What makes many young people crazy about pop music and indifferent to classical

Music? What are your ideas of this subject? Do you agree with the author's opinion?

It's a true that some young people are crazy about pop music and indifferent to classical, but I am absolutely sure that is a majority. I guess most youngstersnowadays prefer popular music to concertos, sonatas, preludes and so on. Young people, I suppose, are fond of pop music because of the beat-which makes it easier to listen to than classical music and requires less concentration. Also, the words that do every day life seem more immediateand important than the words of operas and songs by classical composers. Besides, the singers of modern songs are usually very little older than their fans and come from ordinary homes, which helps their fans to identify themselves with them. Often young people are not so crazy about the music as about the pop star. And on the other hand, in general, classical music demandsa very high degree of concentration, some knowledge of composer's life and times. This is beyond a lot of young people.

Part II. Musical genres and styles.

Symphony

In Western music, a symphony is an extended musical composition, scored almost always for orchestra. "Symphony" does not necessarily imply a specific form though most are composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form and this is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "classical" symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, do not conform to this model.

History of the form

Origins

The word symphony derives from Greek συμφωνία, meaning "agreement or concord of sound", "concert of vocal or instrumental music", "harmonious" (Oxford English Dictionary). This Greek word was used to describe an instrument mentioned in the Book of Daniel once identified by scholars as a bagpipe (this is identified as the root of the name of the Italian zampogna). However, more recent scholarly opinion points out that the word in the Book of Daniel is siphonia (from Greek siphon, reed), and concludes that the bagpipe did not exist at so early a time, though the name of the "zampogna" could still have been derived from this word. In late Greek and medieval theory, the word was used for consonance, as opposed to diaphonia, which was the word for dissonance. In the Middle Ages and later, the Latin form symphonia was used to describe various instruments, especially those capable of producing more than one sound simultaneously. Isidore of Seville was the first to use the word symphonia as the name of a two-headed drum, and from 1155 to 1377 the French form symphonie was the name of the organistrum or hurdy-gurdy. In late medieval England, symphony was used in both of these senses, whereas by the sixteenth century it was equated with the dulcimer. In German, Symphonie was a generic term for spinets and virginals from the late 16th century to the 18th century (Marcuse 1975, 501). In the sense of "sounding together" the word begins to appear in the titles of some works by 16th- and 17th-century composers including Giovanni Gabrieli (Sacrae symphoniae, 1597, and Symphoniae sacrae, liber secundus, 1615), Adriano Banchieri (Eclesiastiche sinfonie, 1607), Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (Sinfonie musicali, 1610), and Heinrich Schütz (Symphoniae sacrae, 1629).

In the 17th century, for most of the Baroque period, the terms symphony and sinfonia were used for a range of different compositions, including instrumental pieces used in operas, sonatas and concertos—usually part of a larger work. The opera sinfonia, or Italian overture had, by the 18th century, a standard structure of three contrasting movements: fast; slow; fast and dance-like. It is this form that is often considered as the direct forerunner of the orchestral symphony. The terms "overture", "symphony" and "sinfonia" were widely regarded as interchangeable for much of the 18th century.

Another important progenitor of the symphony was the ripieno concerto—a relatively little-explored form resembling a concerto for strings and continuo, but with no solo instruments. The earliest known ripieno concerti are by Giuseppe Torelli (his set of six, opus five, 1698). Perhaps the best known ripieno concerto is Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.

Th-century symphony

Early symphonies, in common with both overtures and ripieno concertos, have three movements, in the tempi quick-slow-quick. However, unlike the ripieno concerto, which uses the usual ritornello form of the concerto, at least the first movement of these symphonies is in binary form. They are distinguishable from Italian overtures in that they were written to stand on their own in concert performances, rather than to introduce a stage work—although a piece originally written as an overture was sometimes later used as a symphony, and vice versa.

Symphonies at this time, whether for concert, opera, or church use, were not considered the major works on a program: often, as with concerti, they were divided up between other works, or drawn from suites or overtures. Vocal music was dominant, and symphonies provided preludes, interludes, and postludes.

