Kodály, Zoltán [key], 1882–1967, Hungarian composer and collector of folk music. In 1906 he began to teach at the Budapest Hochschule, of which he became assistant director in 1919. He lectured (1930–33) at the Univ. of Budapest. Kodály did much to raise the standards of music education in Hungary. With Bartók he collected thousands of Hungarian folk songs and dances, and the influence of this interest is strong in his compositions, which have a romantic style. Among his best-known works are the opera Háry János (1926, orchestral suite 1927), the Psalmus Hungaricus (1923) and Missa Brevis (1945) for chorus and orchestra, and orchestral dances.
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