Kodály, Zoltán (EN)

Kodály Zoltán, *16 December 1882 Kecskemét, †6 March 1967 Budapest, Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher. He came from a musical family; his father (a railway officer) played the violin, and his mother sang and played the piano. He spent his childhood in Galánta, a small village in western Hungary, inhabited by Hungarians, Slovaks and Germans. From 1892, he lived in Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Slovakia), where he graduated from secondary school; at the same time, he learned to play the piano, violin, viola and cello, and also sang in the church choir and made his first attempts at composition. In this period, he created, among others, Overture in D minor and String Trio in E-flat major, performed by two school ensembles and two arrangements of Ave Maria. In 1900, he started studying Hungarian and German literature and linguistics at the University of Budapest, as well as composition under J. Koessler at the Academy of Music.

In 1904, he obtained a diploma in composition, in 1905, in pedagogy and in April 1906, he received a doctorate in philosophy for his thesis on the stanzaic structure of Hungarian folk songs. In 1905, he began recording Hungarian folk music in the northern part of the country and also established contact with B. Bartók; together, they decided to cover the entire region of Hungary with fieldwork. The result of their activity was the collection Magyar népdalok (20 Hungarian folk songs arranged for voice and piano), published in 1906, which initiated the creative scientific cooperation of both composers. In 1904, Kodály made his first trip abroad to Bayreuth, Munich and Salzburg, and then in 1906/07 to Berlin and Paris. In 1907, he took up the position of professor of theory, and from 1908, also of composition at the Academy of Music in Budapest.

In the spring of 1910, Kodály’s first public composition evening took place, with performances of the String Quartet No. 1 Op. 2, piano pieces Op. 3, and the Cello Sonata Op. 4. That same year, a concert of Kodály’s piano music took place in Paris, and the Willem de Boer quartet performed the String Quartet No. 1 in Zurich. In 1910, Kodály married his student, the composer, pianist, poet, and translator Emma Sándor (Schlesinger). In 1911, Kodály, Bartók, and a group of young musicians founded the Society for New Hungarian Music, whose task was to promote contemporary music. After a few years, it suspended its activities due to low interest from the audience and reluctance on the part of the authorities. For the same reasons, the publication of collections of Hungarian folk songs was discontinued. In 1913, Kodály prepared Az új egyetemes népdalgyűjtemény tervezete (‘a project for a new universal collection of folk songs’), which he submitted to the Kisfaludy Society together with Bartók in the hope of obtaining help in publishing further works. However, the organisation did not support him. From November 1917 to April 1919, Kodály worked as a music critic. In 1919, the Academy of Music gained university status, and Kodály became a deputy director. After the fall of the republic, he was removed from this position and suspended from teaching, which he did not resume until two years later. The composer’s period of isolation was interrupted by a contract with Universal Edition, which began publishing scores of his works in 1921, and by the enormous success of the oratorio Psalmus hungaricus, which was premiered in 1923 during the celebrations of the 50^th anniversary of the unification of Pest, Buda and Óbuda into the city of Budapest; abroad this work was performed in 1926 in Zurich.

