A Hungarian composer. Along with Bartók and Kodály, he was involved in the collection of folk music. He studied piano and composition at the Budapest Academy of Music. After graduation, he worked in the ethnography department of the National Museum. He also taught composition, chamber music, aesthetics, and Hungarian music theory at his alma mater. He was active as an ethnomusicologist and a conductor of choirs and chamber orchestras. He received the Coolidge Prize for his String Quartet No. 3 (1929).