Szőnyi Erzsébet
Composer
Place of Birth
Budapest
Date of Birth
1924
25 April 1924 Budapest - 28 December 2019 Budapest
Born on 25 April 1924 in Budapest, Erzsébet Szőnyi attended the Erzsébet Szilágyi Girls' Grammar School where she already made up her mind to embark on a musical career. In her decision the influence of Adrienne Sztojanovits, the school's music teacher and choral conductor, one of Kodály's most outstanding pupils, had a great share. She took private piano instruction from Aglája Benczúr, the niece of the famous Hungarian painter Gyula Benczúr, and learned the rudiments of music theory with Miklós Laurisin. Her first works: vocal music and piano pieces were composed at the age of thirteen. In 1942 she was admitted to the Academy of Music where she became pupil of Lajos Bárdos and Zoltán Vásárhelyi at the Music Teachers' Training College and studied composition with János Viski. She continued studying the piano with Ernő Szegedi, learned chamber music with Leó Weiner, history of style with Bence Szabolcsi, visited János Ferencsik's classes in the choirmasters' school and was taught by Rezső Kókai, Dénes Bartha, Miklós Forrai and Aladár Zalánfy for a while. Equipped with comprehensive theoretical knowledge and practical skills, she graduated in 1947, and then went on studying at the Conservatoire of Paris as a pupil of the composer Tony Aubin for a year. On Kodály's advice she attended the piano accompaniment and score reading classes of the legendary Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen's seminars of aesthetics.
Erzsébet Szőnyi began teaching while still at the Academy of Music. In the 1945/46 academic year Zoltán Kodály had other things to do, so she was asked to take over his folk music classes as a substitute. Education has been decisive throughout Erzsébet Szőnyi's career. For a short period of time she taught music at her one-time Alma Mater, the Erzsébet Szilágyi Grammar School, then at the demonstration school of the Academy of Music, and finally at the Academy of Music itself. There she was professor for more than three decades and head of the Music Teachers' Training and Choral Conducting Department between 1960 and 1981. She was a leading figure in solfeggio, method and practice teaching, who followed Kodály's instructions and educational concepts and summed them up in a comprehensive four-volume work entitled The Method of Musical Reading and Writing. The first two volumes were printed in the 1950s, the third and fourth ones in the 1970s. They were later translated into English and Japanese as well. Her book on method entitled Kodály's Principles in Practice (1973) is a similarly important work; it was printed in English, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese, too.
From the early 1960s onwards Erzsébet Szőnyi has given more and more lectures and master courses abroad. She was first invited to the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe but the outstanding achievements of the Hungarian musical education were soon noticed in the western countries, too. The 1963 UNESCO conference on musical education organized in Tokyo and the series of lectures throughout Japan meant a major breakthrough and played a decisive role in popularizing in the Far East the music educational concepts known as Kodály method in the world by then. In 1965 the Ministry of Culture of Quebec, Canada invited her to conduct a master course in the summer; there followed invitations by the Bach Festival of Leipzig and the time-honoured Humboldt University of Berlin a year later. She spent the summer of 1966 in the United States teaching in several states, among them in California with the aged Zoltán Kodály. She made a lecturing tour of Australia in 1971, visited Africa the following year on the occasion of the conference of ISME, the International Society for Music Education in Tunis. Thus it is fully justified that her memoirs printed in 1979 bear the title On Five Continents in the Service of Music. Apart from teaching and conducting master courses in Hungary and abroad, Erzsébet Szőnyi took part in the musical life as well: she was vice-president of ISME for four years, acted as co-president and board member of the International Kodály Society, of the Lajos Bárdos Society and the Hungarian Kodály Society, respectively. In 1992 she was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, vice-president of the Hungarian Chamber of Music, later co-president of the Hungarian Musician's Forum. For her artistic and educational achievements she was awarded the Erkel Prize (1959), the János Apáczai Csere Prize (1993), the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Prize (1995, 2004), the title Excellent Artist (2000) and the Zoltán Kodály Prize (2001).
Works for youth composed partly for instructional purposes receive special emphasis in Erzsébet Szőnyi's rich and varied oeuvre: choral works, piano, chamber and stage music. The musical and dramaturgical potentials of the opera kept her occupied for decades; among her literary sources we find Moliére and Oscar Wilde, Mór Jókai, Kálmán Mikszáth, András Sütő, and Sándor Weöres. She has had a keen interest in oratorical genres, which her oratorios The Shivering King, The Lying Soldier or Tinódi's Summary of Eger or cantatas to poems by Attila József and Radnóti bear evidence of. The Organ Concerto is her most remarkable symphonic work, in addition to two Divertimenti and Musica Festiva. Written for the Hungarian artists taking part in the 1957/58 International Competition of Prague, the Organ Concerto was first performed by Sebestyén Pécsi in Budapest in 1958
Awards
1947 Liszt Award
1948 Rózsavölgyi Award
1959 Erkel Ferenc Award
1964 Art Award of City of Miskolc
1966 For City of Szigetvár (Zrínyi)
1969 Award of City of Veszprém
1977 Art Award of City of Budapest
1993 Apáczai Csere János Award
1995 Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Award
2000 Excellent Artist
2001 Kodály Zoltán Award (renovanda)
2004 Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Award
2004 Hungarian Heritage Award
2006 Kossuth Prize
2007 Memorial Prize of Kodály
2011 Prima prize
2014 Artist of the Nation prize
Born on 25 April 1924 in Budapest, Erzsébet Szőnyi attended the Erzsébet Szilágyi Girls' Grammar School where she already made up her mind to embark on a musical career. In her decision the influence of Adrienne Sztojanovits, the school's music teacher and choral conductor, one of Kodály's most outstanding pupils, had a great share. She took private piano instruction from Aglája Benczúr, the niece of the famous Hungarian painter Gyula Benczúr, and learned the rudiments of music theory with Miklós Laurisin. Her first works: vocal music and piano pieces were composed at the age of thirteen. In 1942 she was admitted to the Academy of Music where she became pupil of Lajos Bárdos and Zoltán Vásárhelyi at the Music Teachers' Training College and studied composition with János Viski. She continued studying the piano with Ernő Szegedi, learned chamber music with Leó Weiner, history of style with Bence Szabolcsi, visited János Ferencsik's classes in the choirmasters' school and was taught by Rezső Kókai, Dénes Bartha, Miklós Forrai and Aladár Zalánfy for a while. Equipped with comprehensive theoretical knowledge and practical skills, she graduated in 1947, and then went on studying at the Conservatoire of Paris as a pupil of the composer Tony Aubin for a year. On Kodály's advice she attended the piano accompaniment and score reading classes of the legendary Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen's seminars of aesthetics.
