Understanding music

If we were asked to explain the purpose of music, our im­mediate reply might be " to give pleasure ". That would not be far from the truth, but there are other considerations.

We might also define music as " expression in sound", or " the expression of thought and feeling in an aesthetic form ", and still not arrive at an understanding of its true purpose. We do know, however, even if we are not fully conscious of it, that music is a part of living, that it has the power to awaken in us sensations and emotions of a spiritual kind.

Listening to music can be an emotional experience or an in­tellectual exercise. If we succeed in blending the two, without excess in either case, we are on the road to gaining the ultimate pleasure from music. Having mastered the gift of listen­ing to, say, a Haydn symphony, the ear and mind should be ready to admit Mozart, then to absorb Beethoven, then Brahms. After that, the pathway to the works of later composers will be found to be less bramblestrewn than we at first imagined.

Music, like language, is a living, moving thing. In early times organised music belonged to the church; later it became the property of the privileged few. Noble families took the best composers and the most talented performers into their service.

While the status of professional musicians advanced, amateur musicians found in music a satisfying means of self-expression, and that form of expression broadened in scope to embrace forms and styles more readily digested by the masses.

It is noteworthy that operas at first were performed private­ly; that the first " commercial" operatic venture took place early in the seventeenth century, this leading to the opening of opera houses for the general public in many cities.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, composers were finding more and more inspiration of their heritage. The time had come to emancipate the music of their country from the domination of " foreign" concepts and conventions.

One of the first countries to raise the banner was Russia, which had various sources of material as basis of an indepen­dent musical repertory, Russian folk songs and the music of the old Russian Church.

The composer to champion this cause was Glinka, who sub­merged Western-European influences by establishing a new national school.

Glinka's immediate successor was Dargomizhsky, then Balakirev. His own creative output was comparatively small; he is best remembered as the driving force in establishing " The Mogutschaya Kuchka", a group which included Borodin, Cui, Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) worked independently and was the first Russian composer to win widespread international re­cognition.

It is a narrow line that divides Operetta from Musical Com­edy, both blending music and the spoken word. When we think of operetta, such titles come to mind as The Gipsy Baron (Johann Strauss), The Merry Widow and The Count of Luxem­bourg (Lehar). Of recent years these have been replaced in popular favour by " Musicals" which placed more emphasis on unity and theatrical realism, such as Oklahoma, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and West Side Story.

In early times instrumental music broke away from occa­sions associated with sacred worship into secular channels. In succeeding generations instrumental players were engaged to provide music for various public functions. Humble bands of players developed into small orchestras, these in time to sym­phony orchestras. Later, orchestras of the café type assumed increased numerical strength and more artistic responsibility, while " giving the public what it wants".

For many generations Band Music — music played by military bands, brass bands, and pipe bands on the march, in public parks, and in concert halls — has held its place in public favour, especially in Great Britain.

At the turn of the 19^th century American popular music was still clinging to established European forms and conven­tions. Then a new stimulus arrived by way of the Afro-Ameri­cans who injected into their music-making African chants and rhythms which were the basis of their spirituals and work songs.

One of the first widespread Afro-American influences was Ragtime, essentially a style of syncopated piano-playing that reached its peak about 1910. Ragtime music provided the stim­ulus for the spontaneous development of jazz, a specialized style in music which by the year 1920 had become a dominat­ing force in popular music, and New Orleans, one of the first cities to foster it.

In the early twenties America became caught up in a whirl of post-war gaiety. The hectic period would later be known as the Jazz Era. Soon jazz had begun its insistent migration across the world. While Black musicians of America were recognised as the true experts in the jazz field, the idiom attracted white musicians, who found it stimulating and profitable to form bands to play in the jazz style. Prominent among these white band-leaders were Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin, whose 1924 Rhapsody in Blue was the first popular jazz concerto.

While many self-appointed prophets were condemning jazz as vulgar, and others smugly foretelling its early death, some notable European composers attempted to weave the jazz idiom into their musical works. These included Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Shostakovich.

(Here one is reminded that several composers, including Debussy, Ravel, Liszt, Bizet and Richard Strauss, befriended the much-maligned saxophone, invented about the middle of the nineteenth century, and introduced it into the concert-hall.)

Before we leave George Gershwin, we should mention his Porgy and Bess which brought something daringly different to opera: the music, Gershwin's own, sounds so authentically Afro-American, that it is surprising that this rich score was written by a white American.

We are forced to contemplate the fact, that notwithstanding the achievements of Debussy, Stravinsky and many others, the experience of music in the western art tradition remains essentially unchanged. It's still composed by highly trained special­ists and played by professional musicians in concert halls.

There was a time in the sixties when it looked as if the situation was about to be broken up by a new and revolution­ary popular music of unprecedented and unexpected power. The so-called " Rock Revolution" began in fact in the mid-fif­ties, and was based firmly on the discontent of the younger generation who were in revolt against the values of their elders; naturally they espoused new musical values, and equally natu­rally these values represented a negation of everything in the musical world their elders inhabited — the virtual elimination of harmony, or at least its reduction to the few conventional progressions of the blues, an emphasis on the beat, new type of voice production owing much to sophisticated use of amplifica­tion and simplification of instrumental technique.

