The Linguistic Culture-2 (british media) (1157941), страница 30
Текст из файла (страница 30)
Some young musicians combined their vocal and composer masteries with their dramatic skills (so-called “performance”). The talented singer Diamond Galas (1955) using a very gloomy vampire stage image and lots of technical and light effects created unsurpassed emotional performances full of energy and expressions. Joan La Barbara (1947) possessing a wonderful vocal technique brilliantly experiments with modern compositions written by her husband Morton Subotnic and chamber music easily passing from charming whispering and thrilling moans to anxious beast cries. Black composer Anthony Davis (1951) improvises with l modernism, ,jazz and Indian rhythms.
Besides folk and pop music so-called “serious” music is also very famous. The greatesr opera house “Metropolitan Opera” is located in New York, but there plenty of other ones. Now live performances of classical music are held in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other cities, many of which are famous for their orchestras and conductors. There are over 1500 orchestras throughout the country, many of which can be termed “major” or world-class. The symphony “The Last Alice” (1976) by David Del-Tredichy written on Luis Carol’s “Alice in Wonderland” is successfully played by Chicago symphonic orchestra.
School and university ensembles and orchestras play a very important role throughout the country to bring up the level of the culture of young people.. There are hundreds of city, state and nationwide music competitions. In addition, the universities provide cultural offerings in many areas of the nation, especially in smaller places, which would otherwise find it difficult to support a major symphony or concert.
In the 20PthP century besides George Gershwin and Aaron Copland there appeared the number of very talented composers: Leonard Bernstein (1919-80) who wrote two ballets, an opera and the music for “West Side Story”, Philip Glass and Stiven Polus whose operas were staged in New York and Minneapolis (state Minnesota). Some modern composer experimented with moderns forms. ' composition “Keys to the City” devoted to the Centenary of the Brooklyn Bridge is a very complex weave of romantic concert traditions with the city noises and folklore elements and jazz.
One of the very popular genre in the USA “musicals” have truly American origin. The first popular musical was “Oklahoma», performed in the 1940s. Since “Oklahoma” many musical plays have appeared on the American stage. Among the most noteworthy musicals there were “On your Toes”(1966) with original George Balanchire choreography, “Funny Face”, “My One and Only” based on Gershwins shows. Very successful musicals were also “ My Fair Lady”, the musical version of B. Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” and “West Side Story”, portraying tense and hostile relationships between the Puertoricans and native New Yorkers. The musicals”Cats”, “A Chorus Line» and “Hair” are ones of the longest-running shows on Broadway.
Closely related to the development of American music in the early 20PthP century was the emergence of a new, and distinctively American, art form - modern dance. American choreographers searched for new methods of expression. Merce Cunningham (1919) introduced improvisation and raqndom movement into performances. Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) incorporated African dance elements and black music into his works. Among the early innovators was Isadora Duncan (1878-1927), who stressed pure, unstructured movement in classical ballet.
The first American ballet troupes were founded in the 1930s, when dancers and choreographers teamed up with visionary lovers of ballet such as Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996) who invited Russian choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983) to the United States in 1933. The two established the School of American Ballet, which became the New York City Ballet in 1948. Ballet manager and publicity agent Richard Pleasant (1909-1961) founded America’s second leading ballet organization, American Ballet Theatre, with dancer and patron Lucia Chase (1907-1986) in 1940.
While Pleasant included Russian classics in his repertoires, G. Balanchine announced that his American company would mix classical idioms with the new forms. Since then, the American ballet scene has been a mixture of classical revivals and very original works, choreographed by such talented former dancers as Jerome Robbins, Robert Joffrey , Eliot Feld, Arthur Mitchell, and Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov..
New World, New Architecture
American architects of the later 19PthP – 20PthP centuries found themselves in a world being reshaped by science, industry, and speed. The needs of a new American society pressed them, while steel, reinforced concrete, cast iron and electricity were among the many new technical means at their disposal. The 20PthP-century architecture often approached engineering, expanding and incorporating modern stylistic elements, and works such as the Brooklyn Bridge by John and Washington Roebling (1869-83) number among the most impressive of all American achievements. The 20PthP-century architecture often approached engineering, expanding and incorporating modern stylistic elements.
For many people the symbol of America. is New York Manhattan skyline. The origin of skyscrapers can be traced back more than a hundred years to the American Midwest and has become the result of a need for more working and living space in places where the cost of land was very high. During the end of the 19PthP century and beginning of the 20PthP the great number of high, narrow buildings began to rise not only in New York, but also in the center of Chicago and some other American cities. Each skyscraper was built around a framework of steel beams, which carried the weight of the building. The walls of the early skyscrapers were often made of stone, but later of glass and metal. They give the images not only of modernity and technical progress but also of visual expression to the impact of the United States on the world. Among the world’s tallest buildings there are the Chrysler Building (1930) and the Empire State Building (1931).Still today, despite the loss of the World Trade Center towers, no city in the world has more completed individual free-standing buildings over 500 ft.(152 m.) than New York City with its 184 so-called skyscrapers.
From the 1930s onwards, skyscrapers also began to appear in Latin America and Asia .Now Hong Kong comes in with the most in the world (186). From the late 1950s and the early 1960s skyscrapers began to appear in Africa, the Middle East and Australia.
Immediately after World War 11, the Soviet Union planned eight massive skyscrapers dubbed “Stalin Towers” for Moscow, seven of which were built. The rest of Europe also slowly began to permit skyscrapers, starting with Madrid in Spain during the 1950-60s.
