The personality of Kodály over a period of forty years was a decisive factor in the development of new Hungarian music. In 1925, when works by a group of his pupils were first performed, his composition teaching was harshly attacked in the press. Kodály replied with a famous article, ‘Thirteen Young Composers’, in which he wrote: “we have to bring up not only European but at the same time Hungarian musicians … Only by the fusion of European and Hungarian traditions can we arrive at anything that will mean something to Hungary too”. Several of those thirteen played and still play a prominent part in Hungarian musical life, if not primarily as composers.