Download Оpera is an art form whereby musicians and singers perform

Завдання для після атестаційного моніторингу набутих знань і вмінь
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Контрольне завдання № 1
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
If you’ve ever visited the Scottish Highlands, you would have enjoyed listening to
Scottish music. The Highlands is one place to discover the best folk music of
Scotland. Traditional Scottish music sees instruments such as bagpipes, border pipes
and small pipes, piano accordion, cello and the grand piano. However, each region
seems to bring some difference to Scottish music in general. The Orkney and
Shetland Isles sing English songs and play the fiddle quite frequently. There is a
strong influence of Norwegian music while the Hebrides and Highlands sing mostly
in Gaelic with bagpipes playing in the background.
The Border Regions and Lowlands tend to enjoy an English style. However, the
music in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia sing in Gaelic accompanied by the fiddle and
bagpipes with a dance-like quality as the background music. Scottish folk music is
unique to Scotland with folk singers incorporating Celtic music into their own. The
diverse traditional music of Scotland has a rich history; it has a distinctive sound and
offers a twist that of a blending bagpipe that seems akin to rock music.
Visitors can attend traditional Scotland music festivals like the Royal National MOD
and Blas Festival. These music festivals bring together emerging and established
artists from across the country. Celtic Connections held in Glasgow every January
celebrates the beauty and diversity of Scottish music showcasing contemporary folk
bands, and local and international musicians. Some of the modern folk bands popular
in Glasgow include the likes Salsa Celtica, Peatbog Faeries, Shooglenifty and
Capercaillie.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 2
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
England boasts rich culture of music. Music in England has evolved significantly
from ancient times to the modern era. We may distinguish secular and sacred music,
which include popular and elite renditions in Britain. However, music in Great
Britain is made up of different forms influenced by varied nationalities, which
entered Britain. The mixture is now visible in its various genres featured prominently
due to globalism.
The classic British Music has been a mixture of Ars Nova polyphony of the early
stages of music in Europe. Early music forms in Britain included highly distinct
music forms such as Contenance Angloise, antiphons, carol, Celtic chant and
medieval music. In the 16th century British music was significantly influenced by
religious, mainly Catholic, music.
In the early era of Baroque, Opera music became the limelight in Britain. The royal
court music also played one of the leading roles in British music in the 17th century.
So it integrated to the wider European music culture. Between the Medieval and
Renaissance eras, the Baroque music forms came to the fore with more distinguished
orchestral classical music forms. New music instruments took the stage with operas.
Within the Stuart Monarchy, music was more of a kind of court music.
The Modern Classical Music of Britain takes inspiration from the contemporary
European music genres. The Baroque period was a mix of traditional and
international music trends. In this period, the most notable British Baroque composer
was a German-born George Frideric Handel (1685–1759). He moulded the future of
classical music in Britain and became very well known for his famous oratorios,
operas, organ concertos and anthems.
The 19th century produced many well-known composers such as Gustav Hoist,
Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Benjamin Britten and Edward Elgar, to name a few.
Along with classical music, music related to folk songs also was popular. The
immigrants from commonwealth countries brought folk music from their countries,
which became integral part of the music of Great Britain. Folk music revivals in the
19th century with many brass bands taking the stage influenced the overall music in
Great Britain to a great extent.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 3
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
The Modern Classical Music of Britain takes inspiration from the contemporary
European music genres. The Baroque period was a mix of traditional and
international music trends. In this period, the most notable British Baroque composer
was a German-born George Frideric Handel (1685–1759). He moulded the future of
classical music in Britain and became very well known for his famous oratorios,
operas, organ concertos and anthems.
The 19th century produced many well-known composers such as Gustav Hoist,
Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, Benjamin Britten and Edward Elgar, to name a few.
Along with classical music, music related to folk songs also was popular. The
immigrants from commonwealth countries brought folk music from their countries,
which became integral part of the music of Great Britain. Folk music revivals in the
19th century with many brass bands taking the stage influenced the overall music in
Great Britain to a great extent.
Today, there are many genres of music in England. They include rock, pop, jazz, rap,
hip hop, folk music, etc. These music forms have combined music genres from other
countries like Australia, the United States, South Africa, and most of the Asian,
Latin, African and European countries.
