The Role of Cultural Heritage in 21st-Century Music Education

Cultural heritage is an integral part of Hungarian music education. Folk traditions and folk songs are taught in every school, from the capital city to the smallest villages. Thousands of songs were collected by Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, who adopted them in their classical compositions. With this they earned fame for Hungarian folk music and traditions. Zoltán Kodály also composed a series of music reading materials, mainly based on folk songs, which is currently used on all levels of Hungarian music education. Not only the Kodály concept, but the Táncház-method was also selected in the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices of UNESCO Cultural Heritage. In our digital age, the net-generation, unlike the previous student populations, can have different habits, which is the reason why students’ music skills were tested with technology-based methods and tools. They are surrounded by popular media; however, the value that folk tradition offers should be inevitable in their education. The findings of our research provides input for the educational system about Hungarian students’s music literacy, and their familiarity with its various elements, especially with certain components of their cultural heritage.