Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 6
Текст из файла (страница 6)
The Queen`s Guard, traditionally dressed in theirscarlet tunics and characteristic busbies, parade from St.James`s Palace tojoin the contingent at Buckingham Place, while the new guard, led by amilitary band, arrive from Chelsea. The British calendar is full of manyother events which add merriment and pageantry to British life. One ofthe oldest ceremonies is The Ceremony of Keys, taking place everynight in Tower in London. Tourists can watch the four bearskinnedguards waiting to escort the keys, the unarmed soldier carrying an ornatelantern, and the warder locking the gates of each tower. The Keys arecarried by the warder to the Queen’s House for the night.Besides state, national traditions and traditional ceremonies, there arevery strong traditions concerning the Englishmen’s private life, first of alltraditions of homes and houses.23Homes and HousesAbout 67% of the people in Britain own their houses or flats. There area lot of sayings connected with the notion “home”: “There’s no place likehome”, “My home is my castle”, “East or West, but Home is best” (R.Kipling), etc.
Is an Englishman's home really his castle? Everyone knowsthe love of British people to their houses. There are different types ofthem. Detached houses are usually in expensive suburbs, quite far fromthe town centre, near the countryside. Semi-detached houses are often insuburbs which are nearer the town center. Terraced houses and blocksof flats are mostly found in town centers. They can either be large houseswith five and four bedrooms or very small two-storey houses with one ortwo bedrooms. Some typical British homes are the smallest in Europe; infact they are downright pokey, with only an average usable floor space of76m sq.
British living space per home is 12 % smaller than the averageSpanish home, 14% smaller than in Germany and 16 % smaller than inFrance. Most of the houses have gardens and many British people spend alot of time in them. Most gardens, even small ones, have flowers and alawn.An Englishman's home is as much his castle is it was 100 years ago even if today's castle has modern conveniences, home cinema andunderfloor heating. Social, cultural and economic factors are changingnot only the face but also the role of British home life..British FoodBritain has some excellent traditional food: lamb from Wales, shellfishand salmon from Northern Ireland, fresh or smoked fish from Scotland,cheeses from England and Wales.
Traditional British cuisine issubstantial, yet simple and wholesome. British have long believed in fourmeals a day. The great British breakfast with the meal of porridge, fish,bacon and eggs, toast and marmalade, is well-known throughout theworld. "And then to breakfast, with what appetite youhave!"(Shakespeare).Not less famous is traditional English five o’clocktea. English so-called high tea with much food has spread around theworld too. The two main meals of the day, lunch and dinner, are bothmore or less alike.
Most British people have lunch about one o’clock, anddinner at half past seven or later.British cuisine has always been multicultural, a pot of eclectic styles,influenced in ancient times by the Romans and in the medieval times bythe French. When the Normans invaded, they brought with them the24spices of the east. Sugar came to England at that time, and wasconsidered a spice - rare and expensive. Before the arrival of sugar,honey and fruit juices had been the only sweeteners. During Victoriantimes good old British and Scottish stodgy was mixed with exotic spicesfrom all over the Empire.
And today despite being part of Europe theBritish keep up their links with the countries of the former BritishEmpire, now united under the Commonwealth. Beef is still big industryin England, and the Scottish Aberdeen Angus is one of British mostfamous beef-producing breeds.England is also famous for dairy products and delicious cheeses:Stilton, Cheshire, blue Cheshire, double Gloucester, red Leicester, sageDerby, and cheddar.Among English cakes and pastries, many are tied to the variousreligious holidays of the year.
Hot Cross Buns are eaten on Good Friday,Simmer Cake is for Mothering Sunday, Plum Pudding for Christmas.Unfortunately a great deal of damage was done to British cuisine duringthe two world wars, when supplies of many goods became short. Shipsimporting food stuffs had to travel in convoys and so they could makefewer journeys.In the late 1980's, British cuisine started to look for a new direction.Although some traditional dishes such as roast beef and Yorkshirepudding, Cornish pasties, steak and kidney pie, shepherd pie, bread andbutter pudding remain popular, there has been a significant shift in eatinghabits.
