To all of you who posted on this thread, thank you for your birthday greetings. It was different being away as I am in Hungary right now at the Kodaly Institute. Some of you might be interested to know that today, I visited the homes of Kodaly and Liszt which are now museums.
The work that Zoltan Kodaly did simply must not be under-estimated. His contribution to music education was massive.
On display in his house today was the original recording equipment that he used when he travelled around Hungary collecting Hungarian folk music from the villages. He believed that children the world over should be given music of their mother tongue in order that they can learn about music and so he gave this example by collecting many folk songs and then notating them so that the material was made available to all Hungarian people.
The Liszt house was equally fascinating and it is wonderful that we are able to visit such places.