Are you for or against classical music. Study the following arguments and develop the idea.

FOR

1) Classical music gives the listeners a keen sensual delight and pleasure.

2) Classical music has a deep intellectual appeal.

3) Classical music has a strong ethical effect: it ennobles the listener, makes him better and more humane.

4) Classical music condemns evil and supports the ideas of good.

5) Classical music creates a special spiritual world for the listener, which immensely enriches his inner life and makes him happy.

AGAINST

1) Classical music is a complicated art: it’s difficult to find one’s way into it.

2) It’s an exclusive art: most people don’t like or understand it. It’s not a popular art.

3) The very length of most classical music pieces can send any listener to sleep.

4) People want the kind of music to which they can dance or just talk to friends. It should be simple, cheerful and up-to-date.

Group discussion. Give your reasons against pop music.

For or Against Pop Music

FOR

1) Young people search for new rhythms and new styles.

2) The new rhythms are full of vigour and force: just what appeals to younger people. The tunes are happy and easily caught.

3) The words of the songs deal with the younger people’s world; their hopes, dreams, disappointments and joys.

4) Young people “get tremendous kicks” (as they put it) listening to this kind of music.

5) It’s an experimental kind of music: different groups are looking for new forms and sometimes really achieve them.

6) The very popularity of the genre speaks in its favour. It attracts great masses of young people. Why should we deprive them of the joy they obviously get from this music?

AGAINST

React to the questions of the foreign quests about the level of musical development in this country.

1) It’s surprising to see many people in your concert halls, isn’t it?

2) Can it be so that very many people really care for serious music?

3) Will you kindly explain to us why so many people buy classical music records?

4) Music by Shostakovitch impressed me greatly. Pieces of what Russian composers would you advise me to hear?

Use the following phrases in your replies:

- Why, it is but natural, because…

- They do, because…

- Willingly, because…

- By all means (certainly, yes)…

- I dare say (I think), that…

- As I see it…

Discuss the following quotations.

1. Music is a free art, an open-air art, an art boundless as the wind, the sky, the sea. (Debussy)

2. I find it impossible that an artist should wish to shut himself away from the people. I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible and if I don’t manage it, I consider it my fault. (Shostakovitch)

3. Music is a universal language of mankind. (Longfellow)

Give your impressions of a concert (recital).

1) Type of event.

2) What orchestra, group performed?

3) Programme. Were the musical pieces: well-known, popular, new, avant-guard, etc?

4) Who was the conductor?

5) Was the event interesting and enjoyable?

6) Name the soloists.

7) What impression did the event make on you?

8) Did you take a solemn oath never to attend one again?

Work in pairs. Develop the following situations.

1) Your mother/father cannot stand rock music and she/he never listens to it. You try to convince her/him that rock music is important in your life.

2) You are talking on the telephone with your friend who wants you to accompany her to a piano recital. You are reluctant to join in.

3) You are an accomplished jazz musician. But you never participated in jazz sessions. Your friend urges you to be more daring and try your hand in it.

4) Your sister has just come back from the Mariinski Theatre where she heard … She tries to describe you how much she enjoyed the opera, but you, being no great lover of opera music, turn a deaf ear.

5) You are fond of Tchaikovsky’s music and always ready to talk about it. Your friend asks you to tell him/her more.

Below are opinions on the development of music. Spend a few minutes individually thinking of further arguments you will use to back up one of the opinions.

1) The line between serious music and jazz grows less and less clear.

2) A certain amount of so-called avant-guard music in our modern art tries to shock and be original for originality’s sake.

3) In any age the advance of today in music may become the commonplace of tomorrow.

4) Former Soviet composers have contributed as much as Russian composers to the World of Music.

5) Radio, television, cinema and video bring “new sounds” into our homes.

Group discussion. Discuss the effect of rock music on young people. After a proper discussion each group presents its critical remarks.

NOTE: When criticizing someone, describe, don’t judge. Always focus on, and confine criticism to observable behaviour.

