Holidays in great britain

In discussing the British holidays, mention should be made of the peculiar English Bank Holidays. Bank Holidays were appointed by act of Parliament in 1871. They come four times a year. They are: Eastef Monday, Whit-Monday, the first Monday in August and December 26th. December 26th is Boxing Day. The “boxing” refers to the Christmas boxes of Christmas presents which are usually given to the people who have given service during a year. Other public holidays are: Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday and May Day. On these days all banks and all places of business are closed and practically everyone takes a holiday.

But besides public holidays the British people observe certain traditions on such days as Pancake Day, Bonfire Night, St.Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Mother’s Day, which unless they fall on a Sunday are ordinary working days.

The arts in britain

The arts in Britain are flourishing, and present a varied and lively picture. London has become an international forum of the arts, with major exhibitions of painting and sculpture and theatre, opera and ballet companies and orchestras drawing large audiences. Throughout Britain there are festivals and centres of artistic activity - among them the Edinburgh International Festival, the music festivals at Aldeburgh, Windsor and Cheltenham and opera at Glyndebourne.

The spread of musical interest in Britain owes much to the British Broadcasting Corporation with its daily music programme and its partial financing of the Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

There are over 900 museums and art galleries in Britain and art exhibitions are shown all over the country through the Arts Council, which distributes government grants for music, drama, painting and sculpture. Local authorities play an important part in encouraging the arts, supporting galleries, orchestras and arts centres - an example is the ambitious Midlands Art Centre for young people in Birmingham.

British artists, writers, musicians and architects exert a powerful influence abroad. Notable figures include sculptors Henry Moore and Anthony Caro, painters Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland and, among younger artists, Richard Smith, winner of a major international prize in 1967, Richard Hamilton, who painted the first ‘pop’ picture, and Bridget Riley, internationally known artist whose work has also inspired fashion.

British music owes much to the composer benjamin Britten, whose influence has produced a new school of British opera. In architecture the work of Sir Basil Spence (Coventry Cathedral, Sussex University) and the collective work of modem British architects in housing and town planning are outstanding.

Literature presents great diversity. Poetry has received fresh stimulus from regional movements including the Liverpool poets, who write for public performance. Among novelists of worldwide reputation are Graham Greene, Angus Wilson, William Golding, Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark.

Artistic Activities in Britain

Artistic and cultural activity in Britain ranges from the highest standards of professional performance to the enthusiastic support and participation of amateurs. London is one of the leading world centres for music, drama, opera and dance; and festivals held in Bath, Cheltenham, Edinburgh and other towns and cities attract much interest. Many British playwrights, composers, sculptors, painters, writers, actors, singers, choreographers and dancers enjoy international reputations. At an amateur level, activities which make use of local talent and resources take many forms. Amateur choral, orchestral, operatic, dramatic and other societies for the arts abound; and increasing numbers of people take an interest in crafts such as pottery, weaving and wool-work.

Promotion and patronage of the arts are the concern of both official and unofficial bodies. The Government and local authorities take an active part, and a substantial and increasing amount of help also comes from private sources, including trusts and commercial concerns. Policies towards support for the arts are broadly similar, however, and there are two main aims. One is to maintain and improve the traditional arts and cultural heritage and to make them more accessible to greater numbers of people. The other is to provide financial aid to working artists and craftsmen, and to encourage more people to take part in creative leisure pursuits.

A Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science is responsible for general arts policy and administrative work connected with the arts is undertaken by the Office of Arts and Libraries within the Department.

Filins in Contemporary Britain

There are about 1300 cinema screens in Britain. About half of these are operated by three large commercial cinema chains. Cinema attendance declined rapidly between the mid-1950's and the early 1980s. By 1983 the regular cinema audience was about 5 per cent of what it had been in 1954, when it was about 25 million. Major reasons for this decline have been competition with television viewing, the rapid increase in the use of home video-cassette recorders, and the effect of the economic recession on the spending power of a predominantly young cinema-going public.