No doubt, Great Britain’s musicians have created many music genres. These include
electric folk, acid jazz, heavy metal, blues rock, hard rock, Bhangra, drum and bass,
dubstep, Britpop and punk rock amongst others. Today, thousands of foreign students
study music in England.
Famous universities with the subjects in music include Bristol University,
Birmingham University, Canterbury Christ Church University, Edinburgh Napier
University, Manchester Midi School, are just a few from a long list. However, music
in Britain today is a mix, which has embraced almost all the music forms in the
world.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 4
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
Little survives of the early music of Britain, by which is meant the music that was
used by the people before the establishment of musical notation in the medieval
period. Some of the earliest music to remain is either church music, or else is in the
form of carols or ballads dating from the 16th century or earlier. Troubadors carried
an international courtly style across western Europe. It was common in times before
copyright for melodies to be interchangeable, and the same melodies will often have
been used (with differing words) for secular and religious purposes. During the 15th
century, a vigorous tradition of polyphony developed in Britain, as exemplified in the
music of composers such as Leonel Power, John Dunstable and Robert Fayrfax. The
music of this school was famous on the continent, and occasionally rivaled the music
of the contemporary Burgundian school in expressiveness and renown; indeed
Dunstable is recognized as one of the strongest influences on the early development
of the music of the Burgundians. Unfortunately, however, the vast majority of British
music manuscripts from this period were destroyed during the Dissolution of the
Monasteries carried out by Henry VIII in the late 1530s; only a few isolated survivals
remain, including the Old Hall Manuscript, the Eton Choirbook, the Winchester
Troper, and a handful of scattered sources from the continent. With the growth in
wealth and leisure-time for the noble classes, tastes in music began to diverge
sharply. While in the early part of the period it is possible for tavern songs like
Pastime with Good Companie to be attributed (apocryphally) to King Henry VIII, by
the middle 16th Century there were distinct styles of music enjoyed by the differing
social classes. Renaissance influences made the acquisition of musical knowledge an
almost essential attribute for the nobleman and woman, and ability to play an
instrument became an almost mandatory social grace.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 5
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
In the 60s and 70s, Britain was in a state of social upheaval as a counterculture
developed, from which came an explosion of American blues-derived musical
innovation as well as a revival of British folk, inspired by pioneering artists like the
Copper family. There was mixing between the two groups, with bands like Fairport
Convention and Steeleye Span pioneering a folk-rock fusion. Nic Jones, Davy
Graham, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell, June Tabor, Shirley Collins, John Renbourn and
John Kirkpatrick were among those who balanced innovation with tradition, and
criticized the worst excesses of folk-rock. When Martin Carthy "plugged in" in 1971,
the British traditional scene erupted in an uproar of criticizing. Ashley Hutchings and
Dave Pegg had been earlier innovators of the fusion, and Hutchings helped propel
Fairport Convention into the star position of the British folk-rock scene, starting with
the album "What We Did On Our Holidays".
The seventies were probably the heydays for Folk Music Publications. The popularity
of British folk declined in the later 1970s, however, losing ground to glam rock,
disco, punk rock, heavy metal and lovers rock. In the mid-1980s a new rebirth began,
this time fusing folk forms with energy and political aggression derived from punk
rock. Leaders included The Men They Couldn't Hang, Oyster Band, Billy Bragg and
The Pogues. Folk-dance music also became popular in the 80s, with the British
Country Blues Band and Tiger Moth. Later in the decade, reggae influenced British
country music due to the work of Edward II & the Red Hot Polkas, especially on their
seminal Let's Polkasteady from 1987. In the 21st century, Oxford produced a young
duo Spiers and Boden
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
Chuck Berry invented rock and roll in 1955. Berry was a black man playing black
music. But times had changed: white kids were listening to rhythm and blues
throughout the Northeast, and white musicians were playing rhythm and blues side to
side with country music. The music industry soon understood that there was a white
market for black music and social prejudice, racial barriers, could nothing against the
forces of capitalism. Rock and roll was an overnight success. The music industry
promoted white idols such as Elvis Presley, but the real heroes were the likes of
Chuck Berry, who better symbolize the synergy between the performer and the
audience. The black rockers, and a few white rockers, epitomized the youth's
rebellious mood, their need for a soundtrack to their dreams of anticonformism. Their
impact was long lasting, but their careers were short lived. For one reason or another,
they all stopped recording after a brief time. Rock and roll was inherited by white
singers, such as Presley, who often performed songs composed by obscure black
musicians. White rockers became gentler and gentler, thereby drowning rock and
roll's very reason to exist. Buddy Holly was the foremost white rocker of the late
Fifties, while cross-pollination with country music led to the vocal harmonies of the
Everly Brothers and to the instrumental rock of Duan Eddy.
