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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
is pre-eminent for brilliant scales, arpeggios, and trills, rapid passages and oc-
taves. It has a wide range from lowest to highest tone and commands great
rhythmic vitality. Nineteenth-century piano writing leaned toward sensuous
beauty and lyricism. Present-day composers have found a new use for the piano
as a rhythmic percussion instrument of crisp sonority, both solo and as a mem-
ber of the orchestra.
The organ, once regarded as "the king of instruments", is a wind instru-
ment into whose pipes the air is fed by mechanical means. The pipes are con-
trolled by two or more keyboards and a set of pedals. Gradations of tone are
made possible by means of swell boxes. The organ possesses a multicoloured
sonority and majestic harmonies that fill a huge space.
Notes:
1. diverse rhythmic figure – разнообразные ритмические образы;
2. to be indispensable for accompanying – являться необходимым
для аккомпанемента.
21
II. ENGLISH MUSIC
THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC
England is world famous for its literature, painting (particularly for its
water-colours), for its theatre, but not for its great composers. Now why is this
so? Germans would have insisted 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 XVI century and early XVII witnessed Germans visiting England to
listen to music. Even back in the XV century Dunstuble enjoyed a European
reputation for his church music, and nearly two centuries later Dow-land’s
songs and aires for the lute were widely printed and performed abroad. Speaking of the music in England of the XVII century we should consider not
merely the splendid quality of Purcell's best work but 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 XVIII and XIX 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 XVIII century produced no
great composers. The XVIII 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 XIX 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. "It is my idea," he said, "that music is in the air all around us, the world is
full of it and it is important that you should take as much of it as you wish."
What he took was not always distinguished, but he managed to transform it
into something that shone with all the brilliancy of the post-romantic orchestra.
His music is full of sound and movement. It comes from an eclectic late
XIX century style. Elgar borrowed elements from Brahms, Strauss, and even
from Verdi, but it is stamped with British personality all the same. "He might
have been a great composer if he had not been such a perfect gentleman," one
of his admirers wrote. Nevertheless Elgar served his country well and England
will long remember him.
Frederik Delius (1862-1934) comes next. He found it essential that mu-
sic should be the expression of a poetic and emotional nature, and indeed De-
lius'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 unrecognized as
an artist.
The English renaissance in music was heralded by an awakening of in-
terest in the native song and dance. Out of this interest came a generation of
composers. The most important figure among them was Ralph Vaugham Wil-
liams (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. "Have we not all about us forms of musical expression which
we can take and purify and bring into line with the greatest art? Why should
not the musician build national monuments like the painter, the writer or the
architect?" He was in the first place a melodist. His love of folk tunes was part
of an essentially melodic approach to music. His natural expression was dia-
23
tonic, with strong leanings toward modal harmony and counterpoint. He fa-
voured old forms – the passacalia, fugue and concerto grosso, also the Eliza-
bethan fantasia with its flowing counterpoint. He held the attention of the
world due to his superb command of the grand form.
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.
Notes:
to care little – мало заботиться;
to enjoy a reputation – пользоваться репутацией;
not merely – не просто;
to delight in – наслаждаться;
to be unfavourable to – относиться неблагосклонно к …;
to manage to (inf). – удаваться;
to demand for – потребность в;
to draw inspiration – черпать вдохновение.
HENRY PURCELL
Henry Purcell was born in 1659 in Westminster, London. His father,
Henry Purcell, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal. After his death in 1664,
young Henry Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Thomas
Purcell. Through him the boy was admitted to the Chapel Royal as a chorister
and studied under Pelham Humfrey, a pupil of Lully.
The talented boy started composing music at the age of 9. In 1676 he
was appointed copyist at Westminster Abbey and in the same year he com-
posed the music to the works by Dryden and Shadwell. These were followed
by the music to Mrs. Behn's tragedy Abdelazor, and in 1678 by an overture
and masque for Shadwell's version of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. The
excellence of these compositions is proved by the fact that they contain songs
and choruses which never fail to please, even at the present day.
24
He continued to write songs and anthems, till in 1680, at the age of 21,
he was appointed organist of Westminster Abbey – the most honourable posi-
tion an English artist could occupy at that time. He now devoted himself al-
most entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his
connection with the theatre.
The composition of his opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very im-
portant landmark in the history of English dramatic music, has been attributed
to this period. It is a musical drama in the strictest sense of the term, a genuine
opera, in which the action is entirely carried on in recitative, without a word of
spoken dialogue; and the music is of the most genial character, full of inspira-
tion, overflowing with spontaneous melody, and in every respect immensely
in advance of his age. It never found its way to the theatre, though it was very
popular among private circles.
In 1682 Purcell was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal. His first
printed composition, Twelve Sonatas, was published in 1683.
