The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1962 (3. évfolyam, 6. szám)
László Eősze: Zoltán Kodály, Octogenarian
ZOLTÁN KODÁLY, OCTOGENARIAN by LÁSZLÓ EŐSZE A I life embracing eighty years is in itself worthy of remembrance and celebration, if in no wider a circle than that of friends. But when more than six decades of this life have been given up to a rich career of creative achievement, it justly commands the widest respect and admiration. This year the world of Hungarian and international music celebrates the eightieth birthday of Zoltán Kodály and the sixty-fifth anniversary of his initiation as a composer. It is therefore apposite to recall the principal stages of his life and art, although he is still actively engaged in creative work among us. Hardly a year ago he astonished the audiences of the Luzern Festival by a new composition, the Symphony in c minor. Zoltán Kodály’s career as a composer began at the close of the last century in Nagyszombat, a small town with a historical past near what was then the north-western border of Hungary (now Trnava in Czechoslovakia). Here Kodály attended school for eight years, devoting all his spare time to studying music. He learnt to play the piano, then the violin and also the ’cello. He took part in chamber music at home, played in the school orchestra and sang in the cathedral choir. In addition he buried himself in scores to get acquainted with the treasures of musical literature. His extensive studies and fresh musical experiences became a source of inspiration for his first attempts at composition, including an overture for orchestra written in 1897 at the age of fifteen and given a public performance by the school orchestra. Although Nagyszombat was the point of departure, the tcwn where he grew familiar with the literature and the mysteries of the craft, his first musical impressions, which were to leave their indelible mark on his whole life, go back to a still earlier period, to the seven years spent at Galánta. What he heard there was the pure, untainted ancient singing of the Hun