Zoltán Jeney facts for kids
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Zoltán Jeney (born March 4, 1943 – died October 28, 2019) was a famous composer from Hungary. He created many unique musical pieces during his life.
Early Life and Education
Zoltán Jeney was born in a city called Szolnok in Hungary. From a young age, he showed a talent for music. He started by learning to play the piano.
He also took classes in music composition at the Debrecen Secondary Music School. Later, he went to the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. There, he studied composition with a teacher named Ferenc Farkas from 1961 to 1966.
After that, Jeney continued his studies in Rome, Italy. He attended the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and studied with Goffredo Petrassi from 1967 to 1968. These studies helped him develop his own musical style.
Developing His Musical Style
When Zoltán Jeney first started composing, his music showed influences from other great composers. These included Béla Bartók, Luigi Dallapiccola, and Anton Webern. He also learned from the new Polish music school and Hungarian composers like György Kurtág.
In the late 1960s, Jeney became interested in new ideas about music. He explored the theories of Pierre Boulez and the compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen. He also became interested in Eastern philosophy. This interest grew even more after he met the famous American composer John Cage.
In the 1970s, Jeney began to compose music in a style called minimalism. This style often uses very few musical ideas, repeating them or changing them slowly. His minimalist works are known for being very simple and calm. They often have a quiet, unchanging quality.
Teaching and Later Career
From 1986, Zoltán Jeney became a professor at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. He taught many students there, sharing his knowledge of music. In 1995, he became the Head of the Department of Composition at the academy.
Many of Jeney's musical works have been recorded and released. You can find them on the Hungaroton record label. He continued to compose and teach until his death in 2019.
