán Kodály

Born: December 16, 1882 in Kecskemét, Hungary

Died: March 6, 1967 in Budapest, Hungary

Best known for: many major contributions to the fields of music education and ethnomusicology – Kodály, like fellow Hungarian composer Bela Bartók, spent a great part of his life traversing his rural homeland in search of native folk music and culture. Kodály’s endeavors helped to solidify a post-World War II Hungarian musical aesthetic and lent greater prominence to the role of choral singing in musical education. The fruits of Kodály’s compositional labors are clearly evident in his panoply of his works that utilize native Hungarian folk melodies, harmonic structures and rhythmic patterns but are tempered by the harmonic language of European Romanticism.

Notablecompositions: Dances of Galánta for orchestra, 1933 Háry János, 1926 Missa Brevis for soloists, chorus and organ, 1942-44 Sonata for solo cello, 1915 String Quartet No. 1, 1908-09 Psalmus Hungaricus