Nation Building through Solmization. Nationalism and Music Pedagogy in the Context of Zoltán Kodály’s Method
Nation Building through Solmization. Nationalism and Music Pedagogy in the Context of Zoltán Kodály’s Method

Summary/Abstract: The use of solmization in musical pedagogy is connected to the name of Zoltán Kodály worldwide. However, my paper does not aim to investigate the different musical pedagogical sources or the influence of the Kodály method. It looks primarily for the political and cultural background of the formation of the method, concentrating on the Hungarian nationalism of the 1940s which influenced Kodály’s concept about “Hungarianness”, and tries to answer the question why the composer, despite his individualistic modernism, turned to musical pedagogy at all. Thus, the paper aims at revealing the historical context that made possible the development of the method. Similarly, it examines the question of what musical benefit Kodály recognized in the method of solmization for the national and democratic development of Hungary, amidst Nazi and fascist orientation of the official state politics. Following this question, the paper turns to the issues of clear singing, of the development of hearing and musical memory, as well as the problems of monophony and polyphony in singing as symbols for the “unity” of the Hungarian nation.

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