The "Italian" style of symphony, often used as overture and entr'acte in opera houses, became a standard three movement form: a fast movement, a slow movement, and then another fast movement. Mozart's early symphonies are in this layout. The early three-movement form was eventually replaced by a four-movement layout which was dominant in the latter part of the 18th century and most of the 19th century. This symphonic form was influenced by Germanic practice, and would come to be associated with the "classical style" of Haydn and Mozart.

The normal four-movement form became, then:

an opening allegro

a slow movement

a minuet or scherzo

an allegro or rondo

Variations on this layout were common, for instance the order of the middle two movements, or the addition of a slow introduction to the first movement.

Vocabulary:

imply подразумевать

movementзд. часть

conform toподчинять, подчиняться

scholarученый

bagpipeволынка

reedязычковый инструмент

simultaneouslyодновременно

medieval средневековый

hurdy-gurdyшарманка

equate withприравнивать, отождествлять

dulcimerцимбалы

genericобщий

spinetспинет

virginalклавесин

forerunnerпредшественник

progenitorпредок, предшественник

binaryдвоичный

distinguishотличать, различать

on smb’s ownсамостоятельно

vice versaнаоборот, в обратном порядке

layoutзд. форма

eventuallyсо временем

latterпоследний (из перечисленных)

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century (with Jacopo Peri's lost Dafne, produced in Florence around 1597) and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid to late 19th century is considered by some a golden age of opera, led by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. This "golden age" developed through the verismo era[1] in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism (Schoenberg and Berg), Neoclassicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. Operas were also performed on (and written for) radio and television.

·

Operatic terminology

The words of an opera are known as the libretto (literally "little book"). Some composers, notably Richard Wagner, have written their own libretti; others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e.g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as "number opera"[2], consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the plot-driving passages sung in a style designed to imitate and emphasize the inflections of speech, and aria (an "air" or formal song) in which the characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic style. Duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. In some forms of opera, such as Singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as arioso. During the Baroque and Classical periods, recitative could appear in two basic forms: secco (dry) recitative, accompanied only by continuo, which was usually a harpsichord and a cello; or accompagnato (also known as strumentato) in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. By the 19th century, accompagnato had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Richard Wagner revolutionised opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what he termed "endless melody". Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagner's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his The Rake's Progress[3] have bucked the trend. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in section 3 below.

History

The word opera means "work" in Italian (it is the plural of Latin opus meaning "work" or "labour") suggesting that it combines the arts of solo and choral singing, declamation, acting and dancing in a staged spectacle. Dafne by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. It was written around 1597, largely under the inspiration of an elite circle of literate Florentine humanists who gathered as the "Camerata de' Bardi". Significantly, Dafne was an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama, part of the wider revival of antiquity characteristic of the Renaissance. The members of the Camerata considered that the "chorus" parts of Greek dramas were originally sung, and possibly even the entire text of all roles; opera was thus conceived as a way of "restoring" this situation. Dafne is unfortunately lost. A later work by Peri, Euridice, dating from 1600, is the first opera score to have survived to the present day. The honour of being the first opera still to be regularly performed, however, goes to Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, composed for the court of Mantua in 1607.

^Vocabulary:

scoreпартитура

incorporateобъединять

spreadраспространять

artificialityискусственность

renownedпрославленный, известный

adventпоявление

emphasizeподчеркивать

inflectionинтонация

in the midstв середине

occureслучаться, происходить

gain the upper handдостигнуть вершины

abolishотменять

distinctionразличие

questпоиск

termтермин

subsequentпоследующий

tendтенденция

buckпротивиться

reviveвозрождать

conceiveзадумывать

Choir

A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.

A body of singers who perform together is called a choir or chorus. The former term is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the choir) and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is far from rigid. The term "Choir" has the secondary definition of a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" of voices and/or instruments in a polychoral composition. In typical 18th to 20th century oratorios and masses, chorus or choir is usually understood to imply more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works.

