2015-10-13
1600
a) 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 advanced of today in music may become the commonplace of tomorrow.
4. 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.
b) Now discuss the opinions with your partner. One of the students is sup
posed to play the role of a student who is not knowledgeable in music. The
other — to present a student whose hobby is music. Keep interrupting each
other with questions. Use the topical vocabulary.
4. Group work. Split into buzz groups of 3—4 students each. Discuss the following, using the expressions of agreement or disagreement.
1. "Some people prefer only classical music and find contemporary music to be cocaphony." "Stop being conservative," say others. "We need something 'far out' to shock the audience."
Which side do you agree?
Composer A. Ribnikov says: "Ours is an age of great technological progress and accompanying emotional stress, which requires new forms of expression in music."
Can his opinion help you formulate your answer?
2. Many modern composers and performers change the sound of live instruments by making technical adjustment (for example "prepared piano"1), a) What other examples of changing instruments do you know and do you find such change necessary? b) Will musicians have to sell their instruments in order to pay for tuition as engineers?
5. When you criticize you normally try to find faults rather than virtues, but it certainly does not exclude the expressions of virtue. Read the following dialogue where the characters make comments about themselves and others. Note down the expressions in bold type. Be ready to use them in dialogues in class:
Liz and Michael on the way home from a jazz concert.
Michael: Perhaps you might consider me a bit of a fanatic about jazz... but that was a fantastic concert, wasn't it?
Liz: I'm not exactly — how shall I say? I suppose I'm not crazy about jazz, and the melodies were hard to follow. Could you perhaps help me understand it better?
Michael: I've tried to help many people... I've done my best to open a jazz club, so I've become quite good at interpretingjazz, though I had no one to rely on. Anyway, in the first place there are two elements in jazz. One is the playing of instruments so that they sound like the half-shouted, half-sung blues of Negro folk song. The other is the steady, unchanging 1-2-3-4 beat initiated from the French military marching music the blacks heard in New Orleans where jazz was born around 1900.
Liz: Well, I'm an easy-going person really unless of course you start discussing jazz. Then I'm a bit vicious. Basically I'm receptive to any music that has harmony and melody. That's me. But I didn't even recognize any of the tunes, though I have heard some jazz music before.
Michael: Well, that's not surprising, since another important feature of jazz is "improvisation" or "making it up as you go along", therefore tunes can sound different each time you hear them.
Liz: Well, I think I've kept myself — yes, I've kept myself respectable — that's the word I'd use — respectable and dignified on my appreciation of jazz. The musicians played with great skill and speed. And when they improvised they played a completely new variation of the basic tune every time.
Michael: Absolutely. That's one of the greatest thrills of a jazz session. Tunes are not the most important feature of jazz. It's not the composer but the performer who makes a good piece of jazz. In fact it's almost impossible to write down much of a jazz in musical notes!
Liz: In that case jazz is rather elicit and separate from other kinds of misic, if only the performer knows what's being played. I say, get rid of these thugs who call themselves professional musicians — get rid of them.
6. When criticising someone, describe, don't judge. Always focus on, and confine criticism to observable behaviour.
For instance, telling your pupil who is not practising his music "Of late you've been practising less than usual and we need you in the concert" is more likely to encourage practice than snapping "You are irresponsible and lazy. Practise more from now on."
a) Below are statements about music which express different opinions. Imag
ine that they are your opinions and change them into subjective arguments. (Use
the expressions showing critisism.):
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 earthly. 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 fisherman."
b) Team up with your partner who will be ready to give critical remarks on
the statements given above. Use the cliches expressing criticism.
' "prepared piano" involves stuffing the inside of the piano with a variety of paraphernalia, including units and bolts in order to alter the normal piano timbre.
7. Read the text and extract the necessary information. Prepare and act out dialogues.
