Compositions

Zoltán Kodály’s earliest compositions date from the 1890s and his last were composed in 1966. During this long and productive life he created hundreds of compositions in a variety of media and genres. His style was profoundly influenced by his collecting and study of Hungarian folk music.

Use the drop-down menu to navigate the composition types.

Orchestral Works

  • Ballet Music
  • Concerto for Orchestra
  • Dances of Galánta
  • Dances of Marosszék
  • Four Dances from Children’s Dances (transcript for orchestra)
  • Háry János Suite
  • Minuetto serio
  • Missa Brevis
  • Summer Evening
  • Symphony
  • Theatre Ouverture
  • Variations on a Hungarian Folksong ‘Felszállott a páva’ [Peacock]

Chamber Works

  • 3 Chorale Preludes, J. S. Bach, trs. for cello and piano
  • Adagio (3 versions: violin-piano, viola-piano, cello-piano)
  • Duo for violin and cello (Op. 7)
  • Epigrams for double bass and piano
  • Gavotte for 3 violins and cello
  • Háry: 6 Easy Pieces, transcript for 2 clarinets and piano
  • Háry: Intermezzo for violin and piano
  • Hungarian Rondo/Old Hungarian Marching Songs for string orchestra, two clarinets, two bassoons
  • Intermezzo for String Trio
  • ‘Lute’ Prelude in C Minor (Schm. 999) J. S. Bach, for Violin and piano
  • Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor, Book I, J. S. Bach, for cello. and piano
  • Romance Lyrique, cello and piano
  • Rondo from the 5th violin sonata, Joseph Haydn, arranged for junior string orchestra (2 violins and violoncello)
  • Sonata for cello and piano (Op. 4)
  • Sonatina for Violoncello and Piano
  • String Quartet No. 1 (Op. 2)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (Op. 10)
  • Trio Serenade for 2 Violins and Viola (Op. 12)
  • Valsette (transcript for piano and violin]

Solo Instrumental Works

  • Ballet Music (piano)
  • Capriccio (cello)
  • Children’s Dances (for piano)
  • Dances of Galánta (for piano)
  • Dances of Marosszék (for piano)
  • Epigrams for organ
  • Epigrams for piano
  • Fantasia Cromatica, J. S. Bach (transcript for viola solo)
  • Háry: 3 Pieces from Háry for piano
  • Low Mass for organ/Organoedia ad missam lectam
  • Méditation sur un motif de Claude Debussy (piano)
  • Organ Prelude (for Pange Lingua)
  • Pange Lingua for organ
  • Piano Music, Op. 3: Nine Piano Pieces; Valsette
  • Seven Piano Pieces (Op. 11)
  • Sonata for Solo cello (Op. 8)
  • Spinning Room (piano version)
  • Te Deum of Buda Castle (piano)

Solo Voice

Solo Voice With Piano Accompaniment

  • 16 Songs (Op. 1)
  • 20 Hungarian Folksongs (1-10 Bartók, 11-20 Kodály)
  • Eight Little Duets
  • Epigrams
  • Epitaphium Joannis Hunyadi
  • Five Mountain-Cheremis Folksongs
  • Five Songs (Op. 9)
  • Four Songs
  • Háry: voice-piano version
  • Himfy Song – Revelation of Love
  • Hungarian Folk Music I-X (1917-1932); XI (1964)
  • Kálló Double Dance
  • Seven Songs/Belated Melodies (Op. 6)
  • Three Songs (Op. 14)
  • Two Songs (Op. 5)

Solo Voice With Organ Accompaniment

  • Advent Song
  • Communion/ Admonitiones Diaconi
  • Hungarian Mass

Solo Voice With Orchestral Accompaniment

  • 5 Songs of Béla Bartók (Op. 15)
  • Katie Kádár (Mother listen) with small orchestra
  • Three Songs (Op. 14)
  • Two Songs (Op. 5)

