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Файл:About Music at the Lessons of English. Хрестоматия по чтению на английском языке для студентов очного и заочного отделений специальностей 070100 «Музы.pdf
The 1990s
During the 1990s, trends that had been established during the 1980s
continued, including growth in the popularity of genres such as rap, heavy
metal, and worldbeat and the introduction of new technologies for the digital
generation, transmission, and reproduction of sound. The 1990s also saw the
further splintering of rock music into a variety of specialized subgenres.
Electronic dance music, or techno, also became more widely popular
during the 1990s. The genre first emerged in the 1970s. Some forms of techno
were influenced by punk rock; others by experimental art music, jazz, and
world music; and still others by black popular music, including funk and rap.
Although techno produced few commercial hits during the decade, the recordings of musical groups such as the Prodigy, Orbital, and Moby did make
inroads into the charts during the late 1990s, and techno recordings were increasingly licensed as the soundtracks for technology-oriented television
commercials and films.
The popularity of alternative rock exploded during the 1990s. The genre
spawned a number of substyles, such as the grunge. This rock music style of
the early 1990s is characterized by a thick, abrasive, distorted guitar sound.
Grunge evolved from punk and came to prominence with the chart success of
the band Nirvana in 1991. Between 1991 and 1994 Nirvana released two multiplatinum albums and moved alternative rock’s blend of hardcore punk and
heavy metal out of specialty record stores and into the commercial mainstream.
Notes:
1. alternative rock – альтернативный рок – музыкальное движение,
противопоставленное коммерческому року с его достаточно жест-
кими стилистическими рамками;
2. to spawn – рождать, порождать, вызывать;
3. commercial mainstream – коммерческое направление.
CURRENT TREND
One of the most striking features of rock music in the first years of the
21st century was its sheer stylistic diversity.
Technological innovation continues to drive changes in the way rock
music is produced, heard, and sold. The development of low-cost digital technology has allowed musicians to make professional-quality recordings in their
homes. The emergence of Internet services, which allow fans to download
their favorite music in the form of compressed files, has raised thorny legal
questions about copyright laws while at the same time making the music of
unsigned and alternative musicians much more widely available. The development of home compact disc recorders has enabled rock fans to create their
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own digital compilations, mixing genres, artists, and musical epochs to suit
their own taste.
Rock music in the 21st century is increasingly influenced by the global
marketplace. Of the five major transnational corporations now responsible for
as much as 90 percent of music sales worldwide, only one is officially headquartered in the United States. Rock music continues to play a central role in
the popular culture of the United States and all over the world. Along with the
expansion of the global audience for North American and European rock music, there is increasing influence by musicians from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world.
Notes:
1. sheer stylistic diversity – полное (абсолютное) стилистическое
разнообразие;
2. emergence – появление;
3. thorny legal questions – острые (щекотливые) юридические
вопросы.
ROCK AS A REFLECTION OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Since its inception in the 1950s, rock music has moved from the margins of American popular music to become the center of a multi-billion-dollar
global industry. Closely connected with youth culture, rock music and musicians have helped to establish new fashions, forms of language, attitudes, and
political views. However, rock music is no longer limited to an audience of
teenagers, since many current listeners formed their musical tastes during the
golden age of rock and roll.
How should rock's contribution to music history be judged? One way to
answer this is to trace rock's influences on other musics; another is to attempt
a kind of cultural audit. But rock does not so much influence other musics as
colonize them, blurring musical boundaries.
Its cultural value must be approached from a different perspective. The
question is not how rock has influenced society, but rather, how it has reflected society. From the musician's point of view, for example, the most important change since the 1950s has been in the division of music-making labour. When Elvis Presley became a star, there were clear distinctions between
the work of the performer, writer, arranger, session musician, record producer,
and sound engineer. By the time Public Enemy was recording
, such distinctions had broken down from both ends: performers wrote, arranged, and produced their own material; engineers made as significant a musical contribution
as anyone else to the creation of a recorded sound. Technological developments – multitrack tape recorders, amplifiers, synthesizers, and digital equipment – had changed the meaning of musical instruments
; there was no longer
a clear distinction between producing a sound and reproducing it.
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From a listener's point of view, too, the distinction between music and
noise changed dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. Music became ubiquitous, whether in public places (an accompaniment to every sort of
activity), at home (with a radio, CD player, or cassette player in every room),
or in blurring the distinction between public and private use of music
(a Walkman, boom box, or karaoke machine). The development of the compact disc only accelerated the process that makes music from any place and
any time permanently available. Listening to music no longer refers to a special place or occasion but, rather, a special attention – a decision to focus on a
given sound at a given moment.
