# Kodály and Bartók: why listen to Kodály?



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

There's been some recent posting on Kodály which prompted me to start this thread. I started listening to Bartók in my teens and also side-stepped a few times to listen to what Kodály had to offer. it didn't grab me and I decided back then there was no reason to listen to Kodály when there is Bartók. 

But I might be wrong of course and Kodály is a composer in his own right. Any thoughts on what might persuade me to revise my opinion?


----------



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I never considered putting Bartok and Janacek in the same bucket. Bartok was probably the "greater" composer. But Kodaly wrote some really good music -- his Hary Janos Suite and Dances of Galanta, for instance, are crowd-pleasers and certainly deserve their popularity.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I feel that Bartok belongs among the very great. Kodaly doesn't but he wrote some good pieces - I am very fond of his Psalmus Hungaricus, for example - and his music is so different to Bartok's that I don't think one can stand in for the other.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Kodaly´s solo cello & the cello+piano works, plus the "Hary Janos Suite" with Fricsay, are the works I tend to listen to.

There´s a good deal of variety in his production however - some early pieces are more influenced by impressionism, for example.


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

I don't think Bartok could have composed something like the beginning of Dances of Galánta. He doesn't have the tranquility. Not trying to detract from him but I think it's like comparing apples and oranges.


----------



## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Thanks all of you. My playlist for a renewed acquitance with Kodály will be:
- Harry Janos Suite (which I happen to own)
- Dances of Galánta
- Psalmus Hungaricus
- solo cello pieces
- pieces for cello & piano

I put them in the same bucket because they were of the same generation, knew eachother well, shared education and teamed up in their exploration of folk music. I found Bartók's music so much more intriguing that I never really gave Kodály a serious listen.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

They are two way different composers -- and to say that one has to supplant the other is like saying you can't like Janacek if you like Dvorak.

By the way, don't forget the Peacock Variations.


----------



## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Kodaly's music doesn't have so much of that strain of Magyar pungency as Bartok's, nor does it have as much edginess (for want of a better word). Another factor is that a hefty percentage of Kodaly's music is for unaccompanied choir whereas Bartok composed a similar amount for solo piano which made up about a third of his. However, if we are primarily discussing orchestral and chamber works then Kodaly's core output is certainly of high quality even though there is less of it. Both men were friends and were voracious accumulators of Central and Eastern European folk tunes which were to feature prominently in their respective outputs but musically they pretty much parted company post-WWI, with Bartok seeking to develop within a more individually modernistic framework.

For Kodaly's orchestral output this set pretty much covers all bases:


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Kodaly was played often on Boston Symphony concerts in the 1960's. I remember his Peacock Variations being programmed at least once a season. Sadly, seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.


----------



## NovAntiqua (7 mo ago)

Kodaly has perhaps a more conservative language than Bartòk, but their music has that marvelous Hungarian taste!
Here the wonderful Sonatina for cello, published on the CD "Im Zimmer"


----------



## Neo Romanza (May 7, 2013)

Why listen to Kodály? Because he wrote some exquisite music that's why. Works like the _Concerto for Orchestra_, _Peacock Variations_, _Háry János_ (the complete opera not just the suite), _Dances of Marosszék_ and _Galánta_, _The Spinning Room_, _Kadar Kata (Mother Listen)_, _Psalmus Hungaricus_, the solo piano works and _String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2_ are reasons why I rate him so highly. I don't consider him the lesser composer compared to Bartók, because his compositional aims were completely different. Kodály basically achieved a synthesis of Hungarian folk music and Impressionism. The result was remarkable and ear-fetching and I believe anyone who likes composers who used folk material in their music whether of their own creation or quoting it verbatim, will find Kodály's music worth the time.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Kodály and Bartók: why listen to Kodály?*

Why? Well, because Bartok didn't write _The Peacock Variations_! Or 
the _Háry János Suite_ or the _Dances Of Galánta_!

Why not pose the question: "Beethoven and Bartók: why listen to Bartok?" -- Because Beethoven didn't write the _Concerto for Orchestra_!

Such questions can be never ending. But the answers are simple. And always the same.


----------



## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

They were two very different composers; not an apt comparison.


----------



## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

After five years it suddenly rumble aging in an old thread


----------



## regenmusic (Oct 23, 2014)

Someone said they thought this was Kodaly's greatest work in the comments


----------