Psalmus hungaricus was a turning point in Kodály’s international career. In the same year, another monumental piece was premiered at the Budapest opera stage – singspiel Háry János, based on Hungarian folklore. World-famous conductors began including Kodály’s compositions in their repertoires, including A. Toscanini, E. Ansermet, and W. Furtwängler. He also started performing as a conductor of his own works, making his debut abroad in April 1927 in Amsterdam, and then conducting Psalmus hungaricus in Cambridge (November) and London (December). Despite frequent trips abroad, he was active in Hungary in the field of musical education of society; he gave lectures, wrote articles and conducted concerts throughout the country. At the beginning of 1930, despite constant attacks in the press and the lack of financial support, he started the Singing Youth campaign, which began publishing a magazine. Over the course of ten years, Kodály brought about radical changes in the primary school system. He also worked intensely as an ethnomusicologist and composer. In 1927, he supplemented the singspiel Háry János with a few new works, of which Színházi nyitány (theatre overture) is a stand-alone piece. A folk dramatic ballad Székelyfonó [The Spinning Room] was created out of a scene composed in 1924 and staged for the first time in 1932 in Budapest and in 1933 in Milan with great success. In 1924–32, Kodály published 57 folk songs and ballads arranged for voice and piano in ten books entitled Magyar népzene [Hungarian Folk Music]. In 1930, he orchestrated Marosszéki táncok [Dances of Marosszék] written for piano in 1927 and, encouraged by Toscanini, he reworked his early fantasy Nyári este [Summer Evening]. He composed a few larger works for celebrations, including Budavári Te Deum (1936) on the 250^th anniversary of the liberation of Buda from Ottoman rule. From 1930, Kodály gave lectures at the University of Budapest on Hungarian folk music. In 1934, he was hired to work on the edition of folk music under the aegis of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Using his knowledge of linguistics, Kodály was active also in this field; in 1939, he organised a competition for correct pronunciation at the University of Budapest, and from 1943, he was in the language teaching committee at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Through his compositional, scientific and educational activities, as well as his personal example, he served the idea of “More humanity for people, more Hungarianness for Hungarians” (L. Eősze Kodály Zoltán élete és munkássága). Kodály and Bartók were among the first to speak out against racism. In May 1938, Kodály was in a group of progressive Hungarian artists and scientists who petitioned the authorities for equal rights for all citizens. By breaking off contracts with Universal Edition, he protested against the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany. The composer’s political view caused difficulties with the public performance of his works (a ban on performing Felszállott a páva for male choir) and many years of persecution. However, the year 1942, when Kodály turned 60 and retired, was declared the year of Kodály by the Hungarian Choir Association; the Hungarian Ethnomusicological Society published a commemorative book in honour of the composer, and special issues of musicological journals were published. The recognition visible at home and abroad prompted the government, which was reluctant to Kodály, to award him the cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member. During World War II, Kodály continued to compose, and a patriotic-revolutionary note appeared in his work (compositions based on Petőfi’s poetry, from 1942). As a result of persecution by the Hungarian fascist party, Kodály and his wife had to take refuge in one of the monasteries in Budapest, where he completed his work Missa brevis in a version for solo voices, choir and orchestra, reworked from an earlier version for choir and organ; he spent the first months of 1945 in the basement of the Opera building.

After the war, Kodály played an important role in the revitalising musical and cultural life; he was elected a member of the National Assembly, chairman of the board of the Academy of Music, chairman of the Hungarian Artistic Council and the Free Musicians’ Organisation, and an ordinary and then honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, of which he was president from 1946 to 1949. His intensive activity in Hungary was interrupted by a foreign tour to England, the United States and the USSR, lasting from September 1946 to June 1947, during which Kodály conducted his works. In 1948 and 1949, he performed in Western Europe again. In the years 1951–67, the first five volumes of Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae were published, and music education according to Kodály’s concept was introduced in 120 primary schools. On 22 November 1958, his wife Emma died, and a year later Kodály remarried. In 1960–66, he travelled abroad every year, during which he lectured in English, French, Italian, and German and took part in various conferences. Kodály received high state decorations and was the winner of the Kossuth Prize three times. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences dedicated commemorative books to him on the occasion of his 70^th, 75^th, and 80^th birthdays. He received honorary doctorates from the universities of Budapest (1957), Oxford (1960), East Berlin (1964), and Toronto (1966), and honorary membership of the Belgian Academy of Sciences (1957), the Moscow Conservatory (1963), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1963). He was also president of the IFMC (1961–67) and honorary president of the International Society for Music Education. In 1965, he was awarded the Herder Prize for his contribution to cultural exchange between East and West. Kodály’s works have been published by Universal Edition (Vienna), Editio Musica (Budapest), Magyar Kórus (Budapest), as well as Boosey & Hawkes (London), Rózsavölgyi (Budapest), and Oxford University Press.