Erzsébet Szőnyi began teaching while still at the Academy of Music. In the 1945/46 academic year Zoltán Kodály had other things to do, so she was asked to take over his folk music classes as a substitute. Education has been decisive throughout Erzsébet Szőnyi's career. For a short period of time she taught music at her one-time Alma Mater, the Erzsébet Szilágyi Grammar School, then at the demonstration school of the Academy of Music, and finally at the Academy of Music itself. There she was professor for more than three decades and head of the Music Teachers' Training and Choral Conducting Department between 1960 and 1981. She was a leading figure in solfeggio, method and practice teaching, who followed Kodály's instructions and educational concepts and summed them up in a comprehensive four-volume work entitled The Method of Musical Reading and Writing. The first two volumes were printed in the 1950s, the third and fourth ones in the 1970s. They were later translated into English and Japanese as well. Her book on method entitled Kodály's Principles in Practice (1973) is a similarly important work; it was printed in English, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese, too.
From the early 1960s onwards Erzsébet Szőnyi has given more and more lectures and master courses abroad. She was first invited to the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe but the outstanding achievements of the Hungarian musical education were soon noticed in the western countries, too. The 1963 UNESCO conference on musical education organized in Tokyo and the series of lectures throughout Japan meant a major breakthrough and played a decisive role in popularizing in the Far East the music educational concepts known as Kodály method in the world by then. In 1965 the Ministry of Culture of Quebec, Canada invited her to conduct a master course in the summer; there followed invitations by the Bach Festival of Leipzig and the time-honoured Humboldt University of Berlin a year later. She spent the summer of 1966 in the United States teaching in several states, among them in California with the aged Zoltán Kodály. She made a lecturing tour of Australia in 1971, visited Africa the following year on the occasion of the conference of ISME, the International Society for Music Education in Tunis. Thus it is fully justified that her memoirs printed in 1979 bear the title On Five Continents in the Service of Music. Apart from teaching and conducting master courses in Hungary and abroad, Erzsébet Szőnyi took part in the musical life as well: she was vice-president of ISME for four years, acted as co-president and board member of the International Kodály Society, of the Lajos Bárdos Society and the Hungarian Kodály Society, respectively. In 1992 she was elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, vice-president of the Hungarian Chamber of Music, later co-president of the Hungarian Musician's Forum. For her artistic and educational achievements she was awarded the Erkel Prize (1959), the János Apáczai Csere Prize (1993), the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Prize (1995, 2004), the title Excellent Artist (2000) and the Zoltán Kodály Prize (2001).
Works for youth composed partly for instructional purposes receive special emphasis in Erzsébet Szőnyi's rich and varied oeuvre: choral works, piano, chamber and stage music. The musical and dramaturgical potentials of the opera kept her occupied for decades; among her literary sources we find Moliére and Oscar Wilde, Mór Jókai, Kálmán Mikszáth, András Sütő, and Sándor Weöres. She has had a keen interest in oratorical genres, which her oratorios The Shivering King, The Lying Soldier or Tinódi's Summary of Eger or cantatas to poems by Attila József and Radnóti bear evidence of. The Organ Concerto is her most remarkable symphonic work, in addition to two Divertimenti and Musica Festiva. Written for the Hungarian artists taking part in the 1957/58 International Competition of Prague, the Organ Concerto was first performed by Sebestyén Pécsi in Budapest in 1958
Awards
1947 Liszt Award
1948 Rózsavölgyi Award
1959 Erkel Ferenc Award
1964 Art Award of City of Miskolc
1966 For City of Szigetvár (Zrínyi)
1969 Award of City of Veszprém
1977 Art Award of City of Budapest
1993 Apáczai Csere János Award
1995 Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Award
2000 Excellent Artist
2001 Kodály Zoltán Award (renovanda)
2004 Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta Award
2004 Hungarian Heritage Award
2006 Kossuth Prize
2007 Memorial Prize of Kodály
2011 Prima prize
2014 Artist of the Nation prize
| Year | Title | Publisher | Code | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 |
Az ezredvég kórusmuzsikája - "Hegyet hágék, lőtőt lépék"
(Choral Music from the End of the Millennium - "Hegyet hágék, lőtőt lépék") |
Hungaroton | HCD 32190 |