Structure of choirs

Choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Most often choirs consist of four sections intended to sing in four part harmony, but there is no limit to the number of possible parts as long as there is a singer available to sing the part: Thomas Tallis wrote a 40-part motet entitled Spem in alium, for eight choirs of five parts each; Krzysztof Penderecki's Stabat Mater is for three choirs of 16 voices each, a total of 48 parts. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six and eight.

Choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing (although the American Choral Directors Association[1] discourages this usage in favor of "unaccompanied," since a cappella denotes singing "as in the chapel" and much unaccompanied music today is secular). Accompanying instruments vary widely, from only one to a full orchestra; for rehearsals a piano or organ accompaniment is often used, even if a different instrumentation is planned for performance, or if the choir is rehearsing unaccompanied music.

Types of Choirs

Mixed choirs (with male and female voices). This is perhaps the most common type, usually consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices, often abbreviated as SATB. Often one or more voices is divided into two, e.g., SSAATTBB, where each voice is divided into two parts, and SATBSATB, where the choir is divided into two semi-independent four-part choirs. Occasionally baritone voice is also used (e.g., SATBarB), often sung by the higher basses. In smaller choirs with fewer men, SAB, or Soprano, Alto, and Baritone arrangements allow the few men to share the role of both the tenor and bass in a single part.

Male choirs, with the same SATB voicing as mixed choirs, but with boys singing the upper part (often called trebles or boy sopranos) and men singing alto (in falsetto), also known as countertenors. This format is typical of the British cathedral choir.

Female choirs, usually consisting of soprano and alto voices, two parts in each, often abbreviated as SSAA, or as soprano I, soprano II, and alto, abbreviated SSA.

Men's choirs, usually consisting of two tenors, baritone, and bass, often abbreviated as TTBB (or ATBB if the upper part sings falsetto in alto range. ATBB may be seen in some barbershop quartet music.

Children's choirs, often two-part SA or three-part SSA, sometimes more voices. This includes boychoirs.

• Choirs are also categorized by the institutions in which they operate:
• Church choirs
• Collegiate and university choirs
• School choirs
• Community choirs (of children or adults)
• Signing choirs (of Deaf or Hearing individuals)- using Sign Language rather than voices
• Professional choirs, either independent (e.g.Philippine Madrigal Singers, Anúna) or state-supported (e.g., BBC Singers, National Chamber Choir of Ireland, Canadian Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir).

Some choirs are categorized by the type of music they perform, such as

• Symphonic choirs
• Bach choirs
• Vocal jazz choirs
• Show choirs, in which the members sing and dance, often in performances somewhat like musicals
• Gospel choirs

Skills involved in choral singing

Choral singers vary greatly in their ability and performance. The best choral singers possess (among others) the following abilities:

· to sing precisely in tune (on the correct pitch) and with a vocal timbre (or color) which complements the other singers;

· to sing at precisely controlled levels of volume, matching the dynamics marked in the score or prescribed by the conductor, and not sing so loudly as to be markedly detectable as an individual voice within the section;

· to sight-read music fluently;

· to read and pronounce the text accurately and in the pronunciation style specified by the leader, whatever the language may be. This includes correct diction, proper vowels and timing of diphthongs, and correct placement of consonants;

· to understand and interpret the music and to reflect that understanding in the vocal production of the music;

· to remain completely alert for long periods, monitoring closely what is going on in a rehearsal or performance;

· to monitor one's own singing and detect errors, correcting them as they go along,

· to accept direction from others for the good of the group as a whole, even when the singer disagrees aesthetically with the instructions;

· to produce a healthy and pleasing tone through the use of proper vocal technique;

· to sing using pure vowels through vowel tracking to match the group;

Singers who have perfect pitch require yet other skills:

· to sing music in keys other than that in which it is written, since choirs often sing music in transposed form.