Rock is the music that has directly addressed these new conditions and
kept faith with the belief that music is a form of human conversation, even as
it is mediated by television and radio and by filmmakers and advertisers. The
rock commitment to access – to doing mass music for oneself – has survived
despite the centralization of production and the ever-increasing costs of manufacture, promotion, and distribution. Rock remains the most democratic of
mass media – the only one in which voices from the margins of society can
still be heard out loud.
Rock music will be central to 21st-century ways of doing things. Rock,
in short, not only reflects (and reflects on) social and cultural change; it is also
a social force in its own right.
Notes:
1. to establish new fashion – основать (учреждать) новую моду;
2. to trace rock’s influence on other music – проследить влияние рока
на другие направления музыки;
3. ubiquitous – вездесущий, повсеместный;
4. a Walkman – аудиоплеер, плеер (как вместе с радиоприемником
и наушниками, так и без них; первоначально название торговой
марки).
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VI. WORLD-FAMOUS PERFORMERS
LOUIS ARMSTRONG – THE KING OF JAZZ
Louis Armstrong grew up in dire poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana,
when jazz was very young. As a child he worked at odd jobs and sang in boys
quartet. In 1913 he was sent to the Colored Waifs’ Home as a juvenile delinquent. There he learned to play cornet in the home's band, and playing music
quickly became a passion; in his teens he learned music by listening to the
pioneer jazz artists of the day, including the leading New Orleans cornetist,
King Oliver
bands, becoming skillful enough. In the early 1920s he played in Mississippi
riverboat dance bands.
Oliver's
Orleans ensemble style, and it included outstanding musicians such as the
brothers Johnny
strong in 1924. The young Armstrong became popular through his ingenious
ensemble lead and second cornet lines, his cornet duet passages (called
“breaks”) with Oliver, and his solos. He recorded his first solos as a member
of the Oliver band in such pieces as “Chimes Blues” and “Tears,” which Lil
and Louis Armstrong composed.
Encouraged by his wife, Armstrong quit Oliver's band to seek further
fame. He played for a year in New York City in Fletcher Henderson’s
and on many recordings with others before returning to Chicago and playing
in large orchestras. There he created his most important early works, the
. Armstrong developed rapidly: he played in marching and jazz
Creole Jazz Band was the apex of the early, contrapuntal New
and Baby Dodds and pianist Lil Hardin, who married Arm-
band
Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of 1925–28, on which he
emerged as the first great jazz soloist. By then the New Orleans ensemble
style, which allowed few solo opportunities, could no longer contain his explosive creativity. He retained vestiges of the style in such masterpieces as
“Hotter than That,” “Struttin' with Some Barbecue,” “Wild Man Blues,” and
“Potato Head Blues” but largely abandoned it while accompanied by pianist
Earl Hines. By that time Armstrong was playing trumpet, and his technique
was superior to that of all competitors. Altogether, his immensely compelling
swing; his brilliant technique; his sophisticated, daring sense of harmony; his
ever-mobile, expressive attack, timbre, and inflections; his gift for creating vital melodies; his dramatic, often complex sense of solo design; and his outsized musical energy and genius made these recordings major innovations in
jazz.
Armstrong was a famous musician by 1929, when he moved from Chicago to New York City and performed in the theatre review Hot Chocolates.
He toured America and Europe as a trumpet soloist accompanied by big
bands; for several years beginning in 1935, Luis Russell's big band served as
the Louis Armstrong band. During this time he abandoned the often bluesbased original material of his earlier years for a remarkably fine choice of
popular songs by such noted composers as Irving Berling and Duke Ellington.
With his new repertoire came a new, simplified style: he created melodic
paraphrases and variations as well as chord-change-based improvisations on
these songs. His trumpet range continued to expand, as demonstrated in the
high-note showpieces in his repertoire. His beautiful tone and gift for structuring bravura solos with brilliant high-note climaxes led to such masterworks as
“That's My Home,” “Body and Soul,” and “Star Dust.” One of the inventors of
scat singing
, he began to sing lyrics on most of his recordings, varying melodies or decorating with scat phrases in a gravel voice that was immediately
identifiable.
Though his own bands usually played in a more conservative style,
Armstrong was the dominant influence on the swing era, when most trumpeters attempted to emulate his inclination to dramatic structure, melody, or technical virtuosity. Trombonists, too, appropriated Armstrong's phrasing, and
saxophonists as different as Coleman Hawkins and Bud Freeman modeled
their styles on different aspects of Armstrong's. Above all else, his swing-style
trumpet playing influenced virtually all jazz horn players who followed him,
and the swing and rhythmic suppleness of his vocal style were important influences on singers from Billie Holiday to Bing Crosby.
In most of Armstrong's movie, radio, and television appearances, he was
featured as a good-humoured entertainer. He played a rare dramatic role in the
film New Orleans (1947), in which he also performed in a Dixeland band.