In his work, Kodály aimed to create a stylistic synthesis with special attention to the Hungarian national tradition. His youthful works (up to 1904) show the influence of Viennese classics and German romanticism, especially Brahms. The most mature compositions from this period include Este for soprano and choir (1904) and Adagio for violin and piano (1905). The signs of classicism also exist in Kodály’s later works, manifesting themselves in his love of forms typical of this style (sonata, rondo, variations), a developed sense of proportion and a desire to maintain tonality on a horizontal and vertical plane. During his stay in Paris, Kodály became fascinated by the music of Debussy (Meditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy for piano), who remained his master forever, mainly in terms of harmony. However, the chord combinations reminiscent of Debussy are subordinated in Kodály primarily to the melodic factor, pushing the purely colouristic effect to the background. In his later works, Kodály also referred to the style of Palestrina, J.S. Bach and Gregorian chant. The kinship with Palestrina’s music is visible in the way voices are led in choral compositions. In their purest form, these connections can be observed in the opening part of the Sanctus from the Missa brevis. Following Bach’s example, Kodály introduced powerful choirs into his works (e.g. Jézus és a kufárok for a cappella mixed choir), used typical Baroque symbolic connections between the verbal text and its musical setting (e.g. traditional triplets symbolise the Holy Trinity in the Sanctus of the Te Deum), and also referred to Baroque forms (e.g. in the monumental Concerto for orchestra from 1940).

In addition to the achievements of European music, Kodály drew from the heritage of Hungarian folk and art music. Among few relics of the latter, there were the 16^th-century sung stories with a characteristic melody and the 19^th-century verbunkos style (style of dance music associated with recruitment of soldiers) that had a huge influence on shaping the composer’s musical language and inspired him with the dotted rhythm. The composer was mainly affected by folk music with its modalities, pentatonic phrases, free rhythms, specific ornamentation, performance manners and verse structure. Kodály referred to it in three ways: he quoted folk melodies, imitated them and composed pieces in the spirit of folk music. Bartók, according to whom the latter method is the most difficult because it requires special initiation into the music of the language of the nation, considered Kodály a master in this field. Despite such diverse influences, Kodály’s style is not eclectic but constitutes an integral whole, a creative synthesis created by a talented artist with broad horizons and vast knowledge.

In the area of ​​instrumental music, Kodály developed his musical language and sought new solutions in the scope of various coefficients of form. In the quartets Op. 2 and 10, the composer already found his own style. The first of them is based entirely on folk material, which is visible in characteristic melodic phrases and the way of treating instruments; in the second – folk music does not appear in the form of quotations but is organically combined with the individual language of the composer. Serenade for two violins and viola – like the earlier cello sonatas – is distinguished in texture and formal structure by classically balanced proportions (type of figuration, arrangement of form using classical tonal sequences) and rich melodic invention. Most of the symphonic works were written before 1939; post-war pieces are either directly related to earlier compositions (e.g. the Honvéd Military March from the Háry János singspiel) or the composer began writing them before the war (Symphony in C major). Kodály’s best-known orchestral works include the dances Marosszéki táncok (1930) and Galántai táncok (1933) and Variations on the theme “Felszállott a páva” (1939). The first of the dances, in the form of a rondo, is based on the musical folklore of Transylvania, where dance music with the most archaic features occurs. Galántai táncok, also in the form of a rondo, presents rhythms characteristic of the verbunkos style and melodies maintained in the major-minor tonality typical of this style. Variations on the theme “Felszállott a páva” are Kodály’s crowning achievement in the field of symphony. The theme is a folk melody based on the pentatonic scale, the natural possibilities of which are the starting point for the most diverse transformations made using a rich resource of musical means.