In 1685 the composer wrote two of his finest anthems I was Glad and
My Heart is Inditing, for the coronation of James II. In 1687 he resumed his
connection with the theatre by scoring the music to Dryden's tragedy Tyrannic
Love. In 1693 he wrote the songs for Dryden's version of Shakespeare's The
Tempest; next year he produced his dramatic masterpiece King Arthur, also
written by Dryden. But Purcell's greatest work is undoubtfully his Те Deum
and Jubilate, written for St. Cecilia's Day, 1694, the first English Те Deum
composed with orchestral accompaniment. In this work Purcell was so far in
advance of his age that it was annually performed in St. Paul's Cathedral till
1712. In the years to come it was given alternately with the similar creation of
Handel. Purcell did not long survive the production of this great work. He died
on the 21st of November, 1695, and was buried under the organ in Westmin-
ster Abbey. His widow published a number of his works including the now
famous collection of songs called Orpheus Britannicus.
Besides the operas already mentioned, Purcell wrote Don Quixote, The
Indian Queen and others, a vast quantity of sacred music, and numerous odes,
cantatas and other pieces.
25
Notes:
1. a gentleman of the Chapel Royal – член придворной капеллы;
2. masque – маска, увеселительное придворное представление в Анг-
лии XVI-XVII веков, приуроченное к торжественному пиршеству.
Основу маски составляли танцы и шествия в маскарадных костю-
мах под музыку, чередующиеся с выступлениями певцов и поэта,
читающего пояснительный текст. Сюжеты носили обычно мифоло-
гический или пасторальный характер;
3. Timon of Athens – «Тимон Афинский», трагедия В. Шекспира, на-
писанная в 1608 г.;
4. which never fail to please – которыми нельзя не наслаждаться;
5. Dido and Aeneas – «Дидона и Эней». Опера написана Перселлом на
сюжет «Энеиды» Вергилия. Дидона, карфагенская царица, дала
приют знатному троянцу Энею, который прибыл в Карфаген после
падения Трои. Дидона полюбила его и покончила с собой, когда
Эней покинул ее;
6. The Tempest – «Буря» (1612), одна из последних пьес В. Шекспира
с очень сильными элементами фантастики.;
7. King Arthur– «Король Артур», пьеса Драйдена, написанная
в 1691 году, о легендарном короле Артуре и его рыцарях Круглого
Стола, прославившихся необыкновенными подвигами;
8. Те Deum – гимн для хора (или хоров) и симфонического оркестра
на текст католического песнопения. Те Deum Laudamus (лат.) –
«Тебя бога хвалим»;
9. Jubilate (лат.) – «Торжествуйте»;
10. St. Cecilia's Day – День святой Цецилии, покровительницы музыки
у католиков, празднуется ежегодно 22-го ноября. В Англии
в эти дни проходит большой фестиваль музыки, во время которого
исполняются специально написанные кантаты; их авторами
часто были великие композиторы: Г. Перселл, Ф. Гендель, Б. Брит-
тен и др.;
11. Don Quixote [don 'kwiksat]– «Дон Кихот», опера на сюжет одно-
именного сатирического романа М. Сервантеса;
12. The Indian Queen – «Королева индейцев», опера по пьесе Драйдена
и Говарда, поставлена в Лондоне в 1695 г.
26
EDWARD ELGAR
Edward Elgar was born on the 2nd of June, 1857 in the town of Worces-
ter where his father was for many years organist in the Roman Catholic
Church of St. George. His father's connections with music at Worcester, with
the Glee Club and with the Three Choirs Festival, supplied his son with varied
opportunities for a musical education, and he learnt to play several instru-
ments. He worked as a band-master and later as conductor of an amateur or-
chestra before he succeeded his father as organist at St. George's, Worcester,
in 1885. Previously he was a member of an orchestra in Birmingham, and in
1883 an intermezzo by him was played there at a concert. At that period Elgar
also wrote a certain amount of church music. In 1885 the young composer
moved to London; but finding no encouragement there retired to Malvern
in 1891.
In 1904 he went to live at Hereford and in 1905 he was made professor
of music at Birmingham University. He was hardly known to the public at the
time till his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius was performed in Birmingham
in 1900, but this was at once received as a new revelation in English music,
both at home and abroad, especially by Richard Strauss in Germany. The
composer was made a Musical Doctor at Cambridge.
His experience in writing church music is to be regarded as a great con-
tribution into the movement of developing the more artistic and sensuous side
of religious music – a thing which took place in all European music at the link
of the two centuries. That is why the same interest was attached to his later
oratorios: The Apostles (1903) and The Kingdom (1906). But Elgar's sudden
rise into popularity drew attention to his other productions.
In 1896 his Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf was recognized by musi-
cians as a fine work, and in the same year his Scenes from the Bavarian High-
lands and Lux Christi were performed. His song cycle Sea Pictures was sung
by Dame Clara Butt at Norwich in 1899 and his orchestral Variations on an
Original Theme were given at a Richter concert in the same year. In 1901 his
popular marches Pomp and Circumstance were played at a Promenade Con-
cert, the stirring melody of his song "Land of Hope and Glory" being effec-
tively utilized. It is impossible to enumerate all Edward Elgar's works, which
have excited a good deal of discussion in musical circles.
