Kodály

Gigi Wong 9E

Kodály is a method to advance music education which was developed in Hungary

during the mid-twentieth century. The method was named after the composer and the
educator Zoltán Kodály but the method was not created by him. His theory of
education helped his inspiration for the Kodály method, which was then developed
over a number of years by his group.

Zoltán Kodály was born on December 16th

1882 in Kecskemét. He was a Hungarian
composer, ethnomusicologist, educator,
linguist, and philosopher. In 1925, when
Kodály overheard some students singing songs
which they had learned in school, he became
interested in the music education of children.
Kodály was horrified about the quality of these
songs, and he was inspired to improve the
system of music education in Hungary. He
wrote many arguable articles about this issue to
raise awareness in the public. In one of
Kodály’s article, he disapproved at the schools Image: Zoltán Kodály
for using poor quality music and only teaching
music in the secondary, not in the primary. Kodály claimed that the music education
system needed better music teachers, better curriculum, and more class time on music.

Kodàly teaches music and sings at school. Kodàly was very interested with the
problems in music education, and wrote much educational music for schools, as well
as books on the subject. His work in his field had a great effort on musical education
both inside and outside his home country.

The most striking features of Kodály’s melodic structure may be explained by the
influence of a folk song. Kodály’s melody is not shown out, however, by more
detailed examination. There are certain features in his melodic types which later
experienced a change. The most important example is the detailed time and the
coordination of the melodies which he always keeping to the same pattern or style in
his later compositions then in his youth.

Kodály believed that the use of the voice is one of the most defining features of the
approach. He believed that singing should be the base of all music education. He
believed learning music through singing makes music easier and be able to have the
most direct path to the insightful understanding of music.

Sol-fa is a system that uses syllables to represent the notes of the diatonic scale. This
system helps in musical analysis, sight-singing and aural comprehension. Kodály
didn’t invent the Sol-fa system. Sol-fa was first developed as a teaching tool by
Benedictine monk, Guido of Arezzo, who made it from a Latin hymn which was
written around 770 A.D. The best know aspect of the Kodály method is the hand signs
which are based on the principles of Curwen.
Pitch allows us to play music in groups with the same harmony. The two pitch names
are so and mi. Pitch names are letter names and solfege names either solfege or hand
sign names. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti represents differences between different tones.

The work that Zoltán Kodály did has greatly influenced the Hungarian public. Singing
is now widely respected and today there are more than 150 singing schools in
Hungary and the Kodály method and principles have spread to Japan, New Zealand,
Australia, Africa, most of Europe and North and South America.

Kodály met few composers at his time, Béla Bartók, Charles Widor and Claude
Debussy. Kodály remained in Budapest (his hometown) and retired from teaching in
1942.

Bibliography

Educational Cyber Playground Music Channel (1997). Composer Zoltán Kodály.

Retrieved February 9, 2008, from
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/KODALY.html

JSTOR. (2000-2008). Kodály’s Melody, tempo. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0040-
2982%28196224%2F196324%292%3A63%3C12%3AKM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-
2&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage

Kodály Music Education Institute of Australia. (2006). Kodály concept for parents.
Retrieved February 9. 2008, from http://www.kodaly.org.au/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=69

Wikipedia. (2007). Image: Zoltán Kodály. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Zolt%C3%A1n_Kod%C3%A1ly.jpg

Wikipedia. (2007). Kodály Method. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kod%C3%A1ly_Method

Wikipedia. (2007). Zoltán Kodály. Retrieved February 9, 2008, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolt%C3%A1n_Kod%C3%A1ly

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967). (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2008, from

http://www.public.asu.edu/~jwang2/portfolio/methods/kodaly/kodaly.html