Rice and pasta have accounted for the decrease in potatoconsumption. The consumption of meat has also fallen. Vegetable andsalad oils have largely replaced the use of butter. In fact fish is stillimportant to the English diet, as Britain is after all an island surroundedby some of the richest fishing areas of the world.British people spent less time cooking now. Even traditional Englishbreakfast is a bit of a myth today. Many British people prefer to have abowl of cornflakes or a cup of coffee with a cigarette for breakfast than toindulge in the wonders of this feast A lot of people unite two meals:breakfast and lunch together (so-called “ brunch”).
When British peoplego out for a meal, they very often go to their local Indian or Chinese,Italian or Turkish restaurant or buy a “takeaway”. In London especially,one can experiment with the best of the world food as there are manydistinct ethnic cuisines to sample. Some of the British people today aremore likely to eat fast food. A hamburger and French fries in25McDonald’s is the most popular meal in Britain. But not all fast food isAmerican. The traditional British fast-food meal is fish and chips. Kebabhouses, often run by Greek or Turkish are also very popular.
Anincreasing number of people eat convenience food in the evening. Suchfood is already cooked-all one has to do is heat it up in the microwave.British MusicMusic of the United Kingdom has absorbed all forms of folk musicassociated with the United Kingdom and its people. The British musiccan be described as a union of four countries, each with their ownmusical traditions including Church music, court and popular music.Church music and religious music in general had been profoundlyaffected by the Reformation from the 16th century and forced thedevelopment of a distinctive national music of worship and belief.
Incontrast to church music, court music remained much more integratedinto wider European culture and later developed into modern classicalmusic. It began to obtain clear national identities in the components of theUnited Kingdom towards the end of the 19th century, producing manygood composers and musicians.Folk music flourished until the era of industrial revolution when itbegan to be replaced by new forms of popular music, including Musichalls and brass bands. Realization of this led to two folk revivals, one inthe later 19th century and the mid-20th, which kept folk music as animportant sub-culture within the society. In the early 20th centuryAmerican influences became most dominant in popular music, withyoung performers producing their own versions of American music,including rock n' roll from the late 1950s and developing a parallel musicscene.
This led to the explosion of the 'British Invasion' of America of theearly 1960s, headed by The Beatles, from which point rock music andpopular music in general became something of an Anglo-Americancollaboration, with movements on one side of the ocean being exportedto the other. As a result of these factors the United Kingdom remained amajor source of musical innovation and participation in the modern era.Folk Music, Folk Song and Folk Dance are comparatively recentexpressions, being extensions of the term Folklore, coined in 1846 by theEnglish antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs,and superstitions of the uncultured classes”.
The term had been derivedfrom the German expression Volk, in the sense «the people as a whole"26as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herderand the German Romantics over half a century earlier.Although English folk ballads and customs like Morris dancing (aritual dance performed with sticks to the accompaniment of fiddle andaccordion) had existed for hundreds of years, they were performed onlyin rural communities and generally were not exposed to the wider world.In the early 20th century with the work of song collectors Francis JamesChild and Cecil Sharp the situation began to change.
Without thepioneering work of these two men the English folk-rock scene as it existstoday would not have developed. The repertoires of many currently activeperformers include songs collected by them. The five volume set “TheEnglish and Scottish Popular Ballads” by Child, containing 305 songs,has become an invaluable sourcebook for performers. In 1903, CecilSharp bicycled around England collecting ballads and tunes. He lecturedabout his findings and in 1911 formed the English Folk Dance Society(which merged with the Folk Song Society to become the English FolkSong and Dance Society in 1932). Sharp continued his research bytraveling to Appalachia in 1916 and there found songs that had Englishroots.The English folk revival's first wave came in the 1960s, withperformers such as the Young Tradition, the Watersons, DaveyGraham, Pentangle and Fairport Convention.
The Young Traditionand the Watersons focused on traditional ballads and Capella singing.Guitarist Graham created the "folk baroque" school, blending traditionalmelodies with the elegance of classical music. The quintet Pentanglefurther explored that style by adding jazz-influenced instrumentaltechniques and rhythms. Fairport Convention started out as a pop/folkband, playing interpretations of the original Bob Dylan’s tunes.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
