Module 4 Music

Module 4 MusicIntroductionLook at the photos of Chinese and western musical instruments and answer the questions.konghou guzheng pipa mandolinharp yueqin lute1.Which instruments have strings?2.Which Chinese and western instruments look similar?3.Which of the instruments does the musician hold when he / she isplaying?Read the information about Chinese and western musical instruments.1.The konghou is an instrument with strings. It came to China fromthe west during the Han Dynasty about 2,000 years ago.2.The guzheng has been used for more than 2,300 years. It looks likea table harp.3.The pipa is a lute with four strings and is a relative of the Europeanlute. It came to China from Central Asia in the fourth century.4.The yueqin is a round instrument like a mandolin. It was calledqinpipa during the Han Dynasty.Now discuss the questions with other students.1.How many of the Chinese instruments have you heard?2.Do you know any artists who play them?3.Do you know any Chinese classical music pieces which featurethese instruments?4.Do you like the sound of traditional Chinese music? Give reasonsfor your answers.Reading and VocabularyRead Part 1 of the passage and explain the references.1.... during her visit to China. Who visited China?2.... she taught me to play the yueqin. Who taught her to play?3.I have been living there since then. Where has she been living?4.... each one has its special way of interpreting the classical pieces.Each what?5.The same is true of my second instrument. What is true about thesecond instrument?Read Part 2 of the passage and choose the correct answers.1. Traditional singing is ____.not such an important influencethe most important influence on Liu Fang's style2. When people listen to her playing, ____.they think they can hear singingthey also hear her singing3. Liu Fang thinks that ____.Chinese music and language use the same tonesChinese music is like the Chinese language4. Chinese classical pieces often have poetic titles, ____.which is very surprisingwhich is understandable5. Empty spaces in Chinese paintings ____.mean the pictures have no lifeare like the silent parts of Chinese musicPart 1Liu Fang is an international music star, famous for her work with traditional Chinese instruments. She was born in 1974 and has played the pipa since the age of six. She's given concerts since she was eleven, including a performance for the Queen of England during her visit to China. She graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she also studied the guzheng in 1993.What is your musical training and background?My mother is a Dianju actress. Dianju is a kind of Chinese opera, which includes singing, dancing and acting. When I was a child, she took me to performances. I listened to music before I could speak! When I was five years old, she taught me to play the yueqin.In 1990, when I was 15 years old, I went to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where I studied the pipa and the guzheng. After I graduated, I went back to my hometown of Kunming and worked as a pipa soloist of the Kunming Music and Dance Troupe. In 1996, I moved to Canada with my husband and I have been living there since then.What are the biggest challenges of playing the pipa and the guzheng?If your technique is not good enough, it is impossible to play classical Chinese pipa music. Also, the repertoire for the pipa is large—some pieces were written during the Tang Dynasty.There are many different pipa schools, and each one has its special way of interpreting the classical pieces. The biggest challenge is to respect the traditions but to add my own style. The same is true of my second instrument, the guzheng. Part 2Who or what are your musical influences?The main influence is traditional singing. I listened to traditional opera singing and folk songs in my childhood. Now when I am playing a tune, I am singing in my heart. When I'm playing a sad tune, I am crying in my heart. Listeners often say that they can hear singing in my music.What characteristics of Chinese classical music do you try to show in your playing?Firstly, Chinese music is similar to the Chinese language. In Chinese, the same pronunciation with different tones has different meanings. The same is true for music. Secondly, classical Chinese music is closely connected to Chinesepoetry, so it isn't surprising that most classical pieces have very poetic titles. Thirdly, classical Chinese music and traditional Chinese painting are like twin sisters. In Chinese art, there are some empty spaces, which are very important. They give life to the whole painting and they allow people to come into the picture, like a dialogue.It's the same with classical Chinese music. There are empty spaces, and people say the silence is full of music. The pipa sounds and the pauses combine to make a poetry of sound. Listeners can experience the power and the beauty of the music, like enjoying a beautiful