British architecture

IV. Translate the following words and phrases: 

medieval sculpture, was destroyed, stone crosses, have survived, the best examples of Gothic Sculpture, tomb sculpture, elegant decorative work in wood, tends to vary 

V. Find English equivalents:

надгробие, изящная декоративная работа по дереву, работать в абстрактном стиле, богатая резьба по камню, средневековая скульптура, лучший образец готической скульптуры 

VI. Match the beginning and the end of sentences: 

Первый столбик

Much medieval sculpture was

Many Celtic and Anglo-Saxons crosses from the 7^th to the 11^th centuries

The only work produced in the 16^th century

Tomb sculpture

There are 13^th and 15^th century tombs

Later in the 17^th century 

Второй столбик

is tomb sculpture

was often of alabaster and brightly coloured.

in churches and was destroyed by the Puritans.

at Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.

have survived.

Grinling Gibbons did elegant decorative work, mostly in wood in private houses as well as public buildings.  

VII. Complete the sentences:

1. The modern movement in sculpture is…
2. Later Victorian Sculpture tends to…
3. The only work produced in the 16^th and early the 17^th centuries is…
4. Many Celtic and Anglo-Saxon stone crosses…
5. Much medieval sculpture was in…
6. One of the best examples of Gothic sculpture in England…
7. There are 13^th and 14^th century tombs…
8. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries sculpture…

VIII. Give the beginning of the sentences:

1. …was destroyed by the Puritans in the 17^th century.
2. …is the west front of Wells Cathedral.
3. …have survived.
4. …have rich carvings.
5. …at Westminster Abbey.
6. …is tomb sculpture.
7. …often of alabaster and brightly coloured.
8. …became simpler.
9. …to vary between the over-realistic and over-simplified.
10. …is best-known for his sculpture.

IX. True, false or don't know.

1. Many Celtic and Anglo-Saxon stone crosses from the 7^th to the 11^th centuries have survived.
2. All medieval sculpture was destroyed by the Puritans.
3. Many Norman churches have rich carvings.
4. One of the best examples of Gothic sculpture in England is the west front of Wells Cathedral.
5. There are many fine busts and sculptures at Westminster Abbey.
6. The only work produced in the 16^th and early 17^th century is tomb sculpture.
7. Tomb sculpture was made of marble and quite white.
8. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries sculpture became more complicated.
9. Later Victorian sculpture tends to vary between the over-realistic and the over-simplified.
10. The modern movement in sculpture is entirely abstract.

X. Speak about:

1. medieval sculpture.
2. the best example of Gothic sculpture.
3. the only work of the 16^th and 17^th centuries.
4. the modern sculpture.

XI. Answer the questions:

1. What do you know about medieval sculpture in Britain?
2. What can you say about the best example of Gothic sculpture in England?
3. What do you know about tomb sculpture?
4. What was decorated in the 17^th century?
5. What do you know about sculpture of the 18^th and 19^th centuries?
6. Who are best known sculptors of the 20^th century?
7. In what style did they work?

XII. Translate sentences from Russian into English.

1. Многие скульпторы 20 века работают в абстрактной манере.
2. Поздняя Викторианская скульптура имеет тенденцию к изменению от сверх-реалистической до сверх-простой.
3. Много средневековых скульптур было разрушено пуританами в 17 веке.
4. В Вестминстерском аббатстве сохранились могилы 13 и 14 веков.
5. Сохранилось много кельтских и англосаксонских крестов 7 - 11 веков.
6. Один из лучших образцов готической скульптуры - фронтон (фасад) собора Уэллса.
7. Надгробия 16 и 17 веков изготавливались из гипса и ярко раскрашивались.
8. В 18 и 19  веках скульптура стала проще.
9. Позже, в 17 веке Гримлинг Гиббонс производил изящную декоративную отделку, как частных домов, так и общественных зданий, главным образом, по дереву.
10. Якоб Эпштейн известен своими бюстами из бронзы.

XIII. Read the text for more information about British sculpture. 

Henry Moore

(1898 - 1978)

The emerged in the early twenties a sculptor who was within a few years to transform the climate in which British sculptors work and to give a lustre to British sculpture which it had not enjoyed since the Middle Ages. 

