Musicologist András Wilheim introduces one of Kodály’s most frequently performed instrumental works:

Adagio is one of Kodály’s earliest compositions, having been written in 1905 during his studies at the Academy of Music in Budapest. It originally was composed for violin and piano; in 1910 Kodály transcribed it for viola and additionally for cello and piano. The popularity of the work is shown by the fact that there is an arrangement for orchestra, a version for violin/viola and string orchestra, and moreover a transcription for light music, or “pops” orchestra, all created by others with the composer’s approval. 

Few of Kodály’s compositions are known from this period. Not only was he busy with other engagements (he also attended the university’s faculty of humanities), but his uncertainty regarding his musical concepts at the time and the change in his stylistic alignment hindered his composing. As he confessed later: 

“…it is a very old work of mine; it was composed at a time when I did not know anything about folk songs, nothing more than was in the air and got to the surface – thus any conclusion could be drawn from this; how I would have composed later if, for example, I did not go to the country, or if there were no folk songs or I did not get in contact with them. Nothing of Hungarian folk music can be seen in this Adagio yet […].”

The composition is still attached to the ideals of the period, perhaps most strongly reflecting the inspiration of Brahms. Kodály writes: 

“It is a rather clear, fairly fluent, and internationally understandable style; it is not stolen from anyone, some individuality must be in it as its success shows; it is easily accessible….”

At the same time quite a few stylistic characteristics of the future composer are apparent, especially in the fabric, but perhaps also in sonority, harmony, and tonality. Although it would be difficult to prove, he probably knew something of Debussy’s art, which became important for him, (as well as for Bartók, a few years later) almost at the same time as discovering folk song. The form has a simple triple division – a frequent structure in his later works. In this respect Kodály was a composer with a classicizing disposition who was strongly attached to traditions. He must have originally intended the Adagio for a slow movement of a planned sonata – the “remainder”, as he wrote in a letter in 1958. 

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