Рэп на улице и в храме

Если христианский рок многими воспринимается в штыки, то с христианским рэпом смириться еще труднее. Рэп – музыка улицы, неправильно ассоциирующаяся с сексом и насилием. Христианский рэп разделяет эту репутацию со своим мирским собратом, хотя он несет слушателям идеи надежды и спасения души. Исполнители любой христианской музыки утверждают, что на их творчество огромное эмоциональное воздействие оказали негритянские духовные песнопения, спиричуэлс. Христианский рэп сочетает в себе смысл и эмоциональность традиционных спиричуэлс с современными уличными ритмами. Майкл Пис записал на «Реюньон рекордс» два пользующихся успехом альбома христианского рэпа. «Слово Божье можно передать многими способами», - уверен он.

Современные христианские певцы и музыканты считают, и не без оснований, что люди, особенно молодежь, могут проникаться религиозными идеями, когда те преподносятся в доступной для них форме.

- Я считаю, что моя музыка очень психологична, - рассказывает христианский рок-певец Кенни Маркс. – Она всецело посвящена людям. Я пою о том, как растут дети, о школе, одиночестве, смерти – в общем, она посвящена современном христианину, его борьбе за выживание, совершенствованию, его счастью и благополучию.

Творчество обладателя престижной музыкальной премии «Грэмми» Лорнелла Хэрриса, даже с точки зрения духовенства, является «похвальным», и хотя он не рокер, тем не менее, считает, что путей к сердцу верующих множество. Хэррис подчеркивает, что стиль христианской музыки может быть любым, но тексты не должны быть сложными для понимания. «Правда, надо внимательнее относиться к словам исполняемых песен. Я, например, если не слышу или не понимаю, о чем поет певец, не смогу танцевать под эту мелодию». – заявляет он.

Многие работающие на ниве христианской музыки считают, что она будет играть все более заметную роль в жизни христианской паствы, в особенности после того, как оскандалились несколько телевизионных проповедников-евангелистов, уличенных в мошенничестве. Но ведь публика по-прежнему жаждет духовного подъема. «Люди все больше убеждаются в том, что христианская музыка – еще одна форма выражения Божьего слова», - считает Марк Герсмел из группы «Уайт харт».

 

Music in Britain

 

TASK for scanning:compare the two texts; find complementing facts

task for recall:write out topic sentences of every paragraph (your text) mix them up in order; swap the texts; after scimming the text your partner should regroup your boiled–down version in the right order.

Prepare: 1) a dictation; 2) a summary on music in Britain on the basis of the two texts

1.

It is debatable whether the tastes of kings reflect those of their subjects. However, three English monarchs certainly shared their people’s liking for music. Richard I (1175 – 1199), the “Lionheart”, composed songs that he sang with his minstrel, Blondel. It is said that when the king was a prisoner in Austria, Blondel found him by singing a song known only to him and the king, who took up the tune in the tower of the castle in which he was secretly imprisoned. Henry VIII (1491 – 1547), notorious for his six wives, was a skilled musician and some of his songs are still known and sung. Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901) and her husband, Prince Albert, delighted in singing ballads. The great composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) was a welcome guest at their court, where he would accompany the Queen and the Prince Consort when they sang. Mendelssohn had a great liking for Scotland, which is shown in his “Scottish Symphony” and the overture “The Hebrides”.

The British love of music is often unfamiliar to foreigners, probably because there are few renowned British composers. The most famous is Henry Purcell (1658 – 1695), whose opera “Dido and Aeneas” is a classic. The rousing marching song “Lillibulero” belonging to one of imitators of Purcell, now used by the BBC as an identification signal preceding Overseas Service news bulletins, was said to have “sung James II out of three kingdoms” when he fled from Britain in 1688. Sir Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934) is known for his choral and orchestral works, some of which have been made more widely known by the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976), a composer with a very personal style, has become world-famous for such operatic works as “Peter Grimes” and “Billy Budd”. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) was deeply influenced by English folk-music, as is shown by his variations on the old tune “Greensleeves” (which most people consider a folk-song). In recent years there has been a great revival of folk-music, and groups specialising in its performance have sprung up all over Britain. This phenomenon has its roots in the work of Cecil Sharp (1859 – 1924), who collected folk songs and dances (in which both Vaughan Williams and Elgar took an active interest).

Present-day concern with music is shown by the existence of something like a hundred summer schools in music, which cater for all grades of musicians, from the mere beginner to the skilled performer. These schools, where a friendly atmosphere reigns, provide courses lasting from a week-end to three or four weeks, and cover a wide range, from medieval and classical music to rock-and-roll and pop. There are also important musical festivals in towns such as Aldeburgh, Bath, and Cheltenham. Pop-music festivals draw thousands of people, especially young people. In the great cities there are resident world-famous orchestras and from all over the world great performers come to play or sing in Britain. In many towns there are brass bands, and the players are often such people as miners or members of the local fire-brigade, for music in Britain is not just a highbrow interest, it is above all democratic.

 

2.

Englandis 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 XVIth century and early XVIIth witnessed Germans visiting England to listen to music. Even back in the XVth century Dunstuble enjoyed a European reputation for his church music, and nearly two centuries later Dowland’s songs and aires for the lute were widely printed and performed abroad.

Speaking of the music in England of the XVIIth 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 XVIIIth and XIXth 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 XVIIIth century produced no great composers. The XVIIIth 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 XIXth century, we should remember that the music 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 XIXth 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 music should be the expression of a poetic and emotional nature, and indeed Delius’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 interest in the native song and dance. Out of this interest came a generation of composers. The most important figure among them was Ralph Vaugham Williams (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 an 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 diatonic, with strong leanings toward modal harmony and counterpoint. He favoured old forms – the passacalia, fugue and concerto grosso, also the Elizabethan 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.

 

Tasks:

1) Using the five texts speak of: