Program Notes. Written by Dr. Vincent Corrigan, professor of musicology and harpsichord at Bowling Green State University. Serenade for 2 Violins and Viola Op. 12 Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) In the first decades of the 20th century, Kodály and Bartók were the most prominent names associated with Hungarian nationalism in music. The two were life-long friends, having spent considerable time together in collecting Hungarian folk music, but their compositional styles were very different. While Bartók cultivated a style as independent as possible from the past, Kodály inclined to traditional forms and, to a certain extent, harmonic and rhythmic structures. Kodály’s Serenade Op. 12 (1920-21), the culminating work of his early chamber music period, exhibits many of these traits. The first movement is in sonata form, where much of the movement is dominated by the rhythmic pattern heard in the first measure. In fact, it is absent for a prolonged pe...