· to stay "in tune" with the ensemble, even in the event the ensemble modulates slightly away from "perfect" pitch

· to provide ensembles with the key or starting pitch that a piece begins on, usually with unaccompanied pieces

Vocabulary:

applyприменять

affiliateприсоединять, присоединяться

choirхор, место хора в соборе

distinctionотличие, различие

rigidжесткий

implyподразумевать

per partв каждой партии

featureпомещать

discourageотговаривать, отговорить

denoteобозначать

chapelцерковь, богослужение

secularсветский

trebleдискант

gospelевангелие, евангелистский

pitchвысота (звука), абсолютный слух

timbre[´tᴂmbƏ(r)]тембр

complementдополнять

detactableзаметный, различимый

consonantсогласный звук

vowelгласный звук

alertчуткий, внимательный

monitorконтролировать, наблюдать

aesthetic[i:s´Ɵetic]эстетический

volumeгромкость

transposeтранспонировать

Folk music

The term folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical folklore. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles.

Origins and definitions

The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions. They are extensions of the term folk lore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes."The term is further derived from the German expression Volk, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by Johann Gottfried Herder and the German Romantics over half a century earlier.

A literary interest in the popular ballad was not new: it dates back to Thomas Percy and William Wordsworth. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances and Franz Josef Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where national identity was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Eastern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain: the music of Dvorak, Smetana, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Liszt, de Falla, Wagner, Sibelius, Vaughan Williams, Bartók and many others drew upon folk melodies. The English term "folklore", to describe traditional music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists.

However, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers", another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission.... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character." Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types.

For Scholes, as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already "seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favour of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him too folk music was, in Charles Seeger's words, "associated with a lower class in societies which are culturally and socially stratified, that is, which have developed an elite, and possibly also a popular, musical culture." In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'."

Revivalists' opinions differed over the origins of folk music: it was said by some to be art music changed and probably debased by oral transmission, by others to reflect the character of the race that produced it.Traditionally, the cultural transmission of folk music is through playing by ear, although notation may also be used. The competition of individual and collective theories of composition set different demarcations and relations of folk music with the music of tribal societies on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on the other. The traditional cultures that did not rely upon written music or had less social stratification could not be readily categorised. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some music became categorised as "World music" and "Roots music".

Vocabulary:

comparativelyсравнительно

extentionпродолжение

loreзнания

coinпридумать, создать выражение

superstitionпредрассудок

deriveпроисходить

evolveразвивать, развиваться

emergenceвозникновение

coincideсовпадать

edgeгрань, край

identityзд. принадлежность

assertотстаивать

revivalistпоследователь

assemblyсобрание

fashionформировать,придумывать форму

submitподчинять

stratifyнаслаивать

compriseвключать и себя, состоять из

demarcationразграничение

tribalплеменной

stratificationрасслоение

proliferationразмножение

rootкорень

Jazz

From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note but one of jazz's iconic figures Art Blakey has been quoted as saying, "No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa".

The word "jazz" began as a West Coast slang term of uncertain derivation and was first used to refer to music in Chicago in about 1915.

From its beginnings in the early 20th century, Jazz has spawned a variety of subgenres, from New Orleans Dixieland dating from the early 1910s, big band-style swing from the 1930s and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s, a variety of Latin jazz fusions such as Afro-Cuban and Brazilian jazz, and free jazz from the 1950s and 1960s, jazz fusion from the 1970s and late 1980s developments such as acid jazz, which blended funk and hip-hop influences into jazz.

As the music has spread around the world it has drawn on local national and regional musical cultures, its aesthetics being adapted to its varied environments and giving rise to many distinctive styles.

Definition

Jazz can be very hard to define because it spans from Ragtime waltzes to 2000s-era fusion. While many attempts have been made to define jazz from points of view outside jazz, such as using European music history or African music, jazz critic Joachim Berendt argues that all such attempts are unsatisfactory.One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term “jazz” more broadly. Berendt defines jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music"; he argues that jazz differs from European music in that jazz has a "special relationship to time, defined as 'swing'", "a spontaneity and vitality of musical production in which improvisation plays a role"; and "sonority and manner of phrasing which mirror the individuality of the performing jazz musician".

