The Eighth Tribe, 1978 (5. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1978-02-01 / 2. szám

February, 1978

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

Page 3

Dr. Louis Munkáchy

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ZOLTÁN KODÁLY TO THE HUNGARIAN NATION

When I first encountered Zoltán Kodály in 1947 at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, I had no idea that I had met the most significant 20th century figure in the cultural life of our country. At that time he was already greatly revered, and wherever he appeared he created an indescribable aura of greatness around him. The slight, sixtyish figure, with his characteristic goatee, evoked respect and awe which I had never experienced before. He was universally recognized as one of our greatest composers, and I was duly impressed that as a freshman I was accepted into his class. Indeed, I was aware of his greatness as a composer then, but the true significance of his achievements, and his total impact on our lives did not dawn on me until my mature years.

I know now that when he died in 1967 at the age of 84, Hungary lost more than just a great composer. We lost a man who, more than anyone else in our life time, shaped a whole nation’s culture, and its political, and human consciousness. His contribution to our character as a nation, and his influence on political and cultural decisions is probably still unmeasurable.

Kodály was born in 1882, and became interested in music at a young age. In his early years at Galánta and Nagyszombat, he studied piano, violin, and cello,

but quite early in his teens he also began to compose. In spite of his overwhelming musical talent, however, his interests were not limited to music. In 1900, when he moved to Budapest, he pursued the study of two major fields simultaneously. While studying music at the Liszt Academy, he was also a full time student at the Liberal Arts Department of the University of Budapest. In 1905 he received a diploma as a high school teacher majoring in Hungarian and German, then continued his studies to acquire a Ph.D. In 1906, his dissertation, “The Strophic Structure In Hungarian Folksong”, attracted wide attention and started him on his way as a foremost collector and explorer of the Hungarian folklore.

Kodály appeared on the scene when there was a great need for someone of his convictions and talents. His deep desire to reach back to authentic Hungarian national roots was the result of a peculiar cultural situation at that time. At the turn of the century, the country was still under sweeping German cultural influences which, as many Hungarian intellectuals already realized, stifled progress along the lines of national tradition. In addition, the Romantic musical idiom was rapidly tiring out, and composers everywhere looked for new sources of inspiration. Kodály’s efforts, therefore, were directed towards a twofold goal: he wished to create and promote music that was Hungarian and modern at the same time. Kodály’s ideas eventually prevailed because his goals reflected basic and timely needs of the nation.

Those needs, however, were not clearly formulated in peoples minds, and Kodály’s task was not easy. When he tried to anchor himself into Hungarian musical traditions, the music which then passed for genuinely Hungarian, was of no use. The urban population of the era was practically flooded by a type of Hungarian popular music called Magyar Nóta, (“Hungarian Song”), and that was believed to be the only and true Hungarian folk idiom by most Hungarians as well as foreigners (Hubay, Sarasate, Brahms, Liszt, etc.). In reality, this music was composed mainly by amateur musicians, and was only partly Hungarian (Verbunkos, and slight folksong influences). In addition to not being truly and purely Hungarian, most of this music is of little musical value. A typical Magyar Nóta is overly sentimental, even trite, and is full of repetitious cliches. Yet, these songs became enormously popular because they provided good escapist fun, required little musical sophistication, and were brilliantly presented by Gipsy musicians who were perhaps the best in the world.

Clearly, this pseudo-folk style did not represent sufficiently high musical standards, and Kodály soon