11. Choose the best variant to complete the sentences.

1. When Scott was 14, his mother died and he________________________.

a) got married c) went to England

b) left home d) decided to write music

2. His tunes were a wonderful mixture of classical ____________________________ beat.

a) American and Australian c) European and African

b) British and Canadian d) China and Japan

3. All in all he wrote about _____ piano rags.

a) 20 c) 40

b) 30 d) 50

12. Match the words.

1. battered a) style

2. improvised b) talent

3. unique c) nights

4. steamy d) old grand piano

5. musical e) music

13. Are you for or against classical music? Study the following arguments and develop the ideas.

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.

14. Group work. Give your impressions of a concert (recital). Outline for giving impressions

1. Type of event.

2. What group, orchestra performed?

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

4. Name the soloist.

5. Who was a conductor?

6. Was the event interesting and enjoyable?

7. What impressions did the event make on you?

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

15. Read, translate and retell the following text. B.M. Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968)

Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky, a composer, conductor and teacher, was a leading member of the new generation of twentieth century Ukrainian composers and is today honoured as the father of contemporary Ukrainian music. Arriving in Kiev from his native city of Zhytomyr in 1914, Lyatoshynsky enrolled in the law school of Kiev University, while continuing his musical studies at the new Kiev Conservatory in the composition class of Reinhold Gliére, with whom he was to continue a life-long relationship. Having completed his law studies in 1918, he graduated in 1919 from the Conservatory, where he was soon to take up a position as a teacher and later professor, continuing this connection until his death. From 1935 to 1938 and from 1941 to 1944 he taught concurrently at the Moscow Conservatory. As a composer he wrote a variety of works, including five symphonies, symphonic poems and other shorter orchestral works, choral and vocal music, two operas, chamber music and a number of works for solo piano. His earliest compositions were romantic and lyrical in style, influenced most of all by his esteem for the music of Schumann and Borodin. By the time of his Symphony No. 1, his graduation composition, he had begun to be influenced by the impressionist music of Scriabin, but with his Piano Sonata No. 1 of 1924, he finally turned away from tradition, moving towards the new musical language of Central and Western Europe, atonality. This period lasted until 1929, when there gradually appeared more and more evidence of simplification in harmonies, following the broad outlines of Ukrainian national music, with increased reference to the folk-songs and music of the Ukraine, relying on the earlier research in this field of Mykola Lysenko.