Kodály’s desire to fulfil his national mission is even more pronounced in his vocal works than in his instrumental music. He reaches not only for folk art but also uses Hungarian historical and literary accounts. Words and music form an inseparable whole in his compositions. Due to their specific properties, which also influenced the shaping of the melody, the texts are extremely difficult to translate. Thanks to his thorough studies of the Hungarian language, the composer demonstrated excellent knowledge of the rules of prosody in his first vocal works. A significant part of Kodály’s vocal works are adaptations of folk songs, which were intended to popularise native folklore. According to Kodály, this involved the need to adapt the material from the countryside to the taste of the urban audience. He, therefore, added an accompaniment to the authentic melody, which, over the years, became increasingly modest and only emphasised the tonal properties of the melody.

The central position in Kodály’s vocal music is occupied by choral pieces. Alongside simple and variational stanza structures, arch forms and overcomposed ones, there are elaborate suites with contrasting parts (Máirai képek for mixed choir, 1931, Karádi nóták for mixed choir, 1934, Kállai kettős for choir and small orchestra, 1950). They are characterised by a recitative type of melody, subordination of lower voices to upper ones (even in polyphonic parts) in connection with the typical Kodály exposure of the melodic factor, balance between polyphonic and homophonic sections, striving to convey the content of the verbal text by musical means. Among the masterpieces of choral art is the motet Jézus és a kufárok with a biblical text, the content and emotional climate of which the music illustrates in a particularly suggestive way. Kodály’s vocal and instrumental work reaches its culmination in the oratorios Psalmus hungaricus and Budavári Te Deum. In Psalmus hungaricus, based on a free translation of a psalm by the 16^th-century preacher-poet Kecskeméti Véga, the choir plays the role of the testa. Both compositions refer to the music of bygone eras, as evidenced by the type of polyphony associated with the music of Palestrina and Bach and the melody with reminiscences of Gregorian chant. The composer introduced the Lydian and whole-tone scales, as well as a combination of whole-tone and pentatonic scales (a phenomenon called heptatonia secunda by Bàrdos). Among the choral compositions, a large part are pieces for children; and in them Kodály also willingly uses folk material, in shorter works using one or two folk songs, in longer ones, juxtaposing several melodies in whole or in fragments. Kodály appeals to children’s imagination with simple and clear language, takes care of formal discipline, prefers linear voice leading, often within the pentatonic scale, and variational development of verses.

The desire to create a national style is also evident in stage works. Háry János and Székelyfonó are singspiels which musical material was taken from Hungarian folk music. In the former, folk melodies symbolising simple, poor people are contrasted with a different kind of music, accompanying scenes from the lives of the rich. The orchestral suite Háry János enjoys great popularity, in which Kodály expressed the ideological content of singspiel using purely musical means and humorously presented the extraordinary events recounted by the main character. In Székelyfonó [The Spinning Room], the composer combined old folk melodies into one stage work; a colourful mosaic of songs, ballads, dances and folk games is presented in seven scenes.

The ideological assumptions of Kodály as the composer were also the guiding thought in his scientific work. He pursued his goal of learning about and popularising the music of his own nation by studying sources from the history of Hungarian music and conducting field research, the results of which he published in the form of collections of songs and theoretical treatises. He was one of the first to make recordings of folk music on wax cylinders. The songs collected in 1905 were published in the journal “Ethnographia” and, alongside recordings by B. Vikár and other collections, constituted the material basis for Kodály’s doctoral thesis. In 1913, in connection with the growing collection of folk music, Kodály and Bartók formulated the methodological assumptions for its development. The implementation of this project took place only after 1951 when the monumental work Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae began to be published. The editing of the songs, of which about 100,000 had been collected by 1950, was undertaken by a research group operating under the aegis of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, led by Kodály. The material was initially grouped according to its function (children’s games, wedding and engagement songs, laments), while in subsequent volumes, containing melodies unrelated to a specific occasion, purely musical criteria of classification were adopted. The aim of this procedure was to compare variants and related types, as well as to facilitate the use of the collection, which was to function as a lexicon.

