After you have read тнe тexт

1. Answer the following questions about the text.

1. What is the most characteristic feature of American music?

2. How many periods can be distinguished in the history of American music?

3. What kind of music did the early colonists bring from England to America?

4. What factors inhibited musical development until 1700?

5. When were the first concerts held in the colonial America?

6. Where did the American church begin to use organs for its services?

7. What is the name of the first American-born composer?

8. Why did musical abilities become more intensive after 1790?

9. How did the immigrant musicians from Europe influence American music?

10. Whose works moved American musicians to publish and perform only the music they considered “scientifically” correct?

11. What did American Musical Societies aim to?

12. What were the reactions of a spectacular growth which took place in American music in the second half of the 19th century?

13. When did American music achieve its independence?

14. Who made the greatest contribution to a distinctive American musical style?

15. What American musicians of the 19th century do you know?

2. Learn the following information.

– Till the end of the 19th century American composers were educated abroad. So they were not free from the influence of foreign music. Soloists and outstanding performers were invited to the USA from other countries. Among the outstanding musicians who emigrated to the USА were Rachmaninov and Stravinsky, the piano teacher of Van Clibern – R. Levina, and the violinist Efrem Tzimbalist.

– The first symphony orchestra was formed in New York in 1891 when the largest concert hall – Carnegie Hall – was opened. P.I. Tchaikovsky was invited to conduct the New York Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the Hall. А уeаг later the Czech composer Dvorak became the director of the newly opened National Conservatory, teaching American students for 3 years.

3. Insert the words given below in the correct form into the sentences.

1. My mother is a woman of … 2. He was arrested on ... that he was a leader of the mutiny on the ship. 3. The tall slender figure of the conductor looks ... 4. This student is able to play more ... pieces. 5. His performing manner ... to the highest world standard. 6. The speaker made ... to ancient manuscripts. 7. The two forces of his soul: the force of a pessimist and the force of an optimist could not achieve ... 8. Talented teachers ... characters of their pupils. 9. As Britten was a child his father ... him from listening music. 10. The skilled management brought the fourfold ... of the production. 11. Folk songs are never out of ... 12. Handel was of German ... 13. The son got tired of ... care of his mother. 14. He felt the ... of his friends. 15. Under his leadership the orchestra ... to fine classical traditions.

_________________________________________

reference, spectacular, taste, satisfy, disapproval, extraction, mould, suspicion, parity, growth, sophisticated, fashion, cling, inhibit, excessive

4. Select the correct meaning of the words.

1) apparently a) выставлять

2) merely b) выявлять

3) advent c) приход, прибытие

4) quest d) несогласие

5) expose e) недоверие

6) excel f) великолепный, роскошный

7) distrust g) явно, очевидно

8) disagreement h) гость

9) superior i) высший, превосходный

10) fourfold j) развлечение, увеселение

k) только, просто

l) главным образом

m) превосходить

n) четырёхкратный

o) поиски

5. 5. Review text A in written form.

6. Tell what you know about the history of American music.

7. Read and retell text B.