The kids' malaise returned, with a much taller wave, when folksingers started singing
about the problems of the system. Kids who had not identified with Woody Guthrie's
stories of poor people, identified immediately with folksingers singing about the
Vietnam war and civil rights. Bob Dylan was arguably the most influential musician
of the era. He led the charge against the Establishment with simple songs and poetic
lyrics. A generation believed in him and followed his dreams. Music became the
expression of youth's ambitions.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 7
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
«Mersey-beat» changed the story of rock music forever. «Mersey-beat» came out of
nowhere, but it came with the power of history. Britain had had a lousy music scene
throughout the early Sixties. Mainly, British rockers were mimicking Presley.
Mainstream Britain did not identify with rock and roll, was not amused by their
"rebel" attitudes, did not enjoy their frenzy rhythm. To a large extent, though, the
seeds had already been planted. Britain had an underground before America did: the
blues clubs. Throughout the Fifties, blues clubs flourished all over Britain. London
was the epicenter, but every major British city had its own doses of weekly blues.
Unlike their rock counterparts, who were mere imitators, the British blues musicians
were true innovators: in their hands, blues became something else. They subjected
blues to a metamorphosis that turned it into a "white" music: they emphasized the
epic refrains of the call and response, they sped up Chicago's rhythm guitars, they
smoothed down the vocal delivery to make it sound more operatic, they flexed the
choruses, enhanced the organ arrangements, added vocal harmony. In a few years,
British blues musicians were playing something that was as deeply felt as the
American blues, but had a driving power that no other music on Earth had.
In the early Sixties veterans of that scene, or disciples of that scene, led to the
formation of bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and the Animals. The
Rolling Stones became "the" sensation in London and went on to record the most
successful singles of the era. The Yardbirds were the most experimental of them all,
and became the training ground for three of the greatest guitarists ever: Eric Clapton,
Jeff Beck and Jimi Page. From their ashes two blues bands were born, the Cream and
the Led Zeppelin, that in a few years will revolutionize rock music again.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Контрольне завдання № 8
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
In Britain, the early Seventies saw the proliferation of hard rock and progressiverock and their branching into several sub-genres. British musicians gave rock and roll
an "intellectual" quality that made it the cultural peer of European cinema and
literature. British rock was dragged down by the same stagnation that afflicted
American rock. The momentum for innovation was rapidly lost and the new genres
created by British musicians either languished or mutated into commercial
phenomena. Musical decadence led to decadence-rock, personified by dandies David
Bowie and Marc Bolan. Eccentric remnants of progressive-rock such as Robert Fripp
and Peter Gabriel started avantgarde careers that were to lead to an expanded notion
of rock music. New musicians such as Kate Bush and Mike Oldfield helped liberate
rock music from the classification in genres and opened the road to more abstract
music. But the single most influential musician was Brian Eno, who first led Roxy
Music to innovate progressive-rock and then invented ambient music. Later in
Britain first came industrial music, invented by Throbbing Gristle as a hybrid of
avantgarde and rock music, and then dark-punk, whose main proponents were Joy
Division, Siouxsie Sioux, Public Image Ltd, the Cure, the Killing Joke, the Sisters Of
Mercy. In early 80s Britain chose a different course, almost in the opposite direction,
towards simpler and more commercial music. The Depeche Mode and the Pet Shop
Boys were probably the most artistically successful of the many that climbed the
charts. The Irish U2 and the Smiths turned sharply towards melody. By the end of
the decade, Britain was awash in Brit-pop, a media-induced trance of super-melodic
pop that spawned countless "next big things", from Verve to Oasis to Blur to Suede to
Radiohead, the band that finally disposed of it. But the best in the melodic genre
came from humbler groups, led by girls, like Primitives and Heavenly.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Контрольне завдання № 9
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
Оpera is an art form whereby musicians and singers perform dramatic work by
bringing together a libretto and a musical core. This is normally done in a
theatrical setting. Opera puts together scenery, acting, costumes as well as
dances. This dramatic performance goes together with a small musical ensemble
or an orchestra. This art began in Italy at the end of the 16th century. Later, it
spread to the rest of Europe, and as such it became a branch of the western
classical music tradition. The popularity of Opera has only soared with time. It
is considered among the most complex forms of creativity and art.