poem or painting.Part 3What do you like best about performing live?I enjoy playing and I enjoy performing in public. I like the atmosphere in a concert hall and I always feel happy when I have a concert. I feel a little depressed or lonely when there is no concert for a long time. I also enjoy the time immediately after the concert to share the feelings and ideas with friends and music lovers, listening to their impressions and understanding about the music. I love my career. I also enjoy travelling: I enjoy sitting in a plane dreaming, or staying in a hotel.What are your goals as an artist?I don't have a particular goal. But I hope to work with many composers, and I also wish to compose my own music. My background is traditional Chinese music. Since I moved to Canada, I have had opportunities to make contact with other musical traditions and play with master musicians. I wish to continue working with master musicians from other traditions and to be able to composemy own music, using elements from different cultures. I also wish to introduce classical Chinese pipa and guzheng music to every corner of the world.Read Part 3 of the passage and answer the questions.1.What does Liu Fang enjoy about performing?2.What makes her feel depressed or lonely?3.What does she want to do with other musicians?4.What is her ambition regarding Chinese music?Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the words in the box.1.2.3.4.5.6.Match the words with their meanings.1.2.instrument3.4.5.6.GrammarRead the sentences from the following passage and decide if they are true.1.Liu Fang has played the pipa since the age of six.2.She's given concerts since she was eleven.She has given concerts regularly since the age of eleven.She only gave concerts when she was a child.Liu Fang still plays the pipa.She only played the pipa when she was six.Read the sentences and answer the questions.The sentences:a.Liu Fang has played the pipa since the age of six.b.She's given concerts since she was eleven.c.Liu Fang has been playing the pipa for the last three hours.d.She's been performing concerts every day since last month.The questions:1.What is the difference in form between c-d and a-b?2.Which of these things is true about the last two sentences?a.The people started doing these things in the past and are still doingthem.b.The people do these things every day.c.The actions take a very long time to complete.plete the conversation. Put the verbs into the present perfectprogressive.Complete the passage with the correct forms of the verbs.concert by the Chinese-bornsince 1996. / has been playing) traditional Chinese musichave bought) a CD of her music after the concert and / have been listening) to it all day today!Vocabulary and ListeningChoose the best words to complete the passage.Porgy and Bess started life as a / folk song by Dubose Heyward called Porgy, about the life of African Americans in Charleston.George Gershwin (1898—1937), / composer of popular andclassical , and thought it would make a goodopera / concert. With his brother, Ira Gershwin (1896—1983) andHeyward, they put together a wonderful new work, called Porgy and Bess, whichon New York's Broadway on 10th October, 1935. It soon became a classic of modern American music, and the songs, especially Summertime and I Got Plenty of Nothing are very well-known and have become standards, particularly for the jazz repertoire.black / all-whiteto perform / banned from performing, and Gershwin didn't want it done in "blackface", that is, with white actors made up like blacks. But in the end he had to accept white actors performing the roles of black people.After much time and many difficulties the show was finally put on. At first it/ depressing reviews, and George Gershwin died in 1937, without knowing that he had co-written an American classic, and one of the western world's favourite opera. But word spread around New York, the audiences grew bigger and bigger, and soon the opera was an extraordinary.Porgy and Bess deals with the rhymes and rhythms of Negro life in America.and it shows the drama, the humour, the superstition, the religious fervour, the dancing, the misery and the high spirits of black Americans in the early 20th century.Answer the questions.1.What do you think Porgy and Bess is about?2.Do you think Porgy and Bess is opera, jazz or classical music?3.What is a "classic of modern American music"?4.Why do you think it took a long time to put on the show?5.Was the show an immediate success?6.What was the effect of the reviews?7.Do you think you would enjoy Porgy and Bess? Can you think of asimilar Chinese opera?Vocabulary and ReadingWork in pairs. Look at the photo and describe what you can see. Use the words in the box to help you.crowd; guitar; musician; passerby; pedestrian; pipe; semi-circle; violinIs there anywhere inyour town for peopleto see such a scene?Read the passage and choose the sentence which best expresses