Book Review: Zoltán Kodály’s World of Music

Abstract

Zoltán Kodály is best known internationally for his work in developing a music pedagogy for children. His educational interests grew out of his desire for a truly Hungarian musical culture and a culturally literate Hungarian public. He recognized the importance of developing skills in the youngest children and the significance this would have for the arts culture of his nation. His successful educational work and the work of several of his collaborators were recognized at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) conference in Budapest in 1964. Anna Dalos’s book instead focuses on Kodály’s dedication to composition and philosophy—Kodály saw himself primarily as a composer. The author, a musicologist and Head of the archives for twentiethand twenty-first century Hungarian Music at the Institute for Musicology of the Research Centre for the Humanities in Budapest, includes some biographical information, but centers the text around Kodály’s thought and music, with particular attention to linking his writings and compositions. Dalos draws on previous scholarship in musicology and uses primary sources in Kodály’s papers at the Kodály Archives and at the library of the Liszt Academy in Budapest. The book interprets and contextualizes Kodály’s music using his writings, biographical details, and parallel world events. The book is divided into fourteen chapters, alternating between biographical information, the development of his thought as a philosopher, his use of musical forms, and investigations of some of his best-known works. Chapters address his youth, his international travels, and the influence of major world events on his work, particularly in the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century. Other chapters investigate his interpretation of folk songs as a source for composition, his interest in Debussy and modernity, his representation of women in his songs, and his views on church music. Several chapters look at his compositional style, especially his use of the folk song and counterpoint. Some chapters focus on a single work: String Quartet No. 1, String Quartet No. 2, Peacock Variations, and his Concerto. In the chapter on Peacock Variations, for Book Reviews