In 1937, after 32 years of intensive research and writing many scientific publications, Kodály’s main work in the field of ethnomusicology was created, A magyar népzene [Hungarian Folk Music]. In this work, the author dealt with the problem of folk musical transmission, the archaic layer of music and its new style, as well as the connections between art and folk music and the place of tradition in the whole of musical culture. In this approach, folk song is a living organism, subject to constant changes under the influence of external factors. A separate group consists of works in which Kodály considered the origins of Hungarian national music and its connections with the music of other geographical regions. Kodály’s research also focused on historical accounts of Hungarian music, especially those containing sung stories from the 16^th century and pieces in the verbunkos style. Kodály also dealt with the relationships between melodies known from historical sources and their contemporary versions. As a music critic, he wrote reviews in 1917–19, including those of the Waldbauer-Kerpely quartet, which performed pieces by contemporary composers, followed opera performances in Budapest, and commented on events in the capital’s concert life; he did not limit himself to assessing performances, but also analysed the piece and provided information about its composer. After Debussy’s death, he published an obituary in which, paying tribute to the French master, he was one of the first to acknowledge the timeless value of his works. The articles (published since 1918) devoted to Bartók’s work and its aesthetic foundations are of particular importance. Through his scientific works, Kodály contributed to the establishment of musicological research in his country and contributed many creative ideas to ethnomusicology on an international scale.

Kodály’s third area of ​​interest was the broadly understood musical education of society. In his effort to raise the native musical culture to a European level, Kodály advocated the universal musicalisation of society by introducing singing and solfège lessons in primary schools, expanding the choral movement, and selecting a repertoire based on the traditions of Hungarian music. He considered singing lessons in school to be the basis of musical education and demanded that musical education begin in kindergarten. At the initial stage of education, he recommended performing melodies based on the pentatonic scale, which was easier to sing and typical of traditional Hungarian songs. He was an advocate of polyphonic singing but warned against excessive use of piano accompaniment, which limited innate vocal abilities. He promoted the method of writing music in letters, the so-called relative solmization, which – in his opinion – leads to the development of internal hearing, emphasised the didactic significance of the melodic-harmonic structure of a piece, and placed emphasis on quick mastery of reading notes. The quintessence of Kodály’s views on music teaching can be found in his preface to E. Szönyi’s work A zenei írás-olvasás módszertana (‘the methodology of musical writing and reading’, 1954–56). Kodály subordinated his own compositional work to the task of musicalising society; alongside compositions of a didactic nature, most of his choral works, usually based on folk music, serve this purpose. The composer’s attitude is clearly illustrated by the collection Bicinia Hungarica (1937), which, alongside Kodály’s original works in the folk music style, includes his arrangements of Hungarian folk songs and several melodies from outside Hungary; these are arrangements for two voices, of varying degrees of difficulty. Kodály repeatedly called on other composers to create children’s works, which, alongside native folk music, would constitute the material basis for music teaching.

Throughout his life, with his compositional, scientific and educational work (over 30 years in the Academy of Music), Kodály served his main idea – to create a national style in Hungarian music, to introduce the music of his country into the general European culture and to ensure that music became a common good of the entire nation. As a token of appreciation for Kodály’s achievements, institutes bearing his name were established in Tokyo, Wellesley (USA), Ottawa, Sydney and Kecskemét, and his many years of diverse activity became the subject of many international symposia.

Literature:

Documentation: Dokumentumok a Magyar Tanácsköztársaság zenei életéből (‘documents of a musical life of the Hungarian Republic’), ed. J. Ujfalussy, Budapest 1973; Kodály — dokumentumok I, ed. J. Breuer, Budapest 1976; Z. Kodály Mein Weg zur Musik. Fünf Gespräche mit L. Besch, Zurich 1966; L. Eősze Zoltán Kodály. His Life in Pictures, Budapest 1971.