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo was born on January 21st 1941. He is a Spanish conductor and
a tenor famous for his strong, versatile voice than any other tenor by the time. In
modern tenors, Domingo has taken over the role of a Godfather among opera
singers. When he decided to perform the title role of Otello by Verdi, he
attracted a lot of criticism from his managers. His management thought that his
voice was not suited for the role since it required someone with a powerful, high,
and dramatic voice. However, the managers’ beliefs were wrong as the
performance turned out to be fabulous. In fact, the opening speech “Esultate!”
became one of the highlights of his career. The versatility of his voice makes him
suitable for different roles - like in Verdi’s Rigolettoo, Wagnerian’s Die
Walküre, Mahler’s song-cycles as well as operettas by Lehár. Since 1971,
Domingo has received 7 Grammy awards, 3 Latin Grammy awards and the
Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Award. Over the years, he has
received multiple honorary doctorates among many other awards like Spanish
Prince of Asturias Award for Arts.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Контрольне завдання № 10
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
The British have not been regarded as a particularly musical people and, from the end
of the 17th century until the 20th century, there were relatively few British composers
of international renown. Before the 16th century, musical life was centred on the
church, especially the cathedrals and the royal chapels. The choral works of John
Taverner, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis are still performed today, most notably by
the choirs of King's College, Cambridge and Christ Church in Oxford. Secular music
in the 16th century included the instrumental work of William Byrd and Orlando
Gibbons and the madrigals of Gibbons and Thomas Morley.
Henry Purcell, famous for his opera Dido and Aeneaf (1689), has been described as
the last great English composer before the 20th century. John Gay's The Beggar's
Opera (1728), is still occasionally performed, and the comic operas of Gilbert and
Sullivan are among the few 19th century British works that are still part of the
repertoire. The 20th century saw a renaissance in British music with the work of
composers such as Delius, Hoist, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Tippett,
Maxwell Davies and Britten. Britten in particular came to be regarded as a specially
"English" composer, partly through the English themes of several of his operas but
also through the folk songs and church music that provided the inspiration for many
of his other works.
There is now a flourishing musical life in Britain with more people going to
concerts than ever before. The BBC plays an important part in the development of
music both by commissioning new work and by supporting orchestras. The BBC
Radio has 3 programs, which is broadcast throughout the day and evening, is devoted
mainly to music.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 11
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
Choral music is music performed by a group of singers or a choir. The singers may
perform without accompaniment, or may be accompanied by any instrumental
combination, from piano to full orchestra. Plainchant, the oldest notated Western
music, dating from the 9th century, was sung in unison (all voices singing the same
melody) by monks. Choral music, mostly liturgical, remained the primary focus of
composers through the Renaissance. Using highly sophisticated harmonies and
counterpoint (the interweaving of many melodies), they created a significant and
diverse body of works. Some of the greatest works by Baroque composers J.S. Bach
and Handel were choral, and all but a handful of prominent composers since then
have contributed to the choral repertoire. Thanks to church choirs, school choirs, and
local choral associations, which are particularly popular in the US and the UK, choral
singing provides the most widespread opportunities for amateur music-making.
The National Youth Choir of Great Britain is recognised as one of the
most outstanding choirs of any kind in the world. It is the original and most senior of
the regular choirs in the
broader National Youth Choirs of Great Britain 'family', and is for young people
aged 16-22, taking them into
advanced areas of choral repertoire and giving them experience of the highest
standards of professional rehearsaland performance on courses in the
UK and on international tours.
