Kodály

The other half of the folk-collecting expeditions with Bartók, though he later put most of his energy into education. The Kodály method — starting from singing and hand signs, learning to sing before learning to read — is used in primary schools worldwide, an influence few composers have ever had.

His music is gentler than Bartók's and more firmly tonal, and the Hungarian folk melodies are usually kept whole rather than broken apart. The Háry János suite opens with a sneeze: in Hungarian tradition, a sneeze before a story means everything that follows is a tall tale. The Sonata for solo cello is among the most important things written for the instrument since Bach.