Monographs of life and work: A. Molnár Kodály Zoltán, «Népszerű zenefüzetek» IV, Budapest 1936; A Szőllősy Kodály művészete (‘Kodály’s art’), Budapest 1943; I. Sonkoly Kodály, az ember, a művész, a nevelő (‘Kodály, man, artist, teacher’), Nyíregyháza 1948; J. Gergely Zoltán Kodály, músico húngaro e mestre universal, Lisboa 1954; L. Eősze Kodály Zoltán élete és munkássága, Budapest 1956, revised English ed. Zoltán Kodály His Life and Work, London 1962, new ed. Boston 1969, German ed. Zoltán Kodály Sein Leben und sein Werk, Budapest 1964; P.M. Young Zoltán Kodály, London 1964, German transl. Budapest 1964; I. Martynov Zoltán Kodály, Moscow 1970, 21983; L. Eősze Kodály Zoltán, Budapest 1971; B. Szabolcsi Uton Kodályhoz (‘in Kodály’s direction’), Budapest 1972; E. Lendvai Bartók és Kodály harmóniavilága (‘the world of harmony of Bartók and Kodály’), Budapest 1975; L. Eősze Kodály Zoltán életének krónikája (‘Kodály. Chronicle of his life’), Budapest 1977; A. Dalos, Zoltan Kodalys World of Music, Berkeley 20201`

Music pedagogy and didactics: H. Piliczowa Węgierska metoda umuzykalnienia — system Kodálya, Information and discussion materials no. 22 COPSA, book 112, Warsaw 1968; H. Szabó The Kodály Concept of Musie Education, London 1969; L. and M. Nemesszeghy The Kodály-Method in School Practice, Kecskemét 1970; E. Szőnyi Kodály’s Principies in Practice, Budapest 1973; L. Choksy The Kodály Method, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 1974; E. Hegyi Solfège according to the Kodály – concept, Kecskemét 1975; materials from the seminar Humanistyczne aspekty koncepcji Kodály, «Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Muzycznej w Warszawie» no. 8, ed. W. Jankowski, K. Dadak-Kozicka, Warsaw 1982; collective work Zoltán Kodály i jego pedagogika muzyczna, ed. M. Jankowska, W. Jankowski, Warsaw 1990; K. Dadak-Kozicka Śpiewajże mi jako umiesz, Warsaw1992; P. Járdányi Kodály, a nevelő (‘Kodály, educator’), “Válasz” VII, 1947 no. 2; R. Schollum Zoltán Kodály und der ungarische musikalische Volksschul-Zug, “Musikerziehung” XV, 1961/62; B. Szabolcsi Zoltán Kodály, ein Erzieher zum historischen Bewusstsein, “Deutsches Jahrbuch der Musikwissenschaft” VII, 1962; I. Gabor Kodálys Musikpädagogik, “Musik in der Schule” XIII, 1962; M. Janiszewska Koncepcja wychowania muzycznego Zoltána Kodály’a, “Pedagogika Katolicka” 2016, no. 19, J. Bowyer More than Solfège and Hand Signs: Philosophy, Tools, and Lesson Planning in the Authentic Kodály Classroom, “Music Educators Journal”, 102, 2015, no. 2; J. Posłuszna Zoltán Kodály i Béla Bartók – kompozytorzy, pedagodzy, etnomuzykolodzy. U źródeł węgierskiej etnopedagogiki, in: Twórczość i edukacja twórcza – konteksty wychowawcze, poznawcze i artystyczne, ed. M. Dymon et al., Kraków 2018