the main idea.Street MusicIt's a warm Saturday afternoon in a busy side road in the old district of Barcelona. The pedestrians are standing in a semi-circle around someone orsomething in front of the cathedral. I push my way through the crowd and find a quartet of musicians playing a violin suite of classical music. The session lasts ten minutes. Then one of the musicians picks up a saucer on the ground, and asks for money. All contributions are voluntary, no one has to pay, but the crowd shrinks as some people slide away. But others happily throw in a few coins. They're grateful for this brief interval of music as they go shopping.Below the window of my apartment in Paris, a music man takes a place made vacant by an earlier musician. He raises the lid of his barrel organ and turns the handle. Then he sings the songs of old Paris, songs of the people and their love affairs. I remember some of the words even though I have never consciously learnt them. I tap my feet and sing along with him. Down there on the pavement, few passersby stop. Some smile, others walk past with their heads down. Cars pass, gangs of boys form and disappear, someone even puts a coin in the cup on the organ. But the music man ignores them all. He's hot in the sun, so he mops his head with a spotted handkerchief. He just keeps singing and turning the handle.In Harlem, New York, some locals place a sound system by an open window. They plug it into the electrical socket, and all of a sudden, there's dancing in the streets. In downtown Tokyo, young couples eat popcorn and dance to the music of a rockabilly band, which plays American music from the Fifties. In the London Underground a student plays classical guitar music, which echoes along the tunnels. It lifts the spirits of the passengers, who hurry past on their way to work. In a street in Vienna or Prague or Milan a group of pipe musicians from the far Andes fill the air with the sounds of South America.The street musician is keeping alive a culture which has almost disappeared in our busy, organised, and regulated lives: the sound of music when you leastexpect it. In a recording studio, even when relayed by microphone, music loses some of its liveliness. But street music gives life to everyone who listens and offers relief from the cares of the day. It only exists in the present, it only has meaning in the context. It needs space.The main idea is:Down there on the pavement, few passersby stop.The street musician is keeping alive a culture which has almostdisappeared in our busy, organised, and regulated lives: the soundof music when you least expect it.In Harlem, New York, some locals place a sound system by anopen window, plug it into the electrical socket, and all of asudden, there's dancing in the streets.But others happily throw in a few coins, grateful for this briefinterval of music as they go about their shopping.Answer the questions.1.How does the writer feel about the music playing in the street?2.How much do people have to pay for the music in Barcelona?3.What is everyone else doing as the music man plays his organ inParis?4.Why is there suddenly dancing in the streets in Harlem?5.Why does music echo in the London Underground?6.What is the disadvantage of recorded music?7.What is the advantage of live music?Answer the questions about the words in the box.handkerchief; handle; interval; lid; plug; popcorn; relief; slide; socket; tap; voluntary1.Do you have a handkerchief in your pocket?2.Can you point to a handle in your classroom?3.How long does the interval between two classes last?4.When you cook rice, do you put a lid on the pot?5.Can you point to a plug and a socket in the classroom?6.Do you like popcorn? When do people often eat it?7.When a payment is voluntary, must you pay?8.When you hear music with a good beat, what do you sometimestap?9.When someone or something slides away, does it move easily orwith difficulty?10.If you have a feeling of relief, do you feel relaxed and happy,or tense and sad?Work in pairs and discuss your answers to the questions.1.Do you prefer live or recorded music?2.How often do you listen to live music?3.How do you feel when you hear music on the streets?4.Do you think musicians should be allowed to play in the streets? Ifso, what music would you like to hear as you come to school? FunctionRead the sentences and answer the questions.1.I think it's wonderful.2.It's ridiculous!3.It makes me feel very happy.4.I always feel so optimistic when I think of summer.5.I feel really happy when I hear it.6.I adore listening to songs like that.7.I can't stand listening to songs like that.a.Which of these sentences show that you have a good feeling aboutsomething?b.Which of them express the strongest emotions?Complete the sentences with your own opinions about things you like or dislike. Example:Listening to classical music makes me feel happy.1.