Travis Jackson has also proposed a broader definition of jazz which is able to encompass all of the radically different eras: he states that it is music that includes qualities such as "swinging', improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being 'open' to different musical possibilities".Krin Gabbard claims that “jazz is a construct” or category that, while artificial, still is useful to designate “a number of musics with enough in common to be understood as part of a coherent tradition”.

While jazz may be difficult to define, improvisation is clearly one of its key elements. Early blues was commonly structured around a repetitive call-and-response pattern, a common element in the African American oral tradition. A form of folk music which rose in part from work songs and field hollers of rural Blacks, early blues was also highly improvisational. These features are fundamental to the nature of jazz. While in European classical music elements of interpretation, ornamentation and accompaniment are sometimes left to the performer's discretion, the performer's primary goal is to play a composition as it was written.

In jazz, however, the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same way twice. Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician/performer may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will. European classical music has been said to be a composer's medium. Jazz, however, is often characterized as the product of egalitarian creativity, interaction and collaboration, placing equal value on the contributions of composer and performer, 'adroitly weigh[ing] the respective claims of the composer and the improviser'.

In New Orleans and Dixieland jazz, performers took turns playing the melody, while others improvised countermelodies. By the swing era, big bands were coming to rely more on arranged music: arrangements were either written or learned by ear and memorized – many early jazz performers could not read music. Individual soloists would improvise within these arrangements. Later, in bebop the focus shifted back towards small groups and minimal arrangements; the melody (known as the "head") would be stated briefly at the start and end of a piece but the core of the performance would be the series of improvisations in the middle. Later styles of jazz such as modal jazz abandoned the strict notion of a chord progression, allowing the individual musicians to improvise even more freely within the context of a given scale or mode. The avant-garde and free jazz idioms permit, even call for, abandoning chords, scales, and rhythmic meters.

Origins

By 1808 the Atlantic slave trade had brought almost half a million Africans to the United States. The slaves largely came from West Africa and brought strong tribal musical traditions with them. Lavish festivals featuring African dances to drums were organized on Sundays at Place Congo, or Congo Square, in New Orleans until 1843, as were similar gatherings in New England and New York. African music was largely functional, for work or ritual, and included work songs and field hollers. The African tradition made use of a single-line melody and call-and-response pattern, but without the European concept of harmony. Rhythms reflected African speech patterns, and the African use of pentatonic scales led to blue notes in blues and jazz.

In the early 19th century an increasing number of black musicians learned to play European instruments, particularly the violin, which they used to parody European dance music in their own cakewalk dances. In turn, European-American minstrel show performers in blackface popularized such music internationally, combining syncopation with European harmonic accompaniment. Louis Moreau Gottschalk adapted African-American cakewalk music, South American, Caribbean and other slave melodies as piano salon music. Another influence came from black slaves who had learned the harmonic style of hymns and incorporated it into their own music as spirituals. The origins of the blues are undocumented, though they can be seen as the secular counterpart of the spirituals. Paul Oliver has drawn attention to similarities in instruments, music and social function to the griots of the West African savannah.

Vocabulary:

incorporate объединять

pedigree родословная

blue notes блюзовые ноты

spawn порождать, породить

fusion сплав, слияние

span охватывать

sonority звучание

designate обозначать

coherent последовательный, связный

call-and-response зов-отклик

in part отчасти

holler орать, вопить

discretion усмотрение

alter менять, изменять

at will по желанию

medium среда

egalitarian эгалитарный (уравнительный)

adroit ловкий, искусный

bebop род джазовой музыки

core сердцевина, середина

abandon оставлять, отказаться

notion понятие

chord аккорд

mode лад, тональность

scale шкала

tribal племенной

lavish щедрый

cakewalk кекуок

minstrel менестрель

griot*

court musicпридворная музыка

Менестрель (франц. ménestrel, от позднелат. ministerialis - состоящий на службе; англ. minstrel), 1) профессиональный певец и музыкант в феодальной Франции и Англии, иногда рассказчик и декламатор, нередко одновременно поэт и композитор.