NYC came into existence 25 years ago after current Company Secretary, Carl
Browning, having inherited the ailing
British Youth Choir in 1979, approached Mike Brewer OBE, the Musical Director of
the organisation with the idea of
reforming the BYC. In 1983 the National Youth Choir gave its inaugural concert at
the Royal Albert Hall.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
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Контрольне завдання № 12
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conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
The magnificent Royal Opera House, with its grand classical portico fronting Bow
Street, is actually the third theatre built on the Covent Garden site. Both the previous
theatres were destroyed by fire, a serious hazard in the era before electricity.The first
important musical works to be heard at the theatre were by Handel, who, from 1735
until his death in 1759, had close links with Covent Garden both as composer and
organist. Many of his operas and oratorios, including Alcina and Semele, were first
performed there, and he left his theatre organ to John Rich. Extensive rebuilding
work took place in 1787 and 1792, but in 1808 the theatre was completely destroyed
by fire with the loss of twenty-three fireman as the building collapsed.Work on a new
theatre began immediately to designs by Robert Smirke. The Prince of Wales laid the
foundation stone on the last day of 1808 and the theatre opened just over eight
months later with a performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth starring the renowned
brother and sister team of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons. To help recoup the
cost of the build, the management (including Kemble and Siddons) raised seat prices,
a decision that proved so unpopular that audiences kept rioting until the old prices
were restored.In 1843, the Theatres Act ended the patent theatres’ monopoly of
drama and the competition for audiences intensified. Three years later, Covent
Garden scored a notable coup when the gifted composer and conductor Michael
Costa joined the theatre from Her Majesty’s in the Haymarket, bringing most of his
company of singers with him. Following the remodelling of the auditorium, the
theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera in April 1847 with a performance of
Rossini’s Semiramide.In 1892, with the repertoire broadening, the theatre was
renamed the Royal Opera House. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet
were given and between seasons the theatre was either closed or used for film shows,
dancing, cabaret and lectures. During the Great War the theatre became a furniture
repository and during the Second World War a Mecca Dance Hall. The Opera House
reopened on 20 February 1946 with a gala performance of The Sleeping Beauty with
Margot Fonteyn as Aurora.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Контрольне завдання № 13
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden
Orchestra, when the theatre reopened after World War II as the nation’s first
permanent home for opera and ballet. It took on its current title in 1968 when The
Royal Opera received a Royal Charter. Throughout its existence the orchestra has
been distinguished by the number of top musicians who have joined its ranks and the
outstanding roster of international conductors with whom it has played. It has been
acclaimed by public and critics alike and has won many awards. The Orchestra also
gives occasional concerts, including a series of annual performances at the Royal
Opera House with Pappano. The Orchestra has performed at worldwide venues
including Birmingham Symphony Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus and
on tour with The Royal Opera in Japan. In addition to their commitment to main
stage productions, members of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House play an active
role in smaller-scale projects including many with the Royal Opera House’s Learning
and Participation Department. As part of the Royal Opera House’s longstanding
commitment to reach a wider audience, the orchestra can be heard accompanying The
Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet for Big Screen events in the UK and cinema
screenings transmitted worldwide. They also broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3
with The Royal Opera. The Orchestra appears on many CDs, including Pappano’s
acclaimed studio recording of Tristan und Isolde with Plácido Domingo and Nina
Stemme. DVDs include the Royal Opera commissions The Minotaur, Anna
Nicole and Written on Skin and the Royal Ballet commissions Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, among many other Royal Opera and Royal Ballet
productions.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
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Спеціальність: 025 «Музичне мистецтво»
Контрольне завдання № 13
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
Ballad opera, characteristic English type of comic opera, originating in the 18th
century and featuring farcical or extravaganza plots. The music was mainly confined
to songs interspersed in spoken dialogue. Such operas at first used ballads or folk
songs to which new words were adapted; later, tunes were borrowed from popular
operas, or music was occasionally newly composed. One of the earliest and the most
famous of ballad operas is The Beggar’s Opera (1728), which is at once a spoof on
Italian serious opera and a satire on the morality of contemporary politicians. Jhohn