____ makes me feel very happy.2.I think it's wonderful when ____.3.I always feel so optimistic when I think of ____.4.I feel really happy when I hear ____.5.I can't stand ____.Look at the photos of singers and musicians. Say how you feel about the music that they play.Example:Latin music makes me feel excited.classical music rock musicLatin music jazz musicSpeakingAnswer the questions.1.What is your favourite kind of music?2.How long have you been listening to it?3.When do you listen to music?Example:when I'm getting dressed / on my way to school / doing myhomework, etc..4.How do you listen to music?Example:on the radio / on a cassette player / music TV5.Why do you listen to music?Example:It makes me relax. / I feel happy.Write a short report about the music interests and habits of the group. Use these expressions.∙My favourite kind of music is ... but Yang's favourite music is ...∙My favourite artist is ...∙I've been listening to ... for / since ...∙I like listening to music when I'm ...∙I like seeing live musical performances.∙I have a collection of CDs.Writing∙Read this email from an English-speaking pen friend.∙Hi, we've been doing a class survey of music. We wanted to find out when and why people listen to music. We weren't interested in what people listento, because we already know that. We were interested in when people listen to music and why.∙This is what we have discovered.∙There are 30 students in the class. They're all either 15 or 16 years old.Almost everyone (90%) listens to music on the radio before they come to school. About half the kids take the bus to school and the other half come by car with their parents. The ones who take the bus listen to music on CD.The ones in the cars listen to music on the radio. If their parents don't like that, they also listen to CDs.∙During the day, we're not allowed to listen to music at school. In the evening, 75% of the students in the class listen to music on CD, or watch music television, usually MTV. Hardly anyone goes to live concerts—they're too expensive!∙Part of the survey was to find the reasons why people listen to music. In the morning, most people said they listen to music to help them wake up! In the evening, they listen to music to help them relax when they're doing their homework.∙Write a reply to the email, giving details about when and why your classmates listen to music. Use the information from the SPEAKING activities in your answer.Everyday EnglishChoose the correct answers.1. If something is your favourite of all time, it means ____.you have always liked ityou like it now2. If you're missing the point, it means ____.you can't see somethingyou don't understand something3. If you can't stand something, it means ____.you don't like ityou have to sit down4. If you say Oh come on! in a conversation, it probably means ____.you don't agree with someoneyou agree with someone5. If something is described as a jazz classic, it's ____.a piece of classical musica famous jazz tune6. If you describe a jazz tune as really ancient, it's probably ____.more than a hundred years oldmore than 20 years oldComplete the sentences with your own opinions.1.My favourite piece of music of all time is ____.2.I would say "Oh come on!" to my best friend if he / she said ____.3.There is one thing that I really can't stand. It's ____.Reading PracticeLook at the photo in the passage and say what you can see. Have you seen or heard of this band before?Music from ChinaOne dozen beautiful young women, all in theirtwenties, take the stage and stand before a variety ofancient musical instruments. The moment they start toplay, it is clear the members of Twelve Girls Band areamong the most gifted musicians in the world. Coming from China, Twelve Girls Band is already one of that country's most popular groups.As they build a musical bridge between east and west, Twelve Girls Band charms the people of many nations around the world. A best-selling act all over Asia, Twelve Girls Band fills concert halls and arenas there, and has now been discovered by America. In 2004 the group arrived on the US music scene at No.62 of the Billboard 200 album chart. It was the highest entry by an Asian group. In Japan, Twelve Girls Band is already a supergroup. It has sold more than two million records, and has even appeared in TV ads for chocolate and cellphones, among other products. A Japanese DVD of Twelve Girls Band live in concert sold over 200,000 copies, and their live performances have been seen on television around the world. In 2004 they were named International Artist of the Year at the Japan Golden Disc Award ceremonies.Drawing upon more than 1,500 years of Chinese music, Twelve Girls Band mixes this rich tradition with classical, folk and contemporary sounds. The group signifies the symbolic choice of a dozen members found in various aspects of Chinese numerology with 12 months in a year, and in ancient mythology, 12 jinchai (golden hairpins, which represent womanhood). Inspiration also comes from