Zoltán Kodály [antikvár]

ChildhoodZoltán Kodály was born on 16 December 1882 in thesmall, quiet town of Kecskemét, on the Great Plain ofHungary. 'My childhood was pure joy and sunshine. Tothis very day it nourishes me. He whose youth is filledby sunlight easily bears cloudy days later.'Both parents were passionate amateur musicians. Hismother sang and played the piano, and his father was aviolinist. Kodály said of his first musical experience:'Early one summer evening, when red and gold lightwas pouring into our room, my parents played througha piece. I must have been three or four years old, and layon the floor at the foot of the piano. This was my firstand deepest musical impression. I later found out thatthe composition was Mozart's F-major Sonata. I don'tbelieve that I could have become the musician that I amor that I would have become a musician at all, if at thattime my parents had played a popular hit.'He himself preferred to improvise songs while pluck-ing the strings of his first home-made instrument: a com-mon colander to which he had attached some strings.