• Name: Zoltán Kodály
• Birthday: 12/16/1882
• Birth Place: Kecskemét, Hungary
• Died: 03/06/1967
• Place of Death: Budapest, Hungary
• Country: Hungary
• Period: Modern
• Genre: Classical

Title	Release
(34) Dances of Galánta (Galánti táncok), for orchestra	1958
(19) Dances of Marosszék (Marosszéki táncok), for orchestra (transcribed from piano work)	1958
(2) String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2	1982
(6) String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10	1982
(2) Régi magyar katonadalok (Old Hungarian Soldier's Songs), for chamber orchestra ("Magyar rondó," "Hungarian Rondo")	1994
(30) Variations on a Hungarian folksong, "The Peacock" ("Felszállott a páva"), for orchestra	1990
(40) Duo for violin & cello, Op. 7	1995
(6) Felszállot a páva (The Peacock), folksong for male or mixed chorus	1968
(12) Háry János, opera, Op. 15	1968
(14) Psalmus Hungaricus, oratorio for tenor, chorus, children's chorus ad lib, orchestra & organ, Op. 13	1968
(45) Sonata for solo cello, Op. 8	1995
A csikó (The Filly), folksong for high voice or male chorus	2004
(2) A csitár hëgyek alatt (From Distant Mountains), for high voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 55)
A franciaországi változásokra (To the Changes in France), for male chorus	2004
A magyar nemzet (The Hungarian Nation), for chorus	2005
(2) A magyarokhoz (Song of Faith), canon for 4 voices	2004
A Nád Jancsi csárdában van (At the tavern Janek's hiding), for voice & piano (Hungarian Folksongs No. 14)	1999
A nándori toronyor (The Tower Watchman of Nándor), for male chorus	2004
(2) A novérek (The Sisters), for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 19)	1928
(2) A rossz feleség (The Heartless Wife), folksong for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 8)	1928
(2) A szabadság himnusza (La Marseillaise), arrangement for mixed or high voice or male chorus	2004
(2) A székelyekhez (To the Transylvanians), for chorus	1995
(27) Adagio for violin (or viola or cello) & piano
(5) Adventi ének (Advent song: Veni, Veni Emmanuel), for chorus
(4) Akik mindig elkésnek (Too Late), for chorus	1995
(2) Akkor szép az erd (Lovely is the forest), folksong for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 15)	1981
(2) An Ode for Music, for chorus	1995
(4) Angyalok és Pásztorok (Angels & Shepherds), for double childen's chorus
Apró alma lehullott a sábra (From the Tree an Apple Fell), folksong for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 5)
Arról alúl (Over yonder), for high voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 33)	1928
(2) Asszony, asszony, ki az ágybol (Woman, woman, out of your bed!), for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 16)	1928
(5) Ave Maria for high voice chorus & organ	1992
Az éneklo ifjúsághoz (To the Singing Youth), for high voice chorus	2006
Azért, hogy én huszár vagyok (As a soldier I must leave you), for voice & piano (Hungarian Folksongs No. 13)	1999
Balassi Bálint elfelejtett éneke (The Forgotten Song of the Bálint Balassi), for chorus	2005
Békességóhajtás: 1801 esztendo (Wish for Peace: 1801), for chorus	2006
(3) Budavári Te Deum (Te Deum of Buda Castle), for soloists, chorus, orchestra & organ ad lib.	1969
Búsan csörög a lomb (Sadly Rustle the Leaves), song for voice & piano, Op. 6/5	1949
(3) Capriccio for cello	1996
(5) Chorale Preludes (3), transcriptions for cello & piano (after Bach's spurious BWV 743, 762, 747)
(2) Cigánynóta (Gypsy Song), for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 24)	1928
Cigánysirató (Gypsy Lament), folksong for high voice chorus
(2) Cohors generosa (Régi Magyar diákköszönto; Hungarian Students' Greeting), for boys' chorus
(5) Concerto for orchestra	1973
Csatadal (Battle Song), for double chorus	2005
Csillagoknak teremtoje (Creator of Stars), for soprano, tenor & piano (Little Duets No. 7)	1974
(11) Dances of Marosszék (Marosszéki táncok), for piano	1992
Drinking songs (2) for male chorus	1993
(2) Easy Childrens' Choruses (7) and Humorous Canons (6), for children's chorus
(2) Egy nagyóru bóha (Long-nose), folksong for low voice & piano (Hungarian Folk Music No. 10)	1928

Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály is today remembered as much for his contributions to the fields of ethnomusicology and music education as he is for his own musical creations. Born in 1881, Kodály was the son of a local railway station master and amateur violinist who provided a rich musical environment for his child. Young Zoltán's early exposure to the German classics was tempered by an interest in the folk heritage of his native land; in 1900, after graduating from the Archiepiscopal Grammar School in Nagyszombat, he enrolled simultaneously at Budapest University (where he studied Germanic and Hungarian literature) and at the Budapest Academy of Music. Composition studies at the Academy were fruitful for Kodály, and he took a diploma in the subject in 1904. In 1905 he received a second diploma in music education, and in 1906 Kodály crowned his academic career with a Ph.D. earned for his thorough structural analysis of Hungarian folksong. During the preparation of this dissertation Kodály went on the first of many excursions into rural Hungary to record and transcribe authentic folk music, and in doing so built a strong and lasting friendship with Béla Bartók (who was engaged in the same practice at the time, and with whom Kodály would go on to publish several collections of Hungarian folk music).

Kodály's debut as a composer came in October 1906 with a successful performance of his orchestral poem Summer Evening (Nyári este) at the Academy of Music. Two months later Kodály left Hungary for the first time, having received funding from the Academy for a period of study in Berlin and Paris. Upon his return in 1907 he was appointed to the faculty of the Academy, eventually succeeding his teacher Koessler as professor of composition (and becoming Dohnányi's assistant when the latter was appointed director of the Academy in 1919). With the creation of the New Hungarian Music Society in 1911, Kodály firmly established himself alongside Bartók and Dohnányi as a powerful force in Hungary's developing musical culture.

Kodály produced a steady stream of music (his most famous works being the opera Háry János from 1927 and the orchestral suite from that opera) and important educational works (which have collectively become known to music educators as the Kodály method, and rank in significance alongside similar contributions by Orff and Dalcroze) until his death in 1967. In later years he made frequent concert tours during which he appeared as a conductor of his own music, though he never abandoned what he himself considered to be his primary work: the collection and systematization of Hungarian folk music and culture, and a corresponding assimilation of that body of work into a new Hungarian artistic aesthetic (a goal also shared by his friend Bartók). In the years after the Second World War he was honored by countless academic, musical, and political organizations around the globe; in 1961 he served as president of the International Folk Music Council, and, in 1964, as honorary president of the International Society of Music Educators. ~ Blair Johnston, All Music Guide