Use the following: There are world-wide complaints about the effect of rock. Psychologists say that listening to rock music results in “escapism” (abandoning social responsibilities). They also add that same rock music (for example certain heavy metal songs) affect young people like drugs. There are well-known cases of antisocial and amoral behaviour on the part of young “music-addicts”. How do you feel about this opinion?

12. Below are statements about music, which express different opinions. Imagine they are your opinions and change them into subjective arguments. Use the clichés showing criticism (See Supplement)

1) There is only one way to come to understand music by learning to play a musical instrument whether an external one like the piano or flute or by training the human voice to become an instrument.

2) However good recorded music might be, it can never really take the place of a live performance. To be present at an actual performance is half the enjoyment of music.

3) I find I have to defend jazz to those who say it is low class. As a matter of fact all music has low class origin, since it comes from folk music, which is necessarily earthy. After all, Haydn minuets are only a refinement of simple, rustic German dances, and so are Beethoven scherzos. An aria from a Verdi opera can often be traced back to the simplest Neapolitan fishermen.

What is your opinion on the following topic.

Many people say that learning music is a waste of time.

Do some library research and write an essay on the following topic.

The development of music in the multinational countries (Russia, the USA, Canada)

 

MAN AND ARTS. THEATRE.

TOPICAL VOCABULARY

-interval; -the curtain falls/drops; -to drop the curtain; -to ring down/up the curtain; -behind the curtain; -footlights; -the lights go up/down; dressing-room; -prompt-box; -prompter; -the stage door; -attendants; -cloak-room; -check; -opera-glasses; -to command a view; -gangway seats; -the front row; -the back row; -the circle of tier; -Row L, D, F (in English theatre); -the stalls; -the pit; -the dress circle; -the upper circle; -the balcony; -the gallery; -the box; -to book a seat; -gangway (aisle); -Booking-office; -Box-Office: -the House is sold out; -players; -the theatrical company; -acting world; -leading performers; -minor characters; -cast;

-to be in the cast; -to act; -to create a role; -curtain call; -to receive a curtain call; -encore; -make-up; -to rehearse; -rehearsal; -dress-rehearsal; -on tour; -gala; -first night; -repertoire; -script; -libretto; -stage directions; -programme; -stage version; -scenery/settings; -to do the décor; -to have a long/short run; -to revive; -stage-manager (director); -musical director (conductor); -lyrics; -fight/battle, etc.; -arranged by…; -the performance is a success/ a failure; -the scene is laid…; -interplay; -to impress; -to be absolutely thrilled with; -artificial acting; -subtle acting; -to partner; -to be at one’s best; -to rose interest;

Paraphrase the italicized expressions.

1) Everybody liked the play very much.

2) I have got a friend who remembers all his visits to the Bolshoi Theatre.

3) The opera owes much of its charm to the delightful music and splendid scenery.

4) I went to the box-office to get tickets for the ballet but found out that there were no more tickets left.

5) First of all let’s go inside and check out things.

6) The audience was highly pleased with the play.

7) The play draws the audience and pays its way in spite of the fact that it has a long run.

Say what they do.

-a dancer; -an usher; -an actor; -a conductor; -a singer;

-a clerk; -a ticket-taker; -an actress; -a musician; -a composer;

-a prompter; -a producer; -a spectator; -a playwright;

Explain in English.

-a box-office; -a billboard; -a stage; -the stalls; -the gallery; -the cast; -a cloak-room;

-a check; -a play-bill; -an usher; -a rehearsal; -an actress; -a musician; -a prompter;

-a stage-manager; -a curtain; -scenery; -a seat; -to applaud;

Answer the questions.

- What do we call a person who shows people their seats in the theatre?

- What expression do we use if we want to say that we remember something very well?

- What do we call the performance, which takes place in the day-time?

- What does the sign “House Full” at the entrance of the theatre mean?

- What will you do if you want to go to the theatre very much but can’t buy the tickets beforehand?