Zoltán Kodály

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Zoltán Kodály
Memorial plaque in Andrássy út in Budapest

Zoltán Kodály [ ˈzoltaːn ˈkodaːj ] (born December 16, 1882 in Kecskemét , † March 6, 1967 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian composer , music teacher and music ethnologist .

Life

Kodály began playing the violin at an early age . The son learned basic musical terms from his father, a talented amateur musician. From 1900 he studied composition with Hans von Koessler at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest . Kodály received his doctorate with a dissertation on the construction of stanzas in Hungarian folk songs . From 1907 he taught first music theory and then composition at the music academy that Franz Liszt founded in 1875. Kodály's composition students included Lajos Bárdos , Gábor Darvas , Antal Doráti , Ferenc Farkas , Zoltán Gárdonyi , György Sebők , Rezső Sugár and Emma Schlesinger , whom Kodály married in 1910.

From 1905 Zoltán Kodály took part in folk song research in Hungary, which his friend Béla Bartók initiated and carried out. In total, Kodály collected over 3500 Hungarian folk songs , whose characteristics he scientifically investigated. According to Kodály, the folk song is the climax and flowering of folk culture and clear evidence of the living, creative power of the people. The first publication appeared in 1906.

During the First World War , Kodály was Béla Bartók's musical assistant in the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry . Bartók headed the music department of the war press quarter in Budapest - together with the conductor and composer Bernhard Paumgartner , who held the same position in Vienna.

When in 1938 the Hungarian government enacted “Jewish laws” at the request of the Nazi state, 61 prominent Hungarian figures signed a protest against the Jewish laws, effective in the media but unsuccessfully. In addition to Zoltán Kodály, they also included Béla Bartók and Zsigmond Móricz .

In 1942 Kodály retired . After the Second World War he took over the presidency of the Hungarian Art Council. From 1963 he was President of the International Folk Music Council (IFMC). From 1961 to 1967 Kodály worked as editor-in-chief of the journal Studia musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae .

Kodály method

Kodály dealt with fundamental questions of musical education and wrote numerous books and essays. The Kodály method developed by him and his student Jenő Ádám is based on the (relative) solmization of Guido of Arezzo (11th century). It puts the sung experience and the understanding of tonality based on it at the center of music lessons. This method, which is also important and helpful for amateur music and amateur choirs, is now used successfully in the USA, Canada and Japan as well as in Hungary.

In the above-mentioned influential position, he was able to explicitly implement his method in post-war Hungary in the state school system.

Memberships, awards and honors

Selection of works

The works are often known by their Hungarian names.

Spiritual works

  • 1923 Psalmus Hungaricus
  • 1936 Budavári Te Deum
  • 1944 Missa brevis (organ version / orchestral version)
  • 1963 Adventi ének
  • 1966 Laudes organi

Stage works / Singspiele

  • 1926 János Háry , Hungarian Háry János - His adventures from Grand Abony to the Vienna Hofburg - Singspiel in four adventures with prelude and epilogue
  • 1924–1932 Szekely fonó ( The Spinning Room ; also: Szekler Spinning Room ) - Hungarian life picture from Transylvania in one act
  • 1946–1948 Panna Czinka , Hungarian Czinka Panna

Orchestral works

  • 1906 (1926-30) Nyári este (summer evening)
  • 1927 János Háry Suite , Hungarian Háry János Suite or Háry János szvit
  • 1930 Marosszék dances
  • 1933 Dances from Galanta
  • 1937 Variations on the Hungarian folk song Der Pfau
  • 1940 concert for orchestra
  • 1953 Minuetto serio
  • 1960 symphony

Chamber music

  • Romance lyrique (1898) for cello and piano
  • Adagio (1910) for violin / viola / cello and piano
  • Sonata for cello and piano op.4
  • Sonata for cello solo op.8
  • Sonatina for cello and piano
  • Duo for violin and cello op.7
  • String Quartet No. 1 op.2
  • String Quartet No. 2 op.10

Piano music

  • 9 piano pieces op.3
  • 7 piano pieces op.11

Quotes

»There is still another possibility to prove the influence of peasant music in a composition: when neither peasant tunes nor their imitations are exposed, but the music with its whole peculiar atmosphere prevails. Here we can then say that the composer has completely absorbed the essence of peasant music, made it his musical mother tongue, mastered it as perfectly as a poet. In Hungarian music, Kodály's music can be seen as the best example of this type. It will suffice if I cite the Psalmus hungaricus , which would never have been composed without Hungarian peasant music (but of course not without Kodály either) «( Béla Bartók , 1920)

Discography

  • Kodály conducts Kodály, DGG documents
  • OE1 Classic Volume 10 (Janáček + Kodály), ORF 2004
  • The choral music of Kodály, Hungaroton Classic HCD 31697

literature

  • Herbert Gantschacher : Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse. Arbos, Arnoldstein / Vienna / Salzburg 2007
  • László Eösze: Zoltán Kodály. His life and his work. Budapest 1964. German edition: Boosey & Hawkes, Bonn
  • Harald Kaufmann : Conversation with Zoltán Kodály. In: H. Kaufmann: From inside and outside. Writings on music, musical life and aesthetics. Werner Grünzweig and Gottfried Krieger; Ed .: Wolke, Hofheim 1993, pp. 173–176.
  • Anton Zwolenszky: Zoltán Kodály and the phenomenon of Hungarian music education. Peter Lang, Bern / Berlin / Bruxelles / Frankfurt am Main / New York / Oxford / Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-0343-1084-0 .

Web links

Commons : Zoltán Kodály  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eckhardt van den Hoogen: ABC of classical music. The great composers and their works. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2002, Lemma Kodály, Zoltán.
  2. ↑ a b c The Brockhaus: Music. Composers, interpreters, technical terms. Brockhaus, Mannheim / Leipzig 2006, Lemma Kodály.
  3. ^ Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Institute for Musicology
  4. ^ Gyula Ortutay: Brief Hungarian Folklore . Corvina Verlag, Budapest 1963, p. 7 .
  5. ↑ Kastner, Georg (2011): Hungary: Between Adjustment and Revolt. In GR Ueberschär, Handbook on Resistance to National Socialism and Fascism in Europe 1933/39 to 1945. Berlin / New York: de Gruyter, p. 62
  6. ^ ISCM Honorary Members
  7. ^ Honorary Members: Zoltán Kodály. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 13, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kodály, Zoltan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Kecskemét , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1967
Place of death Budapest