*Гриоты –это музыканты Западной Африки. Их можно встретить в Мали, Сенегале, Гвинее и Гамбии, то есть там, где живёт группа народов мандинго. Слово «гриот» (griot) – французское, сами музыканты называют себя джали (jali).

Th century music styles

The 20-th century is by all means considered to be the most influential period of time in the development of music. In the 20-th century there were more prac­tising musicians than in all previous centuries taken together. In the 20-th century there was no mainstream but various styles in music. It is not an easy task to de­scribe these music styles. They reflect the world that was constantly changing. De­sires and fears of the people of the 20-th century found their outlet in music. The 20-th century opened a new era in the history of mankind, and the new epoch was to be described in new musical forms. The rules were left in the past. In the-20-th century everybody could choose the music that he would enjoy. It was exciting in its adventurous freedom.

In the 1920s in New Orleans beautiful music filled the streets and cafes. The black and poor singers sang about their hard lives. Their music — jazz, ragtime and blues— soon travelled to Europe. It was the time when the black music en­tered the whites' culture changing me lifestyle of the people all over the world. Ever since the 1930s music was not just a way to relax. From that time on music began to reflect and determine the people's way of life.

Many sub-cultures developed as a result of the fusion of black and white music cultures. Black music evolved in the Caribbean and in the United States, later it moved to Britain. Such styles as reggae, rap, hip-hop to say nothing of the blues were created by the black community. Today many white musicians either perform the black music or use the black melodies in creating their own songs.

In the 1940s and 1950s new styles of music emerged. Swing, rock'n'roll and singers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry destroyed the laws of moral­ity that were imposed on the people by the Church for centuries. In the 1950s Elvis Presley became the king of rock 'n' roll in the United States of America. The new music travelled to Europe soon. It was especially popular among the teenagers. The parents were really shocked by «Devil's music» that their chil­dren adored. The young people disagreed with their parents, wore their jeans and danced to their rock'n'roll records.

In the 1960s in Great Britain, in Liverpool a new band was created. It was soon to be known world-wide as the «Beatles». John Lennon and Paul McCartney were writing simple songs and performing them so brilliantly that they gave a new impulse for the development of the musical community. Other members of the famous group were George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Such songs as «Yesterday», «Let It Be», «Love Me Do», arid «Yellow Sub­marine» made them the most popular band not only in England, but through­out the world as well.

From the British Isles their music quickly travelled to Europe, America and other continents. Early in 1964 what soon came to be called «Beatlemania» struck the United States. For the first time> British pop music was im­portant abroad. Such U.S. performers as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley ad­mired the music of the «Beatles».

The long hair and tastes in dress of the musicians became popular in dif­ferent countries. The freshness and' excitement of the earliest days of rock 'n' roll and simple but engaging lyrics of John Lennon and; Paul McCartney kept the group at the top of popularly charts for several years. They won recognition from the music industry in the form of awards for performances an songs. Soon they became not only popular, but rich as well. With the money they earned they could experiment with new musical forms and arrange­ments. The result was a variety of songs ranging from ballads to complex rhythm tunes and songs of social comment: Their music inspired hundreds to create new music.

In 1969 at Woodstock, near New York a great rock festival attracted nearly half a million young people; Most of "them were hippies, who shocked the-world with their beards, longhair; old jeans and their calls for peace and love. They came to listen to such new stars: as Jimmy Hendrix and Joe Cocker. They sang- about^- the war in Vietnam and about violence in the world. The music performed at Woodstock had a tremendous influence on the development of the culture of the youth. The young people rose in protest against the mercantile society. The ideals of the hippies are still living in many hearts. In the middle of the 1990^rs the Woodstock festivals were revived. But today Woodstock is no longer a great parry it used to be in 1969"; Young people who come to Woodstock today simply want to see the violent youth of their parents.

