Music in the Making

Extract

Kodály, now in his 56th year, is an interesting example of a composer who has won international fame with a handful of works. Two operas, two choral works with orchestra, some shorter part-songs, six orchestral works (none longer than 21 minutes), and five for chamber music combinations comprise the corpus of his output, yet on the strength of these this quiet and unassuming musician, born and bred in a small Magyar town, has become one of the most popular and esteemed composers of his generation. Kodály is greatly occupied with the folk-music of his native land, and this, together with his position as principal teacher at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest—the chief musical institution in Hungary—probably account for the rarity with which a new work comes from his pen. He is one of the most sought-after teachers in his country, and there are few young Hungarian musicians of note who have not studied either composition or the national folk-music under his guidance.