Kodaly

(1882 1967)

Zoltan Kodly (1882 1967) a Hungarian composer and

educator which came up with Kodly method inspired by his philosophies

Born in 1882, December 16 in Kecskemet, Hungary

Raised in villages in Hungary

As a boy, he started to composed during his high school

Later, he furthered his study in Franzs Liszt Academy and University of Hungary and later on received his PhD in linguistic (both in German and Hungary)

Who

The Kodly concept encompasses 2 key elements.

- It is a philosophical approach to teaching music

- It is a unique course of sequential musical

instruction (Bacon, 1993).

What

During his period of life, most of the people in

Hungary especially the rich had always emphasized on German language as well as Austrian and German songs.

The poor will still hold on to their culture.

Realizing this, Kodly and his good friend Bela Bartok did some researches on the origin of Hungarian music in the early 1900s.

Kodly began his career as an ethnomusicologist and

began to collect Hungarian folk tunes with Bela Bartk

He maintained a lifelong interest in this field, publishing many collections of music and scholarly studies, and these activities had an equally important influence on his own compositional style.

They managed to publish one collection.

Also, Kodly composed 20 music books for school students

It starts with simple material for preschool children and later on slowly moved to four-part works of difficulties.

Kodly uses a lot of Hungarian traditional music idiom in songs he composes. Example Dances of Marossek and Dances of Galanta.

The period between 1923 and 1939 was the most

creative stage in Kodlys life.

He composed his most famous pieces during these years, such as Psalmus Hungaricus (for chorus and orchestra, a very important piece that marked a turning-point in his career internationally), Hry Jnos Suite, Summer Evening, Peacock Variations, and Concerto for Orchestra.

In addition to compose, he wrote several articles on

ethnomusicology, and Hungarian music and culture

Moreover, of particular interests are his writings on the importance of folk music and his analyses of Bartks music; the latter became the basis of aesthetics in Bartks music

Kodlys intense interest in folk music appeared

around the year of 1904.

His early works are much related to Brahms music because of the dominant culture approach to it in Hungary

Hungarian folk music and the music of Debussy made a great effect on Kodly after the year of 1904.

Although his music was a synthesis of those

elements, the prominent part of his music was folk tunes.

Kodly created a new, unique and homogeneous compositional style with the blend of monodic folk tunes and Western art music.

He later named his music as real Hungarian art music.

Monody has two meanings:

1) it is sometimes used as a synonym for monophony, a single solo line, in opposition to homophony and polyphony; and

2) in music history, it is a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment

Kodly was the International Folk Music Council and

International Society for Music Education president.

After the World War II, he continued to write educational works and supervised his collected and published folk material until his death.

He died in Budapest in 1967

Kodaly Method

Music for everyone

Children must learn to read music when they learn to read

It was after 1925 that Kodly gave particular

attention to musical training for young musicians

The first step of Kodlys interest on music education was teacher training.

Kodly method is used at all Hungarian public schools. Example of the curriculum~

This method is based on

listening

singing

creating

Through listening, the method also emphasizes ear

training.

Since every instrument imitates a singing tone, the child first has to hear how the tone should be formed on his instrument.

The child will be a better performer if he can sing the structural material of the pieces he plays

(Daniel, 1968:20-24)

According to Kodly, singing is the best way to learn

music because human voice is the most natural instrument and singing is the most natural musical activity.

Because this method is also applied in schools in other countries, every country uses its own folk material.

However, folk music was not to be the only material of the method (Choksy, 1974)

Thus, every student learn how to read and write

music in his mother tongue because Kodly believed that the acculturation had to begin with the establishment of ones own national cultural roots as the basis for further cultural development. (Madden, 1983: 19)

Literacy is another important part of the method because

Kodly believed that the only way to achieve high musical culture was through literacy.

He used the term musical mother tongue, which was referred to folk song.

According to James Madden by music literacy, Kodly meant the ability to read, write, and comprehend music.

A person should be able to understand music one has heard with as much clarity as though one were looking at a score; if necessary -and if time permits- one should be able to reproduce such a score. (Madden, 1983: 20)

Four objectives of Kodly musical training

To develop to the fullest extent possible the innate musicality present in all children

To make the language of music known to children; to help them become musically literate in the fullest sense of the word -able to read, write and create with the vocabulary of music

To make the childrens musical heritage - the folk

songs of their language and culture- known to them

To make available to children the great art music of the world, so that through performing, listening, studying, and analyzing masterworks they will come to love and appreciation of music based on knowledge about music.

Tools of the method

There are 3 tools used in Kodly method

Movable-do system

Rhythm

Hand signs

Movable do system originated from Guido

dArezzo

A music theorist from Italy during Medieval period

Guido dArezzo is famous with Guidonian Hand where it was used as a mnemonic devise to help in learning sight-singing for singers during that era.

The syllabus for teaching movable-do used by Kodly was developed by Sarah Glover and later refined by John Curwen in 19th century when he went to England and observed choral training there.

Movable -do

Movable-do means that the do is not fix. It moves

according to the key of the song

Example:

Twinkle twinkle in the key of C , G , Bb

As mentioned before, Kodly believes that voice is

the natural instrument of a human and he stressed on singing a lot.

During his interaction with children, Kodly realized that children cannot sing notes which are in semitone in tune

Since Kodly himslef do not encouraged inaccurate intonation, he used PENTATONIC SCALES in his teaching because there are no semitones in the scales and it is rooted in Hungarian folk song

The singing method of Kodly are basically similar

to Orff where it starts of with

sol

mi la

do

re

Pitch syllable will be added according to the level

Fa & ti

fi & si & ta

With the added pitch syllable as years passes by, one can be able to sing in modes and accurately

Kodly chose a syllable system similar to that French

solfege

These syllables are not names but expression of duration

It is represented through stick rhythm notation

Rhythm

Rhythm names

Hand Signs

Credited to John Curwen

Incorporated by Hungarian teachers

To show and visualize in space how high-low relationship of notes are being sung

The child performing hand signs uses only 1 hand ; the hand which he/she writes

Notes above are shown using ( ) to indicate the high and low pitch

example of high do ----------------do

fa ----------------- fa

example of low do ---------------- do,

so ------------------ so,

In writing we only using the first letter

do d

re r

When combining stem notation + solfege + lyrics