Zoltán Kodály and Hungarian Dance

Abstract

In addition to folk music, Zoltán Kodály was interested in folk dance. This is evidenced not only by his writings dedicated to the subject – some relevant ideas are to be found in his publications mainly focused on other topics. In this article, the author collects both Kodály's writings explicitly related to folk dance as well as the “hidden” ideas, presented partly chronologically, partly in thematic groups. Topics include: Kodály's dance experiences, his practical dance knowledge, his work of exploring data of historical dance music, his role in the emergence of Hungarian ethnochoreology as a scholarly discipline, his critical views on the use of folk dance on stage, etc. In contrast to the earlier literature, this article no longer considers the Hungarian shepherds' horn signals as the inspirational sources for Bécsi harangjátek [Viennese Clock], a movement which imitates a musical clock in Kodály's Singspiel Háry János. The movement entitled Branle de village, part of seventeenth-century Austrian composer Johann Heinrich Schmelzer's Partita ex Vienna, contains some bars that bear a close resemblance to the repeated main motif of Kodály's Viennese Clock. It is safe to assume that Branle de village was Kodály's source of inspiration, given that there is evidence that he studied the DTÖ-collection of Schmelzer's works: he referred to this volume where he found a Styrian version of a Székely dance tune.