(1882 1967)

Who

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)

What

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).

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

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 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

Rhythm

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 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