27
Nevertheless he was recognized as one of the few front-rank English
composers of his day. His most important later production – his first orchestral
symphony – produced in 1908 with immediate success raised his reputation as
a composer to an even higher place. It is a work of remarkable power and
beauty which developed the symphony form and is combined with the origi-
nality of a real master of his art.
In 1908 Elgar resigned his professorship at Birmingham University and
till his dying day made public appearances chiefly as a conductor.
Notes:
1. a glee – вокальное произведение для трех и более сольных голосов,
исполняющееся обычно без аккомпанимента;
2. a glee-club – хор, исполняющий произведения для трех и более
голосов;
3. The Dream of Gerontius – «Сновидения Геронтия», оратория
на текст поэмы кардинала Ньюмена;
4. at the link of the two centuries – на рубеже двух веков (XIX и XX);
5. Elgar's sudden rise into popularity – внезапный рост популярности
Элгара;
6. Lux Christi (лат.) – «Свет Христа»;
7. to make public appearances – выступать перед публикой.
TRADITIONAL TUNES FROM FOLK SINGERS
Among the composers in England famous for their going into the
villages and taking down the traditional tunes from the lips of folk singers the
most important figure was Ralph Vaughan Williams. His being professor of
composition at the Royal College of music helped him to train many gifted
musicians of the new generation. He was the most active member of the so-
called "folk song school of composers". He produced a lot of works, vocal and
instrumental in all genres. In the last years of his life Vaughan Williams was
regarded as the unofficial composer-laureate of his native land.
28
The main idea of his creative activity consisted in bringing art into the
most direct relationship to life. He wrote: "The composer must not shut him-
self up and think about art. He must live with his people. The composer must
think of making his art an expression of the whole life of the community."
But life is not lived in the abstract. It is lived in a certain place with a certain
group of people. Such attitude to music brought him to folk music.
In his music Vaughan Williams used the ancient tunes of the peasantry,
in which he found the living profound expression of the spirits and traditions
of his people. The ancient tunes gave him also a feeling of being freed from
foreign influences. "We have all about us forms of musical expression which
we are able of raising to the level of great art. We must cultivate a sense of
musical citizenship, the musician must build national monuments like the
painter, the writer and the architect." Vaughan Williams was mainly a
melodist; his love of folk tunes was part of an essentially melodic approach to
music. Vaughan Williams holds the attention of the world largely because of
his having had a good command of the grand from. His music is full of fresh-
ness, it is cool and wholesome, and it is energetic and lyrical at the same time.
It is very noble in tone. It reflects the powerful personality and the warm heart
of this most English of English composers.
His compositions include 9 symphonies; concertos for piano, violin, and
for tuba; choral works; operas Huge the Drover; Sir John in Love; The Poi-
soned Kiss; Riders to the Sea; ballets Old King Cole; chamber music; many
songs.
Notes:
the Royal College of music – Королевский музыкальный колледж
(находится в центре Лондона; дает профессиональное среднее
образование и высшее образование; также присуждает премии
за успехи в области музыки; основан в 1883 году);
Huge the Drover – опера «Хью-гуртовщик», 1924;
Sir John in Love – опера «Влюбленный сэр Джон», 1924;
The Poisoned Kiss – опера «Отравленный поцелуй», 1937;
Riders to the Sea – опера «Уходящие в море», 1937.
29
ARTHUR BLISS
The English composer Arthur Bliss (born in London) was educated at
Rugby and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and studied music there under
Charles Wood.
In 1913 he went to the College of Music in London, where he had les-
sons for a short time from Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Hoist. But he
joined the army at the outbreak of World War I and served off and on
throughout the period of hostilities (1914-18), being wounded twice. On his
return home he decided not to undergo any further academic training but
worked for himself to such purpose that he not only developed a very assured
technique, but was able to accept a professorship for composition at the Col-
lege of Music. In 1919 he continued to experiment in unusual chamber music
combinations of voice such as his Rhapsody for soprano and tenor with flute,
English horn, string quartet and double-bass. Conversations, humorously de-
scriptive pieces for string trio, flute and English horn, date from the same year,
while another curiously scored work was the Concerto for piano, tenor (ex-
clamatory words of no definite meaning), strings and percussion. So far Bliss
had clearly been interested chiefly in the solution of new problems; but, enter-
prising as he was, his music was felt to be as yet the outcome of theories first
established by reasoning and then carried out with little inspiration, though
with much ingenuity. Music more likely to show lasting qualities was ex-
pected of him. The incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's Tempest
in London in 1921 did not show to great advantage. A much greater event,
however, was the production of the Colour Symphony, in 1922. There was still
a preconceived theory at the bottom of this work, each movement of which
was based on a colour and its ideological associations (e. g. purple: royalty,
pageantry and death, etc.); but the composer's chief concern now was that the
music as such should strike the listener, and when he revised the work some
ten years later, he had much less stress on the descriptive aspects of it.
In 1923 he left England for California. He was musically associated
with the film industry and composed a string quartet, piano pieces and songs.
He was back in England in 1926 and made a striking reappearance as a com-
poser with the orchestral Hymn to Apollo and with a new version of the freak-
30