Zoltan Kodaly Quotations

The laws of morals and the laws of music are the same

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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