There followed rapidly an extraordinary musical eruption based on the percussive sound of the electric guitar, the rock'n'roll beat and blues harmony.

We should remember that the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and many other leading groups and individual performers from the early sixties onward based their music on the sound of electric guitars and percussion.

Now what? In this technological age it is not surprising that electronics has invaded the field of music. This new phase has brought experiments intended to give music of the popular genre a new sound. Though many may be alarmed at such explorative tampering with sound, it must be admitted that the possibilities of electronically-produced music are immense.

Never before has music — all kinds of music — been so popular. Never before has the world had greater need of its stimulation and comfort. We find the ultimate satisfaction in music, be it " classical" or " popular", when we have learnt how to reject the spurious and accept the genuine; when we have learnt how to listen.

Task 5. Find the answers to the following questions in the text and write them in your copybook:

1. What is the definition of music given in the text?

2. What is the purpose of music according to the text?

3. In what genres did the music develop?

4. By whom was music composed at the beginning of its development?

5. Where was music performed?

6. In what way did the instrumental music become engaged for various functions?

7. What created the development of jazz and who facilitated the development?

8. Why was jazz foretold an early death?

9. What provoked the development of rock music?

10. How did the youth of the 1960s respond to the highly trained specialists and professional music?

11. Does the technological progress affect the field of music? How?

Task 6. Find in the text the facts the author gives to illustrate the following:

1. Music like language is a living moving thing.

2. Music may be used as the lines of communication between people.

3. Jazz does not cling to dance rhythms any longer, as the 20th century European music reflects African rhythms.

Task 7. Summarize the text in five paragraphs specifying the development of 1) opera, 2) operetta and musicals, 3) instrumental music, 4) jazz and 5) rock.

Task 8. Paraphrase the underlined vocabulary units in the text in the written form. Make up 5 fresh-context sentences with the word combinations you like most.

Task 9. Translate the following into English, using the active vocabulary.

1. Эта группа хотела получить мировую известность, поэтому музыканты решили, что им следует разработать оригинальный музыкальный репертуар и включили джазовую тему в свои произведения.

2. Исполняя песни прошлых лет, современные певцы придают им новое звучание.

3. Можно слушать музыку для души или находить в ней пищу для ума, а можно таким образом избавляться от соседей.

4. Джаз – особая форма музыкального искусства, возникшая в начале 20 века в США в результате синтеза африканской и европейской культур и получившая впоследствии повсеместное распространение.

5. По сути дела, вся история рока состоит из схожих циклов, в начале каждого из которых лежит отрицание молодым поколением ценностей своих родителей, бунт, протест, рождение новых стилей и новых ценностей, возникновение групп и исполнителей-основоположников стиля, а затем — постепенный процесс коммерциализации.

6. Мой коллега говорит, что чтобы получить настоящее удовольствие от классической музыки, нужно овладеть умением слушать, сначала, к примеру, симфонии Гайдна, затем ваш слух и разум будут готовы воспринимать Моцарта, впитывать Бетховена и, наконец, Брамса, и лишь тогда вы поймете, в чем настоящее предназначение музыки. Так говорит мой коллега, и я склонен ему верить, ведь он - признанный знаток классики.

7. Социальный статус профессиональных музыкантов настолько возрос, что они смогли посвятить себя музыке в полной мере, не думая о том, как прокормить семью.

8. Из статьи в журнале мы узнали, что первоначально целью музыки было не выражения чувств и мыслей в звуке, а лечение разных заболеваний, наверное поэтому сейчас такой популярностью пользуются курсы арт-терапии: люди все чаще обращаются за помощью к наследию предков.

9. Невозможно представить себе атмосферу 40ых годов без звучания духовых оркестров в парках, на танцплощадках, в концертных залах и на парадах, эта музыка олицетворяла послевоенное веселье и прочно заняла свое место в сердцах самой широкой публики.

10. Британские «Биттлз» и «Роллинг Стоунз», стоявшие у истоков рок-музыки, стали классикой жанра, а станет ли классикой электронная музыка покажет время и предпочтения публики.

Task 10. Prepare a retelling of the text “Understanding music” based on the questions in Task 5.

Task 11. Use the topical vocabulary in answering the following questions: [1]

1. What musical genres do you know and what role does folk music play in all of them? 2. What is meant by the terms classical or serious music, pop, rock, jazz and contemporary music? 3. Do you think the different musical genres named above are strictly separated or do they overlap in some ways? In what ways? 4. What role does music play in your life? Do you want music just to make you happy or does the music that you prefer vary with your mood? How does it vary? 5. Do you think that at school music should be given the same emphasis as subjects such as maths, literature, etc.? 6. What instruments does a symphony/chamber orchestra consist of? What are the most popular instruments of pop groups, jazz or rock? 7. What is your favourite instrument? Can you play it? Does it help you to understand music? 8. The human voice is regarded as a most refined instrument, the proper use of which requires a great deal of training. How do you feel about this characterization? Who are your favourite singers? 9. Do you like opera? Do you agree with the opinion that operas are hard to follow while musicals are more up-to-date and easier to understand? 10. How can you account for the large scale popularity of rock? Is it only an entertainment for young people or does rock music represent their values? What values? 11. Why are some rock fans less interested in the music of the past? 13. What do you know about video clips? How do they affect music?

? VOCABULARY PRACTICE