This prompted the formation of
Louis Armstrong's All-Stars, a Dixieland band
that at first included such other jazz greats as Hines and trombonist Jack Teagarden. For most of the rest of Armstrong's life, he toured the world with
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changing All-Stars sextets; indeed, “Ambassador Satch” in his later years was
noted for his almost nonstop touring schedule. It was the period of his greatest
popularity; he produced hit recordings such as “Mack the Knife” and “Hello,
Dolly!” and some outstanding. In his last years ill health curtailed his trumpet
playing, but he continued as a singer. His last film appearance was in Hello,
Dolly! (1969).
More than a great trumpeter, Armstrong was a bandleader, singer, soloist, film star, and comedian. One of his most remarkable feats was his frequent
conquest of the popular market with recordings that thinly disguised authentic
jazz with Armstrong's contagious humour. He nonetheless made his greatest
impact on the evolution of jazz itself, which at the start of his career was
popularly considered to be little more than a novelty. With his great sensitivity, technique, and capacity to express emotion, Armstrong not only ensured
the survival of jazz but led in its development into a fine art.
Notes:
1. odd jobs – случайная работа;
2. Colored Waifs’ Home – дом для беспризорных;
3. to seek further fame – искать дальнейшую славу;
4. to retain vestiges – сохранять признаки;
5. vital – живой.
A GIFTED RUSSIAN PIANIST
Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter is a Soviet pianist whose technical virtuosity combined with subtle introspection, made him one of the preeminent
pianists of the 20th century. Though his repertoire was enormous, he was especially praised for his interpretations of J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Franz
Liszt, Sergey Prokofiev, and Modest Mussorgsky.
Richter's father, an organist and composer, taught his son musical rudiments at an early age – the young Richter largely taught himself piano on
the side. As a teenager he became a coach at the Odessa (Ukraine) Opera,
where he astounded others with his sight-reading ability. Though initially a
composer, by age 20 Richter had devoted himself to the piano. He made his
concert debut in 1935 in Odessa, and in 1937 he became a pupil at the Mos-
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cow Conservatory. Having met Prokofiev in 1937, Richter went on to premiere the composer's Sonata No. 6 in 1940, as well as Sonata No. 7 and So-
nata No. 9 in later years. In 1945 Richter won the U.S.S.R. Music Competition. During the 1950s he toured Eastern Europe and China. Meanwhile, the
West eagerly awaited Richter's appearance. “Every musician in town was present,” reported the New York Times, for his 1960 debut at Carnegie Hall. To
great acclaim, he subsequently toured western Europe, Japan, and elsewhere.
He favoured intimate venues, such as the Aldeburgh festival in England,
where he played Schubert duets with his friend Benjamin Britten. In 1964
Richter started a lifelong association with the French Fêtes Musicales near
Tours. Because he detested the artificiality of the studio, more than half of his
recordings were of live performances. Among Richter's distinguished recorded
works are his superb performances of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition,
as well as his controversial interpretation of Schubert's Sonata in B-flat Major,
which exhibits an unusually slow, hypnotic first movement.
Notes:
1. rudiments – основы; элементарные знания;
2. coach – репетитор, инструктор;
3. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition – фортепианный цикл
«Картинки с выставки» М. Мусоргского, 1874;
4. Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major – Соната Си-бемоль мажор
Ф. Шуберта, 1925.
FRANK SINATRA
Frank Sinatra is an American singer and actor. He became the idol of
squealing teenagers in the late 1930s and went on to serve as an object of fascination for several generations over a period of more than six decades.
Known variously as "the Voice," "Ol' Blue Eyes," and "Chairman of the
Board," he was celebrated nearly as much for his offstage activities – not only
his brawling, womanizing (and four wives: Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner, Mia
Farrow, and Barbara Marx), and hobnobbing with both mobsters and prominent politicians but also his acts of extreme generosity – as for his performances on over 200 albums, in some 60 films, and in countless nightclub and
107
concert appearances. A number of songs, among them "One for My Baby,"
"My Way," "Come Fly with Me," "New York, New York," and "My Kind of
Town," were considered his signatures. Sinatra's start in show business began
in the mid-1930s with a win for the Hoboken Four (Sinatra and three friends)
on the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour" radio program. A period of touring followed, and in 1939 he became a vocalist with Harry James's band. A move to
Tommy Dorsey's band came a few months later, and in 1942, having become
the idol of bobby-soxers, Sinatra went solo. Concert and radio performances
and appearances in such films as Anchors Aweigh (1945), Take Me Out to the
Ball Game (1949), and On the Town (1949) enhanced his popularity. In the
early 1950s, however, Sinatra's public image suffered because of his love affair with Gardner while he was still married to his first wife. Health problems
followed, and his career seemed to be over. Nonetheless, he persevered and
was given the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953), and his performance won him an Academy Award for best supporting actor. He followed
that with strong performances in such films as Suddenly (1954); Guys and
Dolls (1955); The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), for which he received an
Academy Award nomination for best actor. Lighter in tone were the motion
pictures he made with his group of friends known as the Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop). Sinatra's recording
career also was reborn, especially when he began to take advantage of the
long-playing record. His most successful single came in 1966 with "Strangers
in the Night." Sinatra announced his retirement in 1971, but in 1973 that retirement ended with the television special "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back." He continued to record and tour until 1995. Among the most prestigious of his numerous awards were the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1971), a Grammy
legend award (1994), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1997).
