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Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly were 20th-century Hungarian composers. They were pioneers in the study of Ethnomusicology –
the study of music in its cultural context – and were examples of the growing tendency among late 19th and 20th-century
composers to allow their compositional ideas to be shaped by folk inspirations.
Bartok and Kodaly formed their close friendship in 1905, the year of Kodaly's first field explorations through the back country
of Hungary, notating and recording Hungarian folk songs. Their friendship lasted until Bartok's death in 1945. Each best understood
and explained the other's compositions, and they shared a deep interest in the musical education of the young.
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