- •Unit 1. Classical Music
- •Is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils;
- •1. Are you a music lover? What role does music play in your life? Express your ideas in a 2-page composition “Music in My Life”.
- •2. Comment on the excerpt from “The Merchant of Venice” given above. Do you agree that one can’t trust a person who is indifferent to music?
- •Recital – evening – prom
- •Item – work – piece
- •Part – movement
- •Concert – concerto – recital – show
- •Part – movement – item – number – work
- •To play the… - to play from music – to read music
- •Miscellanea
- •There’s music in our speech
- •1. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases:
- •2. Which idiom best fills each space?
- •3. All the following sentences include a musical idiom, with one word missing. Use the words below to complete the sentences.
- •Exercises
- •Renaissance (c.1400 – c.1600)
- •Baroque (c.1600 – c.1750)
- •Classical (c.1750 – c.1830)
- •Early Romantic (c.1830 – c.1860)
- •Late Romantic (c.1860 – c.1920)
- •The Post ‘Great War’ Years (1920 to the present day)
- •Exercises
- •Speaking “for” and “against” classical music
- •Exercises
- •Exercises
- •Mr. Smeeth Goes to a Symphony Concert
- •Exercises
- •Wood-wind instruments
- •Position of players in a modern orchestra
- •(From ‘Incidental Music to “a Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
- •A Guide to Classical Listening
- •Exercises
- •Exercises
- •Mozart’s don giovanni opens in prague
- •Exercises
- •The pros and cons of rock/pop music
- •Exercises
- •The language of rock
- •Exercises
- •Справка
- •Folk music
- •Exercises
- •Jazz, sound of surprise
- •Exercises
- •The tunes you can’t refuse
- •Exercises
- •1. A description of the subject.
- •2. Detailed comments on the successful and unsuccessful features of the subject.
- •3. Summing up and recommendation.
- •Music on the mind
- •Music – the drug of choice for Britain’s Olympians
- •С Бахом… под Майкла Джексона
- •Exercises
- •Types of Music
- •1. Classical music
- •12. Orchestral music
- •13. Chamber music
- •Concert, Recital, Evening
- •14. Concert
- •15. Recital
- •16. Evening
- •17. Verbs used with concert/recital
- •Listen is not used here. Nor should it be used in translating such sentences as:
- •Concert Programmes and repertoires
- •18. Work, item, number, piece
- •19. Repertoire, repertory
- •Classical Works
- •Instrumental Works
- •Concertos are written for an orchestra with solo instrument(s) and the instrument is often specified as follows: a piano concerto, a violin concerto, Beethoven’s third piano concerto, etc.
- •26. Movement, part
- •27. Special names for musical works
- •Vocal Works
- •28. Song
- •29. Use of on with names of instruments
- •Some Common Musical Terms Note, Music, score
- •33. Choir, chorus
- •34. Types of choir
- •A Symphony Orchestra (Instruments and Players)
- •36. Conductor, leader
- •37. Tune, Melody, Theme, Subject
- •38. Types of Opera grand opera – (an) opera with a serious story in which all the words are sung
- •39. Opera Singers
- •40. Use of articles with opera
- •42. Modern Music
- •To cut a single
- •To disband (see also split up)
- •Drummer
- •To be/become a one-hit wonder
- •Supplementary materials Text 1.
- •Text 2.
- •Text 3.
- •Text 4.
- •Text 5.
- •Text 6.
- •Rethinking mozart On the 250th anniversary of his birth, a more realistic picture of the composer's musical genius is emerging.
- •Exercises
- •1. Practise reading the words from the text. Learn their Russian equivalents.
- •2. Define the following words and word-combinations. Say in what context they were used in the article.
- •3. Explain the difference between:
- •Text 7.
- •Styles of Jazz
- •Text 8. Evita (music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice)
- •1. A Cinema In Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
- •9. The Lady's Got Potential
- •10. Charity Concert/The Art Of The Possible
- •13. A New Argentina
- •14. On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada 1
- •19. Rainbow Tour
- •Contents
- •Unit 5. The Effects of Music on the Human System ………………71
- •A short guide to composer data ………………………………………………….163 sources
Speaking “for” and “against” classical music
“+”
Classical music gives a listener a keen sensual delight.
Classical music has a deep intellectual appeal.
Classical music has a strong ethical effect.
Classical music ennobles the listener, makes them better and more humane.
Classical music condemns evil and supports the ideals of good.
Classical music creates a special spiritual world for the listener, which immensely enriches their inner life.
It’s the kind of music that elevates the spirit.
“-“
Classical music is a complicated art. It’s difficult to find one’s way in it.
It’s also an exclusive art. Most people don’t understand it at all, though not everybody admits it.
The very length of most classical pieces can send many listeners to sleep.
People want the kind of music to which they can dance or talk to friends. It should be simple, cheerful and up-to-date.
C
In general classical music demands a very high degree of concentration, some knowledge of the composer’s life and times. This is beyond a lot of young people who want only to listen to music to enjoy themselves…
Most young people are indifferent to classical music because they are never properly introduced to it. It is always treated as something snobbish.