This was Henry Moore. Like the other sculptors of his time he looked attentively at contemporary painters, in particular at Picasso, but he has evolved sculpture that is more independent of contemporary painting than that of any British sculptor and more original. 

Some Moore's sculptures have the appearance of abstractions, but the intention behind even the most abstract of these has not been to create a form valid in itself and without reference to nature but to penetrate to an inner reality, to provide, perhaps, analogies for certain principles of structure, growth, erosion and rhythm. The greater part, however, testifies frankly to his interest in life and most of all to his interest in his fellow human beings. For all his rejection of the classical he is in one sense at least conspicuously classical himself, in his indifference to the individual and in his concern with such general conceptions as the Family, Mother and Child, Warrior, even generic Man. His figures, like all his forms, are massive and hieratic; they do not suffer the stresses of common life. They possess a latent primeval power, as rare in modern sculpture as it is common in that of primitive people. Moore is a man of a few slowly but logically evolving ideas, chiefly concerning fundamental aspects of man and nature, which he has expressed with a simplicity with memorable strangeness. 

XIV. Read the list of monuments and statues, situated in London and making it beautiful and unique.

1. Marble Arch, designed by Nash in 1827 was originally intended to form a triumphant gateway to Buckingham Palace. Now it stands in sad isolation at the centre of a bus roundabout of Mayfair, where it was brought 1850.
2. Queen Victoria Memorial stands in the traffic island in front of Buckingham Palace. This marble column, erected in 1911, is topped by the gilded figure of Victory, while Queen Victoria sits facing down the Mall accompanied by the figures of Charity, Truth and Justice.
3. The Cenotaph was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens after war of 1914 - 1918 and now commemorates the dead of both world wars. The word “cenotaph” means an empty tomb from Greek. It's situated in Whitehall Street.
4. Cleopatra's Needle is tapered column of stone with a sphinx on either side. This obelisk is the oldest monument in London. About 3.500 years ago it was hewed by slaves by the orders of a Pharaoh near the Nile delta in Egypt. In 1878 it was brought to England and erected on the embankment.
5. The Monument was designed by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire to commemorate the disaster. Wren designed a 60 metre fluted column, capped by an urn with gilded flames, to which we may climb up the 345 steps in side.
6. Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square was erected to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar and to honour Lord Nelson. The 44 metre-high column is made of granite and the statue was raised on the top of in 1843.
7. The Iron Duke, the Duke of Wellington, a national hero after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte was commemorated in the monument, erected in France and bought by the British government in 1816. It was presented to Wellington and placed in Piccadilly not far from Apsley-house - Wellington's home.
8. The Statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus was designed as the Angel of Christian Charity by Alfred Gilbert in 1893. This tiny figure of a winged archer is a memorial to the philanthropic Earl of Shaftesbury who did much to improve the lot of factory workers in the 19^th century.
9. The Statue of Charles II, which stands in the Figure Court, the Central Court of the Chelsea Royal Hospital, the bronze statue, was created by Grinling Gibbons in 1692. It depicts the king as a Roman soldier.
10. The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park was erected by George Gilbert Scott to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. In the centre is Albert himself, holding the catalogue for 1851 Great Exhibition, which he organised. Completed in 1876, the memorial is crowned with 169 portraits of painters, poets and architects. Its corners illustrate the peoples of Asia, America, Europe and Africa, while allegorical figures represent Albert's interests: Commerce, Manufacture, Engineering and Agriculture.
11. Alfred the Great in front of Holy Trinity Church in Trinity Church Square is a 14^th century statue of Alfred the Great, the 9^th-century king of England. This is the oldest commemorative statue which exists in London.
12. The Statue of Boudieca  (Boadicea), the rebellious queen of the Iceni tribe, who led the revolt against the Romans and burned down London in AD 60, is depicted in a stirring bronze statue by Thomas Thornycroft on Victoria Embankment, just by the Houses of Parliament.
13. The Statue of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was erected by John Doubleday in Leicester Square in 1987.
14. The Statue of Captain Robert Scott was made by his widow, Lady Scott and placed in Waterloo Place. Scott is portrayed wearing the clothes he wore for the trip to Antarctida, when he set up to his last fateful expedition.
15. The Statue of Sir Winston Churchill the greatest Prime Minister of Great Britain was erected not far from the Houses of Parliament.