Gay was the inventor of the ballad opera which found great success, as a form, in
England during the decade from 1728 to 1738. Gay was primarily a librettist who
used the catchy tunes popular in England to introduce music with stories of real-life,
every-day people. He wrote the story for Handel's "Acis and Galatea" and is famous
for his ballad opera "The Beggar's Opera". His second ballad opera "Polly" was
banned and the third "Achilles" was unsuccessful. Other composers adapting or
writing music for ballad operas included Thomas Arne, Charles Dibdin,Stephen
Storace, and, in the 19th century, Sir Henry Bishop.The ballad opera can be seen as a
precursor to the light opera of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan and, indirectly
through musical comedy, into the modern musical. It also influenced the evolution of
the similar GermanSingspiel in the 18th century. Several early ballad operas were
successfully revived in the 20th century. Modern works directly influenced by the
ballad opera include Ralph Vaughan Williams’s opera Hugh the Drover.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
Дисципліна: Іноземна мова
Спеціальність: 025 «Музичне мистецтво»
Контрольне завдання № 14
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
The history of the modern orchestra that we are familiar with today goes all the way
back to Ancient Egypt. The first orchestras were made up of small groups of
musicians that gathered for festivals, holidays or funerals. During the time of
the Roman Empire, the government suppressed the musicians and
informal ensembles were banned, but they reappeared after the collapse of the
Empire. It was not until the 11th century that families of instruments started to appear
with differences in tones and octaves. True modern orchestras started in the late 16th
century when composers started writing music for instrumental groups. In the 15th
and 16th centuries in Italy the households of nobles had musicians to provide music
for dancing and the court, however with the emergence of the theatre, particularly
opera, in the early 17th century, music was increasingly written for groups of players
in combination, which is the origin of orchestral playing. Opera originated in Italy,
and Germany eagerly followed. Dresden, Munichand Hamburg successively built
opera houses. At the end of the 17th century opera flourished in England under Henry
Purcell, and in France under Lully, who with the collaboration of Molière also greatly
raised the status of the entertainments known as ballets, interspersed with
instrumental and vocal music.
In the 17th century and early 18th century, instrumental groups were taken from all of
the available talent. A composer such as Johann Sebastian Bach had control over
almost all of the musical resources of a town, whereas Handel would hire the best
musicians available. This placed a premium on being able to rewrite music for
whichever singers or musicians were best suited for a performance—Handel
produced different versions of the Messiah oratorio almost every year. The
aristocratic orchestras worked together over long periods, making it possible for
ensemble playing to improve with practice.
ДНІПРОПЕТРОВСЬКА АКАДЕМІЯ МУЗИКИ ім. М.ГЛІНКИ
Музичний факультет
Дисципліна: Іноземна мова
Спеціальність: 025 «Музичне мистецтво»
Контрольне завдання № 15
1. Read the English text and render the main ideas, points of argument and
conclusions. Be ready to express your own opinion on the problems and
issues raised in it.
A modern orchestra consists of four sections or families of instruments.
The string section is the most important part of a symphonyorchestra. It has more
than half of the musicians and consists of violins, violas , cellos and string basses .
The violinists play high sounds and are divided into two groups. The first violins and
the second violins usually play different parts. The leading first violinist is the
concertmaster of the orchestra. He helps the other musicians tune their instruments
and serves as the assistant . Cellos and string basses play low sounds .
The woodwind section consists of flutes, bassoons , oboes and clarinets. An
orchestra can have between two and four of each of these instruments. Sometimes
these musicians change instruments , for example, a flutist may switch to a piccolo .
These two instruments have high piercing tones , whereas the bassoon may have
the lowest tones of the whole orchestra. The brass section has several trumpets,
French horns, trombones and one tuba . These instruments are especially important
in the loud, exciting parts of the music. Trumpets and horns play the higher
parts, trombones and tubas dominate the lower parts. This section is located mostly
at the centre and back of the orchestra. The percussion section has all sorts of
instruments, especially those that you can hit, rattle or shake . The drums are the
best knownamong these instruments. In a symphony orchestra, kettledrums or
timpani make the music more exciting . Other percussion
instruments include bells, cymbals , gongs, tambourines or xylophones. Other
instruments like the harp , piano or saxophone may be added to the orchestra if they
are needed. A conductor directs the musicians with a stick, called the baton. But he
does important things before the performance . He chooses the music that is to be
played at a concert and decides how it should be played- loud or soft, fast or slow.
Then he calls the musicians to rehearsals where he often lets sections
or individual musicians play their parts over and over again until the sound is
perfect.