The British film industry, however, is widely acknowledged to have undergone a revival. British films, actors, creative and technical film services have been achieving notable successes at international film festivals. Attendances have started to rise again since 1984. Following the earlier decline, the number of new feature films being made by British companies is now increasing. This increase is due in part to the growing involvement of television companies such as Channel 4 in film production and to the success of certain low-budget films. A recently founded private body, the British Screen Finance Consortium, whose members are drawn from the film, television and video industries, investing its own money together with contributions from the Government amounting to 10 million over five years, will part-finance the production of low and medium budget films.

The development of film and television as an art form is promoted by the British Film Institute, which was founded in 1933. The Institute offers direct financial and technical help (through its Film Production Board) to new and experienced film-makers who cannot find support elsewhere, and helps to fund film and video workshops in liaison with the Channel Four Television Company.

The British Film Institute administers the National Film Theatre in London, which has two cinemas showing films of outstanding historical, artistic or technical interest and is unique in offering programmes which are unrestricted by commercial considerations or by the age or nationality of the films. It is the National Film Theatre that stages the London Film Festival each autumn, at which about 180 of the finest new films from all over the world are screened.

The British Film Institute also administers the National Film Archive, and has a library from which films and video-cassettes may be hired. It has promoted and helps to fund the development of several regional film theatres, and is involved in establishing film and television centres in a number of major cities.

British Film Year was launched in April 1985. Its main aims were to encourage cinema-going, to develop the use of films as a medium of education, to highlight Britain’s great national assets as a film-making country and to promote British films and British film-making ability overseas. Training in film production is given by an independent National Film and Television School offering courses for writers, directors and camera technicians, and also at the London International Film School, the Royal College of Art, and some polytechnics.

Local authorities have powers to license cinemas and censor films. In considering the suitability of films the local authorities normally rely on the judgement of the British Board of Film Classification. It was set up to ensure that a proper standard was maintained in films offered to the public. Films passed by the Board are put into one of five categories: U meaning “universal” - suitable for all; PG, meaning “paternal guidance”, in which some scenes may be unsuitable for young children, “15" and “18" for people of not less than 15 and 18 years of age respectively; and “Restricted 18", for restricted showing only at segregated premises to which no one under 18 is admitted.

Contemporary Theatre in Britain

London is one of the leading world centres for drama and theatre. Contemporary playwrights like Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter enjoy considerable success both in Britain and overseas. Peter Brook, Sir Peter Hall and Trevor Nunn also enjoy international reputations, while many British performers such as Lord Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson or Sir John Gielgud are household names all over the world.

Britain has about 300 theatres which can seat between 200 and 2,300 people. Most theatres are owned either municipally or by non-profit-distributing organizations; some of the theatres, however, are privately owned.

In London there are a hundred or so West End and suburban theatres. 12 of these are permanently occupied by subsidized companies. The National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the English Stage Company are the three most important of these 12 subsidized companies. The National Theatre stages a wide range of modern and classical plays in its three auditoriums in the South Bank arts complex. The Royal Shakespeare Company produces plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as well as while also performing in Stratford-upon-Avon. The English Stage Company produces the works of the most talented new playwrights at the Royal Court Theatre.

Outside London most cities and many large towns have at least one theatre. Some, like the Palace Theatre in Manchester, date from the nineteenth century, others like the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield have been built to the latest design. Some universities, like the one in Exeter, have theatres housing professional companies playing to the general public.

50 or so of the 300 theatres house resident theatre companies which receive subsidies from the Arts Council. The independent Arts Council of Great Britain was established in 1946. It gives financial help and advice to organizations ranging from the major drama companies to the smallest touring theatres and experimental groups. It encourages interest in contemporary arts and helps professional creative writers through a variety of subsidy schemes.

Most regional repertory companies mount about eight to ten productions a year. Some also have studio theatres in addition to their main auditorium. Successful productions a year. Some also have studio theatres in addition to their main auditorium. Successful productions from regional companies often transfer to London’s West End, while the largest regional theatres receive visits from the National Theatre or the Royal Shakespeare Company. Regional repertory theatres also frequently function as social centres by accomodating poetry recitals, concerts or exhibitions. There are several thousand amateur drama societies throughout Britain. They sometimes receive financial support from local government, regional art associations and other bodies. Their work is also encouraged by the British Theatre Association and the central Council for Amateur Theatre. A number of companies, such as the Union Theatre for the Young and the Folk Children’s Theatre in London, produce plays for children under 11 years old; the young Vic Company in London and the Contact Theatre Company in Manchester produce plays for teenage audiences. Besides there are numerous Theatre-in-Education companies which perform in schools for all age ranges and abilities. Some of these operate independently, while others are attached to regional repertory theatres.