yuefang, the female chamber orchestras that played in the royal courts of the Tang Dynasty.Each member of Twelve Girls Band has classical training, with backgrounds that include the China Academy of Music, the Chinese National Orchestra, and the Central Conservatory of Music. Skilled multi-instrumentalists, they perform on traditional Chinese instruments that include the guzheng, the yangqin, the erhu, the pipa and the dizi and xiao. Their music also creates a lush and original landscapes of sound which remind audiences of music from Ireland and from eastern Europe.The group's appeal is equally as broad, with children, teens, adults and grandparents filling arenas to see it perform. American critics noticed the mixture of pieces by Mozart and Beethoven, with jazz standards like Dave Brubeck's Take Five, or a version of a much-loved classic such as Simon and Garfunkel's El Condor Pasa.The group honours its musical heritage and shows a genuine love for all styles of music—from complex classical works to long-lasting pop tunes.Adapted from:/~journeyeast/twelve_girls_and_a_band.htmlUsed by permission.Read the passage and choose the best summary.The best summary is ____.Twelve Girls Band is a group of women musicians from China who play traditional instruments but a broad variety of Chinese and international music. They are extremely popular in many countries around the world.Twelve Girls Band plays traditional music in many countries.They are well-known for their music which is used in advertisements, and two million copies of the DVDs of their performances have been sold.Twelve Girls Band is one of China's most important groups ofmusicians. They represent Chinese traditional music all over theworld, especially in the USA and Japan. Their music is full of thesymbols of numerology.Choose the best answers.1. The writer thinks that Twelve Girls Band is special because ____.they have a classical trainingthey use symbols of numerology for inspirationthey're very talentedthey combine Chinese and western music2. No other group of musicians from China has ____.used Chinese mythology as an inspirationachieved such success in the US music chartsappealed to so many Asianssold so many DVDs of their performances3. The band's choice of music shows its love for ____.Chinese classical musictraditional musical instrumentsMozart and Beethovenmusic from all over the world4. Although it plays live in concerts, the band ____.also plays on televisionalso sells millions of recordings, e.g. DVDs and CDsprefers Chinese musicshows its respect for the Chinese musical tradition5. Chinese traditional symbols and instruments ____.make clear the origins of the band and provide inspirationappeal to westernerswork well with jazz and classic songsshow their love for all styles of musicComplete the sentences in your own words.1.Twelve Girls Band is popular in Asia and has just ____.2.Twelve Girls Band is often called a supergroup because ____.3.The number of musicians in the band refers to ____.4.The music they play is influenced by ____.5.Fans of their music come from ____ and are ____.Cultural CornerRead the passage and answer the questions.1.In what way are the Grammys similar to the Film AcademyAwards (the Oscars)?2.If there were Grammy Awards for Chinese music, what categorieswould you like to see?The Grammy Awards—Are They Important?The Grammy Awards are presented every year in the music industry in the United States. They're like the Oscars in the film industry, and are given for important achievements in recorded music.They are presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the music industry). The award ceremony is usually held in February.There are 105 categories in the awards, and they cover 30 different types of music—pop, rock, jazz, blues, rap, classical, etc. The awards depend on how many votes each artist receives from members of the Recording Academy. They are given for different reasons, not only for selling a lot of albums. In addition to the awards themselves, there are also performances by famous artists at the ceremony.The award is called a Grammy because winners receive a statuette in the shape of a gramophone, an old fashioned hi-fi system.However, some people think that the Grammys are not as important as they used to be. Winners are often older, well-established artists who sell lots of albums to "teenage girls and housewives", as one critic said. Therefore, the Grammys are not taken seriously by some musicians or music fans.There is a separate set of awards for Latin music, called the Latin Grammys, but only two awards for World Music. Therefore, it is very difficult for musicians from the rest of the world to win prizes.Some of the greatest acts in music history, such as Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones, have been awarded very few Grammys. On the other hand, the Beatles have won more Grammys than Elvis and the Rolling Stones combined.。