Notes:
1. offstage activities – деятельность вне сцены;
2. brawling – скандалить (скандал);
3. bobby-soxers – девочки-подростки;
4. to hobnob with mobsters – «водить дружбу» с бандитами (гангсте-
рами).
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WORLD-FAMOUS CELLIST
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich is a Soviet conductor and pianist
and one of the best-known cellists of the 20th century.
Trained by his parents (a cellist and a pianist) and at the Moscow Conservatory (1943–48), Rostropovich in 1956 became professor of cello at the
Moscow Conservatory. He began touring abroad in the 1950s. He also performed as a pianist in recitals with his wife, the soprano Galina P. Vishnevskaya, and in 1968 he made his debut as a conductor.
When in 1970 Rostropovich made clear his support of the dissident Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the government sharply curtailed his ability to travel. In 1974, however, he and his wife were permitted to leave the
country, and in 1975 they announced their decision not to return to the Soviet
Union. In 1977 Rostropovich became music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. The Soviet government deprived them
of their citizenship in 1978 but reversed that decision in 1990.
Although sometimes criticized for occasional over-romanticism, Rostropovich is admired for his keen musicianship, both in contemporary works
and in the established concert repertory. His exploitation of the tonal resources
of the cello is considered exceptional. Composers who wrote works for him
include Aram Khachaturian, Sergey Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, Benjamin Britten, and Witold Lutoslawski.
Notes:
1. exploitation – разработка;
2. exceptional – исключительный.
BOB DYLAN
Bob Dylan, original name Robert Allen Zimmerman, is an American
folksinger who moved from folk to rock
music in the 1960s, infusing the lyrics of rock and roll, theretofore concerned mostly with the intellectualism of
classic literature and poetry. Hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation, Dylan sold more than 58 million albums, wrote more than 500 songs recorded by
more than 2,000 artists, performed all over the world, and set the standard for
lyric writing.
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He grew up in the northeastern Minnesota mining town of Hibbing. He
acquired his first guitar in 1955 at age 14 and later, as a high school student,
played in a series of rock and roll bands. In 1959, just before enrolling at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he served a brief stint playing piano
for rising pop star Bobby Vee. While attending college, he discovered the bo-
hemian section of Minneapolis known as Dinkytown. Fascinated by Beat po-
etry and folksinger Woody Guthrie, he began performing folk music in
coffeehouses, adopting the last name Dylan (after the Welsh poet Dylan Tho-
mas). Restless and determined to meet Guthrie he relocated to the East Coast.
Arriving in late January 1961, Dylan was greeted by a typically merci-
less New York City winter. A survivor at heart, he relied on the generosity of
various benefactors who, charmed by his performances, provided meals and
shelter. He quickly built a cult following and within four months was hired to
play harmonica for a recording session. There Dylan's unkempt appearance
and roots-oriented song material earned him the whispered nickname
“Hammond's Folly.”
Dylan's eponymous first album was released in March 1962 to mixed
reviews. Dylan's second album, released in May 1963, sounded a clarion call.
Young ears everywhere established him as part of the burgeoning countercul-
ture, “a rebel with a cause.”
In April 1963 Dylan played his first major New York City concert at
Town Hall. That summer Dylan made his first appearance at the Newport
(Rhode Island) Folk Festival and was virtually crowned the king of folk mu-
sic.
The prophetic title song of his next album, The Times They Are
A-Changin' (1964), provided an instant anthem. Dylan was perceived as a
singer of protest songs, a politically charged artist with a whole other agenda.
Dylan spawned imitators at coffeehouses and record labels everywhere. At the
1964 Newport Folk Festival, while previewing songs from Another Side of
Bob Dylan, he confounded his core audience by performing songs of a per-
sonal nature, rather than his signature protest repertoire. Although his new lyr-
ics were as challenging as his earlier compositions, a backlash from purist folk
fans began and continued for three years as Dylan defied convention at every
turn.
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