Exercises
1. Practise reading the following words from Text A.
élite, to encapsulate, to encompass, live (adj), odyssey, rhapsody, whilst
2. Define the lexical items form text A, use the words and word-combinations marked with an asterisk (*) in situations of your own:
1) theme music; 2) incidental music; 3) *to draw from sth; 4) blockbuster; 5) *wide-ranging; 6) *at full stretch; 7) *the likes of sb/sth; 8) *in overdrive; 9) *to fit the bill; 10) *to warm to sb/sth; 11) *to be fraught with sth; 12) *laid-back; 13) *to tread on 14) dangerous ground; 15) *advent; 16) *live (adj/adv); 17) to bypass sth.
3. Say what you know about the composers whose names are mentioned in the text.
4. Answer the questions and do the following tasks :
What differs classical music from pop music, in the author’s opinion? Do you agree with his viewpoint?
Why is classical music associated in most people’s minds with the intellectual elite, do you think? Do you have the same associations?
How can attending a concert of classical music be an intimidating experience for the uninitiated?
Identify the pragmatic focus of the text: does it aim a) to popularise classical music? b) to advertise something? c) to teach people what is right and what is wrong?
Do you agree that classical music demands a) a very high degree of concentration? b) some knowledge of the composer’s life and times?
Do you share the opinion that most young people are indifferent to classical music because they are never properly introduced to it? How can/should one be introduced to classical music? What is “to properly introduce somebody to classical music”?
Go over the pros and cons of classical music (Text B). Which of the arguments do you a) agree with? b) disagree with? Back up your statement. Add your own arguments to both groups.
Are you a lover of classical music? If so, you will fully appreciate the texts that follow. If not, you will see how much you lose!
A. From “Christmas Holiday” by W.S.Maugham
Charlie was very fond of music. He knew the delight it gave him, the pleasure, partly sensual, partly intellectual, when intoxicated by the loveliness that assailed his ears, he remained yet keenly appreciative of the subtlety with which the composer had worked out his idea.
Looking into himself, to find out what exactly it was he felt when he listened to one of the greater symphonies, it seemed to him that it was a complex of emotions, excitement and at the same time peace, love for others and a desire to do something for them, a wish to be good and a delight in goodness, a pleasant languor and a funny detachment as though he were floating above the world and whatever happened there didn’t very much matter; and perhaps if you had to combine all those feelings into one and give it a name, the name you’d give it was happiness.
B. Из письма П.И.Чайковского к Н.Ф. фон Мекк от 1-5 сентября 1880г.
…Как я благодарен обстоятельствам моей жизни и музыкальной карьеры, которым я обязан тем, что Моцарт для меня ни на волос не утратил своей безыскусственной, обаятельной прелести. Вы не поверите, дорогой друг, что за чудные ощущения я испытываю, когда погружаюсь в его музыку. Это не имеет ничего общего с теми мучительными восторгами, которые причиняет Бетховен, Шуман, Шопен и вообще вся бетховенская и послебетховенская музыка. Последняя нас тревожит, волнует, восхищает, но не ласкает, не убаюкивает, как музыка Моцарта. Свою способность восхищаться Моцартом я приписываю тому обстоятельству, что до семнадцати лет я, можно сказать, не знал музыки, и что только вследствие одного представления «Дон Жуана» я узнал и полюбил ее.
Люди моего поколения, с детства уже пропитанные духом современной музыки, знакомились с Моцартом, уже привыкши, например, к Шопену, в котором так сильно сказался и отразился байронический дух отчаяния и разочарования. Меня, к моему счастью, семья возрастила в семействе маломузыкальном, и вследствие того я в детстве не был отравлен тем ядом, которым пропитана послебетховенская музыка. Так же судьба натолкнула меня в юношеском возрасте на Моцарта и через него открыла мне неведомые горизонты бесконечной музыкальной красоты. Знаете ли, что, играя и читая Моцарта, я чувствую себя моложе, бодрее, почти юношей!
С. Из ответа Н.Ф. фон Мекк П.И.Чайковскому от 13 сентября 1880г.
…Ваши восторги к Моцарту я вполне понимаю, милый друг мой… Он был не от мира сего, и его музыка вполне соответствует его натуре, она, как вы и говорите совершенно верно, успокаивает, примиряет, а я предпочитаю музыку, которая волнует, протестует, Вы скажете, быть может, что у нас и так в жизни много волнений, но те волнения диаметрально противоположны музыкальным: в жизни человек волнуем совершающимся злом, в музыке – стремлением к добру. Насколько первое непроизводительно, настолько второе – полезно, благотворно для нравственности. Если бы люди побольше волновались музыкою – меньше приходилось бы волноваться жизнью, люди были бы человечнее, возвышеннее.
Опять под человечностью я не понимаю всепрощение, равнодушие к злу, нет, его я не уважаю и не хочу примириться со злом, не хочу прощать его, и вот почему я люблю и в музыке протест и не преклоняюсь перед всепрощающими элементами.
Я люблю в Моцарте выражение его собственной голубиной натуры, но относительно мировых вопросов я в нем не нахожу ничего: тот, кто прощает зло, не приведет человека к добру…