Zoltán Kodály was born on December 16, 1882, in the small town of Kecskemet, Hungary. His mother was Jalovetzky Paulina (1857-1935), a daughter of a Polish-born immigrant; his father, a railway official He was exposed to music at a young age — his father played violin, his mother piano — studying violin and began composing early in his life. His family moved to Nagyszombat, where he sang in the cathedral choir. He explored the musical scores of the cathedrals music library and taught himself the 'cello to fill out his father's domestic quartet-evenings. In his young adult years, he attended The Franz Liszt Academy and later the University of Hungary.

    The time Kodály spent in Hungary's villages during his younger years remained in his memory, and led to his interest in studying the folk music of his people. As a result of this interest, in the early 1900s he traveled throughout Eastern Europe with Belá Bartók to collect folk music. This expedition's influence may be found in Kodály' s compositions and later in the Development of his methodology (Choksy, 1981). He studied for a time with composer-organist Charles Widor in Paris and later became a teacher of theory and composition at the Budapest Academy of Music from 1907 until 1941.

    Kodály's was married to his first wife, Emma Gruber (née Schlesinger, later Sándor), for 48 years until her death in 1958. In 1959, he married Sarolta Péczely, — 58 years his junior — a student at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with whom he lived until his death in 1967 at the age of 84 in Budapest. Neither marriage produced any children.