Unaccompanied Choral Works

Children’s and Women’s Choruses

  • 5 Tantum Ergos
  • A Christmas Carol
  • A Song of Faith
  • Angels and Shepherds
  • Angels’ Garden
  • Ave Maria
  • Bell Ringing
  • Birthday Greeting
  • Christmas Dance of the Shepherds
  • Dancing Song
  • Drop Down, Dew
  • Epihany
  • Evening Song
  • Falcon
  • False Spring
  • Fancy
  • Four Italian Madrigals (1. Chi vuol veder, 2. Fior scoloriti, 3. Chi d’Amor sente, 4. Fuor de la bella caiba)
  • Geneva Psalm No. 150
  • Giddy-up, Horsey
  • God’s Blacksmith
  • Gopher Trap
  • Gypsy’s Lament
  • Hair-raising
  • Have Good Courage
  • Hippity, Hoppity
  • Hymn to King Stephen
  • King Ladislaus’ Men
  • La Marseillaise
  • Ladybird
  • Mountain Nights I-IV.
  • On the Feast of St. Agnes
  • Orphan I am
  • Password
  • Saint Gregory’s Day
  • See the Gipsy Munching Cheese
  • Seven Easy Children’s Choruses
  • Song of Peace
  • Straw Guy
  • The Boys from Harasztos
  • The Colt
  • The Deaf Boatman
  • The Leveret
  • The Shepherd
  • The Swallow’s wooing
  • The Voice of Jesus
  • The Wedding of the Mole
  • Three Folksongs from Gömör
  • To Singing Youth
  • Two Folksongs from Zobor
  • Whitsuntide
  • Wine, Sweet Wine

Male Choruses

  • Evening Song
  • God’s Mercy
  • Have Good Courage
  • Hey, Andy Büngözsd
  • Hymn to King Stephen
  • Justum et tenacem — Unshakeably (Horatius)
  • La Marseillaise
  • Lines in Memory of András Fáy
  • National Song
  • On the Changes in France
  • Password
  • Songs from Karád
  • Stabat Mater
  • The Bachelor
  • The Colt
  • The Peacock
  • The Ruins
  • The Son of an Enslaved Country
  • The Voice of Jesus
  • The Watchman of Nándor
  • To Live or Die
  • Two Male Choruses

Choruses For Mixed Voices

  • A Song For Ever
  • A Song of Faith
  • Adoration/Hymn to the Sun
  • Advent Song (Veni, Veni, Emmanuel)
  • An Ode for Music
  • An Ode. The Music Makers (O’Shaughnessy)
  • Annie Miller
  • Battle Song
  • Beseeching/Ernest Prayer
  • Birthday Greeting
  • Cohors generosa
  • Communion/ Admonitiones Diaconi
  • Evening
  • Evening Song
  • Geneva Psalm No. 121
  • Geneva Psalm No. 50
  • Greeting for John Horatii Carmen II – To the Muse of Beautiful Song
  • Hymn to King Stephen
  • I will go look for death
  • Invocation of Peace
  • Jesus and the Traders
  • La Marseillaise
  • Laudes organi (with org.)
  • Mátra Pictures
  • Media vita in morte sumus
  • Miserere (Psalm 50 [not Geneva]) – double chorus
  • Mohács
  • Norvegian Girls
  • Ode to Franz/Ferenc Liszt
  • Pange lingua
  • Password
  • See the Gipsy Munching Cheese
  • Sík Sándor’s Te Deum
  • Song of Gömör
  • Stabat Mater
  • The Aged
  • The Arms of Hungary
  • a The Forgotten Song of Bálint Balassi
  • The Hungarian Nation
  • The Peacock
  • The Ruins
  • To Singing Youth
  • To the Transylvanians
  • Too Late
  • Transylvanian Lament
  • Zrínyi’s Hymn/Appeal

Accompanied Choral Works

Choral Works Accompanied by an Instrument

  • 5 Tantum Ergos (certain movements with organ acc.)
  • Ave Maria (org.) – women’s
  • Christmas Dance of the Shepherds (recorder)
  • Geneva Psalm No. 114 (org.) – mixed
  • Hymn to King Stephen (org.)
  • Jesus and the Children (org.) – children
  • Laudes organi (org.)- mixed
  • Missa brevis (org.)
  • Pange Lingua (org.) – mixed
  • Soldier’s Song (trumpet and side drum) – male
  • Wainamoinen Makes Music – harp (piano)

Choral Works Accompanied by Orchestra

  • At the Grave of Martyrs
  • Kálló Folk Dances
  • Missa brevis
  • Offertorium/Assumpta est Maria
  • Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13
  • Te Deum of Buda Castle

Canons

  • A Song of Faith
  • Aurea libertas
  • Six Funny Canons
  • Solfa Canon
  • Sorry!/Three-Part Canon

Stage Works

  • Háry János, Op. 15
  • Spinnery/Spinning Room

Educational Compositions

  • 15 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 22 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 24 Little Canons on the Black Keys
  • 33 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 333 Reading Exercises
  • 44 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 55 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 66 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • 77 Two-Part Singing Exercises
  • Bicinia Hungarica I—IV.
  • Chamber Music Exercise
  • Children’s Dances (12 Pieces)
  • Epigrams
  • Let Us Sing Correctly
  • Nursery Songs/Songs of Little People
  • Pentatonic Music
  • Tricinia
  • Twelve Little Piano Pieces

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