Zoltan Kodaly Quotes

#1. Singing connected with movements and action is a much more ancient, and, at the same time, more complex phenomenon than is a simple song.

Zoltan Kodaly

#2. Often a single experience will open the young soul to music for a whole lifetime

Zoltan Kodaly

#3. The laws of morals and the laws of music are the same.

Zoltan Kodaly

#4. Teach music and singing at school in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime.

Zoltan Kodaly

#5. It is our firm conviction that mankind will live the happier when it has learned to live with music more worthily. Whoever works to promote this end, in one way or another, has not lived in vain.

Zoltan Kodaly

#6. We should read music in the same way that an educated adult will read a book: in silence, but imagining the sound.

Zoltan Kodaly

#7. Music is nourishment, and a comforting elixir. Music multiplies the beauty of life and all its values.

Zoltan Kodaly

#8. Let us take our children seriously! Everything else follows from this ... only the best is good enough for a child.

Zoltan Kodaly

#9. Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind, and he who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity.

Zoltan Kodaly

#10. Our age of mechanization leads along a road ending with man himself as a machine. Only the spirit of singing can save us from this fate.

Zoltan Kodaly

#11. With music, one's whole future life is brightened. This is such a treasure in life that it helps us over many troubles and difficulties. Music is nourishment, a comforting elixir. Music multiplies all that is beautiful and of value in life.

Zoltan Kodaly

#12. To teach a child an instrument without first giving him preparatory training and without developing singing, reading and dictating to the highest level along with the playing is to build upon sand.

Zoltan Kodaly

#13. There is no complete spiritual life without music, for the human soul has regions which can be illuminated only by music.

Zoltan Kodaly

#14. I would advise my young colleagues, the composers of symphonies, to drop in sometimes at the kindergarten, too. It is there that it is decided whether there will be anybody to understand their works in twenty years' time.

Zoltan Kodaly