The Americanization of popular taste and habits was not restricted to music, movies and architecture.From supermarkets to hot dogs, from Coca-Cola, Chewing Gum to nylon fiber and blue jeans – all these things which are so common to people of very many countries were born in the USA .In many areas of life American popular tastes and attitudes have conquered the world
The first supermarkets appeared in the USA in the 1950s. With their huge variety of foods and other consumer goods supermarkets gave the American shoppers a visible proof of the superiority of the American way of organizing a nation’ economic life. When supermarkets proved a commercial success in the USA, they quickly spread to other countries, first in Europe and then in other parts of the world.
The growing popularity of hamburgers, fried chicken and other easily prepared “fast food” spread American eating habits all over the world. Blue jeans and T-shirts Americanized the dress habits of the people on every continent. The habit of wearing jeans is –along with the computers, the copying machine, rock music, polio vaccine and skyscrapers – one of the major contributions of the US to the postwar world at large.
1. Answer the questions.
I.How many periods are there in the USA art and literature and which
factors are they associated with?
2.What are the most famous art galleries and museums in the USA?
3.What are your favorite American writers?
4.Where is the center of theatrical life in the USA?
5. Who are America’s most important playwrights?
6. Where and how was American cinema born?
7.Why did Hollywood become a symbol of the American dream?
8.Why did Charlie Chaplin continue to be popular?
9.What musical traditions has American music assimilated?
10.How did jazz emerge? What musicians made a great contribution to the
popularization of jazz?
11.When did Rock-‘n-Roll appear on the musical scene?
12.What American composers do you know?
13.Why so-called sky-scrapers appear in the USA?
14.Why did American pop culture become so popular abroad?
2. Render the text in English
А) Друг президентов и мафиози
В 30-e гг. Фрэнк Синатра был так необыкновенно популярен в Америке, что школьники писали сочинения на тему «Почему я люблю Синатру» Сам же Синатра объяснял, почему он любит петь: «Когда я пою, я верю, что я честен». Честность была важнее тембра, она доходила до сердец людей». В конце сороковых годов, когда синатромания почти схлынула с Американской эстрады, состоялось второе рождение певца в кино. В августе 1964 года на экраны вышел фильм «Отсюда до вечности», в котором Фрэнк с потрясающей силой сыграл трагическую роль американского солдата. Академия киноискусства присудила ему «Оскара» в 1953 году. Американская публика вновь и бесповоротно полюбила Фрэнка Синатру. Он стал первым и непререкаемым эстрадным певцом и плейбоем Америки, конфидентом президента и «крестных отцов» мафии. Менялись времена, менялись вкусы и стили. Не менялся один Синатра. Он пережил Бинга Кросби и Элвиса Пресли, пережил «Битлз» и диско, выстоял перед натиском рок-н-ролла. “ All or Nothing at All”-пел Синатра. Все знали и верили – пока поет Синатра, все о’кей, пока поет Синатра, будет мир и стабильность.
Б) Элвис Пресли
Еще никто не вызывал столь буйных девичьих восторгов как Элвис, а это первый индикатор успеха. Респектабельный Синатра тоже был кумиром, от него падали в обморок, а от Элвиса визжали и высвобождали все глубинные инстинкты. Концерты Пресли превращались в погромы – таких страстей в Америке еще не было. Впервые Элвис узнал, что это такое, во Флориде, когда несколько девиц вскочили на сцену и в клочья разодрали его пиджак. Пока певец спасал гитару, две самые отчаянные фанатки цеплялись за его ботинки. Еще одна девушка зубами захватила правую штанину – и материя треснула и разорвалась. С тех пор Элвис выступал только в джинсах.
В начале 56-го, когда собственное сердце певца уже было разбито, за Пресли закрепилась первая строчка в американском хит-параде с песней «Отель разбитых сердец». По силе влияния на aмериканское общество Элвис сравним разве что с Кларком Гейблом из фильма «Унесенные ветром». Немудрено, что он очень скоро был приглашен в Голливуд. Первый фильм Элвиса вышел в 1956 году и назывался «Люби меня нежно». Его главный герой сражался в Гражданской войне и погибал к финалу. Талант был явный. Продюсеры почувствовали «запах» денег, и за полтора года Элвис еще трижды собирал полные залы кинотеатров. Всего за 15 лет Пресли снялся в 33 лентах, и все они имели кассовый успех.
3. Discussion Problems:
1.American art and Literature.
2.Who are your most popular American writers?
3.The USA music and its trends and characteristics.
4. The USA pop culture and its influence on the young people.
Contents:
1.Предисловие …3
2. Intoduction…4
3. Section I . Introducing The United Kingdom 5
4.Chapter I. Geography and climate 6-9
4.Chapter II The History of the English Language 10- 11
5. Chaper III The political structure and elections 12-16
6. Chaper IV Education in Britain 16-18
7.Chapter V Cultural life, Customs and Traditions 18-34
8.Chapter VI British Media 35-46
9. Chapter VII English folklore 46-60
10. Section II. Introducing The USA 61
11. Chapter I Some First Significant Stages of the USA History 62- 83
10. Chapter II Years of Growth 84-99
11. Chapter III The Governmental and Political System 99-110
12. Chapter IV Education 110- 124
13. Chapter V The American English Language 124-136
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