Welcome To Meredith's Page of
Zoltan Kodaly
 
and his
"Viennese Musical Clock"
from Hary Janos Suite
 

Zoltan Kodaly (1882 - 1967)

      Zoltan Kodaly was born in Hungary in 1882, at the height of Romantic music period.  He grew up surrounded by music, mostly folk songs.  His father was a railroad operator and  played the violin.  His mother a singer and piano player.  The first eighteen years of his life, he travelled with his father and saw much of the Hungarian country side.  There he heard foilk songs in their original, unobscured form.  He started composing and teaching music at a young age.  His first works survive from 1897.  His music spans seven decades, up until his death in 1967.  His music is centered around Hungarian folksongs.
    In 1913, he and prominent composer friend, Bela Bartok, researched, classified, and edited over 100,000 folk songs!  These folk songs became the basis of his music teaching method, the Kodaly Method.  This is used in schools all over the world bringing music literacy to many people.
    This nationalistic composer has composed many works including vocal pieces, operas, and ochestral works.  Hary Janos is an opera composed in 1927.  It is known more for the Orchestral Suite than the opra itself.  "The Viennese Musical Clock" is one movement from this suite.  This movement, like most of Kodaly's work , can be used to teach many aspects of music.

Form
 
    The form of this piece is as follows:
                 Introduction,    ABA,    Transition,    ACA,    coda
 
                  Click Here to Hear "Viennese Musical Clock"

    You'll notice that there is a type of rondo form going on.  Rondo is defined as ABACA.  The A theme is repeated often.  This is a chiastic design, or even on both sides with a median point.  The Introduction and coda are the same length.  The ABA section is the same length as the ACA section.  The Transition is the median point in between all. 

Rhythm
 
    The rhythm is based on eighth and sixteenth notes and variations of them all.

Theme A's rhythm can be examined and spoken with a little rhyme:

Click here to Theme A
 

Kodaly was a man, he
Came from Hungary,he
Helped people learn the songs they could sing by
Using a folksong theme, the
Piece we'll learn today, is
Nota song at all. it
Doesn't have words that we can sing so we'll
Listen for a clock chime.
 
This rhythm is repeated three more times throughout the piece.  It has a lot of energy because of the fast, repetitive rhythm.

Melody and Harmony

    The melody and harmony go hand in hand in this piece.  The melody is based on the harmony.  The melody outlines the harmony.
    The Melody in each section states a theme for four measures and then restates the theme with a small difference at the end of the phrase.  This is an example of antecendent and consequent.   Click here to hear Theme A's Melody and Harmony.
    The Harmony is very basic.  It stays mostly within the tonic, dominant, and subdominant harmonies of E flat Major only travelling to a distant key for the theme B.  In this section, the melody and harmonies are repeated, but in a minor key.

Click Here to hear Theme B
 

Expressive Elements

    The tempo and dynamics are what make this piece.  The tempo is fast and bouncy.  The dynamics vary from section to section keeping your ears perked up and interested.

Click Here to hear the piece again.  Listen for tempo and dynamics.
 
 
Click Here to Take a quiz

Teachers,  Click Here for small lesson plan for teaching.