"The mid-1970s witnessed great changes in the music. The gentle mood of the 1960s was gone. The music became violent and aggressive. This was a protest of the new generation, not peaceful pacifist protest of Woodstock, but protest aimed at the negation and destruction of the existing order. Hard rock, heavy metal and punk became popular among the young. Such groups as «AC/DC>>, «Kiss», «Black Sabbath>>; and «Sex Pistols» shocked the pub­lic by their music and behavior. Although music of such kind still has its fans, the peak of its popularity has decreased.

Music that developed in the 1970s and 1980s had its own peculiarities. Melodies were simple and often unoriginal, different groups would easily bor­row the popular melodies written by competing groups. Young people would not listen alone to their favourite bands; they would rather have a get-together or a party or go to a disco club. The new music styles that appeared in the 1980s were aimed at dancing and disco clubs, thus rhythm and beat became more important than the melody.

Multiculturalism found its expression in the music. In the 1980s young people started to listen to different kinds of music and they were not afraid of choosing what they really loved. No single style or set of styles can be attrib­uted to the 1980s and 1990s. The best word to characterise what was going on in the worldof music at that time is diversification.

The epoch found its best expression in techno music. A British band «Depeche Mode» was the first to express the realities of a complex and con­stantly changing society through highly elaborate music. This was the music of technological advance and breakthrough, the message of the rhythm was the dependence of our civilisation on the machines that were able to do eve­rything faster and better than humans do.

The 1990s witnessed further changes in the world of music. Pop music became extremely fashionable among young people. Madonna, Michael Jackson, and «Spice Girls», and «Backstreet Boys» give an example of what teenagers preferred to listen. At' the same time a powerful opposition to the pop music appeared. Rave, techno, rap, chaos, and acid styles were gaining momentum in the 1990s. Young people who preferred this kind of music would never attend a pop show because of a general disgust and hatred for pop music.

The music of the 20-th century did a lot to change the outlook of the people, make peace, bring some positive social changes. It still plays a great role in the life of the people of the 21-st century. Everything either happy or tragic that occurs in our life is set to music.

Questions for discussion:

- What was typical of American music of the 20-th century?

- In the 20-th century the USA developed several distinctive and highly influential types of music: jazz, blues, country, and rock'n'roll. The most important performers were Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane in jazz; Muddy Waters in the blues, Hank Williams in country and western, and Elvis Presley in rock 'n' roll.

-Does music play an important role in the life of young people?

- Yes, it does. It even determines, their life style and fashion. Teenagers try to imitate their favourite musicians in appearance, dress, and lifestyles. Hippies originally tried to imitate the «Beatles». Hippies usually have long hair, they are dressed in torn clothes. People who prefer heavy metal would rather be dressed in leather and be richly decorated with decorations made of iron.

- What music do you like?

- In fact I can listen to almost any kind of music, my tastes range from classic music to heavy metal. At the same time there are certain styles of mu­sic that I prefer. I believe that music should be energetic, that is why I am fond of the German group «Scooter» that performs electronic music. They were extremely popular in our country in the late 1990s, although in the English speaking countries not many were aware of their existence. In 1999 the «Scooter» visited Russia and gave a concert in Moscow at «Olympiysky.» This was a fantastic and unforgettable show. They performed all their best songs including their hit «How much is the fish?».

- What is your favourite band?

- As I have already mentioned there are many groups that I am fond of. A couple of years ago I preferred the «Scooter». I still like this group, but now I think that the band I like most of all is the «Savage Garden». This is an Australian group that started to perform in the 1990s. The members of the «Savage Garden» are Daniel Jones and Darren Hayes. My favourite song by the «Savage Garden» is «To the Moon and Back». It is very lyrical and in­spiring. Their latest singles are «Chained to You» and «I Knew I Loved You».

Part III. At the concert.