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 diffrent musical genres named above are stricktly separated or do they overlap in some ways? In what ways? What genre do you prefer?
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 subject such as maths, literature, tec?
6. Of which instruments does a symphony / chamber orchestra consist? What are the most popular instruments of pop groups, jazz or rock?
7. Why has the guitar become a very popular instrument in recent years? Do you prefer V. Vysotskys performances with an entire orchestra or simply with a guitar? Why?
8. What is your favourite instrument? Can you play it? Does it help you to understand music?
9. 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?
10. 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? What other forms have appeared of late?
11. How can you account for the large scale popularity of rock? It is only an entertainment to values?
12. What are some rock fans less interested in the music of the past? Can you think of any similar examples when people attracted by a new style of music forget about the past?
13. What do you know about video clips? How do they affect music?
14. What do you know about the International Tchaikovsky Competitions? How often are they held and on what instruments do contestants perform? Can you give some names of prize winners or laureates of the Tchaikovsky Competitions? What do you know about their subsequent careers?
Give your impressions of a concert (recital) you have recently attended. Use the topical vocabulary. Outline for giving impression.
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 in your opinion?
6. Name the soloists.
7. What did critics say about the event? Do you share their points of view?
8. What impression did the event make on you? Did you take a salemn oath never to attend one again?
Below are opinions on the development of music. Express your agreement or disagreement. Prove your choice.
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 originalitys sake.
3. In any age the advanced of today in music may become the commonpolace of tomorrow.
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4. Soviet composerd have contributed as much as Russian composers to the World of Music.
5. Radio, television, cinema and video bring new sounds into our homes.
A Feast of Russian Arts.
The strong and impressive Russian theme at this years Edinburgh Festival commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
The Festival opened on August 9 with three giant companies, the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and Leningrads Gorky Drama Theatre, and the spectacular young traditional folk music and dance group Siverko, from the arctic city of Arkhangelk.
Other musicians in the first week included the Bolshoi Sextet, and the final week sees the arrival of the Shostakovich Quartet.
The first of the four programmes by the Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, in an Usher Hall draped with garlands, was a fascinating demonstration of Russian quality and Russcian interpretation. After the two national anthems the rustling atmospheric opening movement of the suite Rimsky-Korsakovs Invisible City of Kitezh, with some particular expressive strands of oboe tone, was sufficiently promising to make the through of even a familiar piece of Tchaikovsky seem exciting.
Nobody, at any rate, could have called the Rimsky familiar. Through it was performed in an arrangement by Maximilian Steinberg, this did not prevent the brasen battle scene, with its ferocious side-drum, from being a sensational display of Russian strength, or the woodwind passages in other movements from being an exquisite display of Russian sweetness.
The account of the symphony was quite remarkable. It was played with thrilling velocity (yet with sufficient breathingspace where Tchaikovsky asked for it), with beautiful characterized woodwind, keenly defined textures and a penchant for highlighting inner parts, especially if they happened to involve the horns. The conductor, Mark Ermler was more in his element in Tchaikovskys fifth symphony.
Whether or not one actually liked the horn tune was deside the point. It was authentically Russian, and though, at the start of the slow movement, it sounded like an amplified saxophone, its eloquence was not to be gainsaid. In small details - such as the effect of the cellos and basses doing entirely different things at points in the finale - just as in the symphonys grand design, this was a stunning performance and perhaps, after all, a Festival event.
What one did expect and received was a performance of massive vocal integrity and a grand convincing enunciation of the music by Irina Arkhipova, with a recurring arm movement - hand stretcher towards the audience.
In the event, the curtains of the Playhouse Theatre opened to reveal a company that were the epitome of everything we have come to expect from a Russian folk dance group - vast numbers, and endless varity of colourful and beautiful-embroided costumes, and - most important of all - boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm. The musicians, all extremely accomplished, performed on zither abd some remarkable varieties of shawm.
It all finished with the entire company lined up in front of the stage singing Auld Land Syne - a characterisitically warmhearted gesture to end a programme that was irresistibly good-natured, impeccably presented, skilfully performed, entertaining and enjoyable - and which left the audience clamouring insatiably for more.
