Zoltán Kodály

The name of ZOLTAN KODÁLY, along with Béla Bartók, is associated with the image of the new Hungarian compositional school of the twentieth century. Having received a European musical education (composition under Hans von Koessler at the Royal Academy of Music in Vienna and under Charles Vidor in Paris), he devoted himself early on to the study of the Hungarian folk music legacy. Together with Béla Bartók they travelled throughout the country for years, collecting and publishing folk songs in numerous collections. His own work, too, is deeply inspired by the national tradition. His contemporary repertoire often includes works in all genres - the vocal-symphonic Psalmus Hungaricus and Budavari Te Deum, the orchestral Variations on a Hungarian Folk Song, the Hary János Symphonic Suite (from his eponymous opera), string quartets, the Duo for Violin and Cello, the Sonata for Solo Cello and many others. Particularly significant for broad contemporary music education is the system of training he created, the Kodály Method.