XV. Answer the questions:

1. What monument or statues in London impressed you of all? Why?
2. Are you interested in sculpture?
3. Do you think monuments should be erected in towns and cities? What for?
4. Are there any monuments in the place you live in?
5. Do you know any English sculptors?
6. Do you know any Russian sculptors?
7. Are there any differences in English and Russian sculptures? What are they?

UNIT 5

CLASSICAL MUSIC IN BRITAIN 

Are you a lover of classical Music? If so, you will fully appreciate the text that follows. If not, you will see how much you lose!

Read the text, use the dictionary, if necessary.

From “Christmas Holiday.”

By W. S. Maugham 

Charlie was very fond of music. He knew the delight it gave him, the pleasure, partly sensual, partly intellectual, when intoxicated by the loveless that assailed his ears, he remained which the composer had worked out his idea.  

Looking into himself, to find out what exactly it was he felt when he listened to one of the greater symphonies, it seemed to him that it was a complex of emotions, excitement and at the same time peace, love for others and a desire to do something for them, a wish to be good and a delight in goodness, a pleasant languor and a funny detachment as though he were floating above the world and whatever happened there didn't very much matter; and perhaps if you had to combine all those feelings into one and give it a name you'd give it was happiness.

1. Read and translate the following words:

simultaneous [s5m1lte5nj1s] одновременный

the art of canon [`k0n1n] канон

leap [li*p] прыжок, промежуток

landmark [`l0ndma*k] веха

chamber [`t&e5mb1] камерный

stringed instruments [str5%d] струнные

keyboard [`ki*b4*d] клавиатура

masque [ma*sk] театр масок

to gain [$e5n] получать, приобретать

anthem [`0n71m] гимн, хорал

secular [`sekjul1] светский

to dominate [`d4m5ne5t] господствовать

permanent [`p1*m1n1nt] постоянный

lute [lu*t] лютня

Psyche [`sa5k5] Психея 

II. Read the words and try to understand their meanings.

stimulus, ode, cantata, sonata, suit, violin, viol, operetta, polyphonic 

Part I

III. Read the text and listen to music.

Like every other country, Britain has a rich folk-music and folk-dance tradition.

Like many other Western peoples, the British today are reviving their folk traditions. On May Day in village streets you can sometimes see groups of men in funny hats with jingling bells on their ankles, waving handkerchiefs and beating sticks together. They are performing the so-called Morris dance, which is said to have originated as a shepherd dance. 

The earliest surviving English song is said to be “Summer Is Coming In” written at Reading Abbey about 1240 A. D. It is the earliest extant composition in six simultaneous vocal parts and is the earliest extant example of the art of canon. 

A leap of almost two centuries must be made to the next landmark, the work of John Dunstable and Leonel Power. They wrote a great deal of church music and did a lot to shape the development of polyphonic music. The music of that period reached its height in the Masses and other choral works of John Taverner.

(Listen to the song “Nancy” by T. Morlie). 
 

The period of the second half of the 16^th century, the so-called Elizabethan Period, was the Golden Age of English music and literature. John Marbeck, Thomas Tallis, Christopher Tye and William Byrd wrote church music. In Byrd's time instrumental and secular vocal music became more widely cultivated. In addition to church music Byrd wrote chamber music for stringed instruments and keyboard music. He was one of the first of English composers to write madrigals, solo songs and fantasies. At the end of the 16^th century madrigals of Thomas Morley, Thomas Weelkes, John Wilbye and Orlando Gibbons appeared.

(Listen to W. Byrd's “Variations,” “Dances.”) 

The supreme master of the solo song with lute accompaniment was John Dowland and of keyboard music, John Bull.

(Listen to “Fantasies” by John Bull.) 

The Restoration of the 17^th century brought a new stimulus. Charles II started an orchestra on the French model and revived the Chapel Royal in which such brilliant composers as Pelham Humfrey, John Blow and Henry Purcell received their musical training.

(Listen to the fragment of the Hymns and madrigals by H. Purcell.) 

The more important form in English art in the 17^th century was the masque. Milton's “Comus” with music by Henry Lawes, was one of the most famous examples of the masque. The earliest surviving English opera is Locke's “Psyche” produced in 1675.