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Those music educators with a general understanding of the various methods of music education may be able to describe the main tenets of the Kodály concept as focussing on singing and the use of hand signs. A deeper look into Kodály's philosophy shows that not only does this method develop musicianship in children and adults, but it also utilizes many best practise learning theories in a music education context.
Zoltán Kodály, the originator of the Kodály method, was an influential composer, educator and philosopher during the early to middle twentieth century. During his life he demonstrated an overwhelming determination to promote Hungarian nationalism. While studying composition at the Franz Liszt Academy, he began to steer away from the use of traditional German techniques and drew more on Hungarian motifs in his music, not an encouraged practise at the time (Foesze, 1962, p. 15)· Besides promoting Hungarian themes in his own compositions, he also undertook the task of collecting and preserving the folk music of the Hungarian people by traveling through the countryside. His travels throughout Hungary eventually resulted in the publication of Corpus musicete populará hungaricae in 1953, which contained over 100,000 Hungarian and Hungarian-related folksongs.
According to Kodály expert, Laszlo Eoesze, Kodály seriously began composing for children after the success of his work, Psahnus Hungaricus, which was commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of Pest, Buda and Obuda in 1873 (Eoesze, 1962, p. 29). After this experience, he began to take more of an interest in education issues and voiced his dismay at the inadequate musical knowledge of Hungarian students. Through observation and reflection, he concluded that the only way to raise the musical standards of the Hungarian population and solve political, economical and social problems in the country was through education. He stated: "All the problems now confronting us can be summered up in a single word: Education" (Eoesze, 1962, p. 36). Kodály believed that teaching people to read music as they would read a book would enable them to appreciate true musical values and cultivate artistic taste, thereby enriching and improving society.
Kodály also believed that in order to be most effective, music education needed to begin as early as possible in a persons life. To stress this point,...