Stylistic-critical issues: B. Bartók Kodály’s Trio, “Musical Courier” VIII, 1920; B. Bartók Della musica moderna in Ungheria, “II pianoforte” II, 1921; B. Szabolcsi Die Instrumentalmusik Zoltán Kodálys, “Musikblätter des Anbruch” IV, 1922; B. Szabolcsi Die Lieder Zoltán Kodálys, “Musikblätter des Anbruch” IX, 1927; L. Pollatsek Háry János, “Musikblätter des Anbruch” IX, 1927; A. Tóth Zoltán Kodály, “La Revue Musicale” X, 1929; G.M. Ciampelli La „Filando, magiara” di Zoltán Kodály, “Musica d’oggi” XV, 1933; M.D. Calvocoressi Kodály’s Ballet Music, “The Listener” XVIII, 1937; B. Rajeczky Kodály vallásos és egyházi művei (‘Kodály’s religious music’), “A zene” XIX, 1938; W.H. Mellers Kodály and the Christian Epic, “Music and Letters” XXII, 1941, reprint: Studies in Contemporary Music, London 1948; A. Szőllősy Kodály kórusainak zenei szimbolikája (‘musical symbolism of Kodály’s choral works’), “Magyar zenei szemle” III, 1943; M. Seiber Kodály Missa brevis, “Tempo” 1947 no. 4; E. Haraszti Zoltán Kodály et la musique hongroise, Rev. Mus. 1947 no. 204-5; J.S. Weissmann Kodály’s Later Orchestral Music, “Tempo” 1950 no. 17, also “Musik der Zeit” 1954 no. 9; H. Lindlar Einige Kodály-Chöre, “Musik der Zeit” 1954 no. 9, Bonn; A. Nagy Zoltán Kodály, “Háry János”, «Cultura Hungarica» I, 1965, Erlangen; I. Kecskeméti Kodály balladaköltészete (‘Kodály’s ballads’), “Magyar zene” VIII, IX, 1967–68; H. Stevens The Choral Music of Zoltán Kodály, MQ LIV, 1968; J. Mátyás Kodály Miserere (1903), “Muzsika” XVI, 1973; G. Russell-Smith Zoltán Kodály Composer, Musicologist and Educational Revolutionary, in: Some Great Music Educators, ed. K. Simpson, Borough Green k. Sevenoaks (Great Britain) 1976; I. Kecskeméti Kodály zeneszerzői műhelymunkája a „Sírfelirat” kimunkálásában (‘Kodály’s method in composing “Epitafium” op. 11 no. 4’), “Magyar zenetörténeti tanulmányok” IV, 1980; M. Lackó The Intellectual Environment of Bartók and Kodály with Special Regard to the Period between the Two World Wars, M. Birnbaum Bartók, Kodály and the „Nyugat”, S. Erdely Complementary Aspects of Bartók’s and Kodály’s Folk Song Researches and L. Vikár On the Folk Music Arrangements of Bartók and Kodály, in: Bartók and Kodály Revisited, ed. G. Ranki, Budapest 1987; K. Paksa Zoltán Kodály and the Problems of the Critical Edition of Hungarian Folk Music, “Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae”, XLI, 2000, no. 4; F. Mastromatteo Kodály’s Sonata Opus 8: Transformation of Hungarian Lament, “International Journal of Musicology”, I, 2015

Commemorative books for 60^th, 70^th, 75^th, and 80^th birthdays: Emlékkönyv Kodály Zoltán, ed. B. Gunda, Budapest 1943, Emlékkönyv Kodály Zoltán, «Zenetudományi tanulmányok» I, ed. B. Szabolcsi and D. Bartha, Budapest 1953, Zenetudományi tanulmányok Kodály Zoltán 75. születésnapjára, jw. VI, 1957, Zoltán Kodály octogenario sacrum, ed. B. Szabolcsi, Budapest 1962, also in “Studia Musicologica” III, 1962 (includes a list of compositions and writing by Kodály, edited by L. Eősze and F. Bónis).

Special issues published in 1962 for 80^th birthday: “Magyar zene” III, “Muzsika” V, “New Hungarian Quarterly” III, “Tempo” 1962/63 no. 63; also “Magyar zene” VIII, 1967, “Muzsika” X, 1967, “Muzsika” XV, 1972.