Dramatic training for actors and stage managers is provided mainly in drama schools. Among the most important are the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Central School of Speech and Drama, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Bristol Old Vic School.

Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, which receives financial assistance from the Arts Council. The Royal Opera House has its own company, The Royal opera, and a ballet company, The Royal Ballet. The opera company numbers about 200 and has a permanent orchestra. The Royal Ballet has a regular London season, tours abroad and performs in the provinces for 12 weeks each year.

Seasons of opera and operetta are given by the Sadler’s Wells Company, which performs in London and tours both abroad and in the provinces. Professional training in music is given at colleges of music, of which the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow are grant-sided.

English Music

England is world famous for its literature, painting (particularly its water-colours), for its theatre, but not for its great composers. Now why is it so?

Germans would have instead if asked that the English are not a musical people, that England is the land that cares little for music. But this is not true. In fact the 16th century and early 17th witnessed Germans visiting England to listen to music. Even back in the 15th century Dunstable enjoyed European reputation for his church music, and nearly two centuries later Dowlard’s songs and aires for the lute were widely printed and performed abroad. Speaking of the music in England of the 17th century we should but consider merely the splendid quality of Purcell’s best work and the amount of music, of all kinds, and most of it performed, that he produced during his short life (1659- 1695). This means that the demand for music was great, at least at Court and in London.

In the 18th and 19th centuries England may have been very backward indeed in the creation of symphonies and concertos, but a nation so eagerly vocal - the existing tradition of English choral singing should be mentioned here - can hardly be described as being pathetically unmusical. And if London, after Handel, produced no great music, it could heartily welcome such music, and if necessary, as the record shows, was ready to commission work from famous composers, when they were left ignored by their own Central Europe, because in England there were certainly persons anything but indifferent to music.

Besides, it is quite explainable why the 18th century produced no great composers. The 18th century delighted in the theatre and entertainment in general. The main entertainment was ballad opera, which usually offered as much spoken dialogue as it did songs and dances.

As to the composers of the 19th century, we should remember that the musical climate of Victorian England was unfavourable to bold and daring composition. The first important British composer in two hundred years - that is, since the death of Purcell - was Sir Edward Elgar (1857- 1934). Elgar loved England, her past, her people, her countryside and he responded to her need for a National artist. By inclination he was a natural musician of great invention.

His music is full of sound and movement. It comes from an electric late 19th century style. Elgar borrowed elements from Brahms, Strauss, and even from Verdi, but it is stamped with British personality all the same. Elgar served his country well and England will long remember him.

Frederik Delius (1862-1934) comes next. He found it essential that music should be the expression of a poetic and emotional nature, and indeed Delius’s music reminds us of the English landscape and its seasons: the freshness of spring, the short-lived brilliancy of summer, the sadness of autumn. He was regarded as the most poetic composer born in England.

Delius was lucky to find an ideal interpreter in Sir Thomas Beecham. It was due to this dynamic conductor that Delius’s music became popular in Great Britain. Sir Thomas Beecham organized in 1929 a six-day festival of Delius’s works which he conducted himself. It is said that had Sir Thomas Beecham not organized that festival Delius might have died unrecognised as an artist.

The English renaissance in music was heralded by an awakening of interest in the native song and dance. Out of this interest came a generation of composers. The most important figure among them was Ralph Vaugham Williams (1872-1958) - the representative of English music on the international scene.

He suggested that a composer in England should draw inspiration from life around him. He was in the first place a melodist. His love of folk tunes was part of an essentially melodic approach to music. He favoured old forms - the passacalia, fugue and concerto grosso, also the Elizabethan fantasia.

Speaking of today’s music it should be mentioned that now there are a great many composers hard at work and what they are doing is very promising.