Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

9. Answer the questions
1. What kind of music do Afro-Americans have?
2. What can be said about African music in comparison with Eu-
ropean music?

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3. Why was the African culture different for a long time?
4. How was the new culture introduced to slaves?
5. Did the slaves sing the Euro-American songs?
6. What can you say about the whole notion of improvisation?
7. Why were slaves to be controlled by the white?
8. Why is it important to keep in mind the Afro-American cul-
ture?
9. What kind of instruments did the Afro-Americans use?
10. What can you say about one of the most distinguishing features 
in Afro-American culture?
11. How did Afro-American singers perform with their voices?
10. You are going to read a text about the Proms, study the following text
The PROMS: A Living Tradition
A series of concerts started in 1895 by Henry Wood, a fine pianist 
and a conductor and manager Robert Newman, held every year at the 
Royal Albert Hall, London. The name is short for ‘ promenade con-
certs’ in which there are no seats in parts of the hall and members of 
the audience stand up or sit on the floor during the performance. The 
series lasts for eight weeks and most of the concerts are broadcast on 
the BBC. The Proms are particularly popular with young people.
Last Night of the Proms
The last of London’s PROMENADE CONCERTS held each summer, 
when the second half of the programme always consists of the crowds in 
the Albert Hall sing along with .the programme. The programme ends 
with the song Land of Hope and Glory a PATRIOTIC song, and people 
sing it while waving Union Jack (British national flags).
When Henry Wood, a fine pianist and conductor and Robert Newman, 
an enterprising manager launched that first season of Promenade Concerts 
in 1895, the idea of informal, cheap, standing concerts was by no means 
new. Such concerts had their origin in the famous eighteenth-century 
pleasure gardens, where ‘promenade’ really did mean walking around.
Many series of light promenade concerts took place in the middle 
years of the nineteenth century in London’s music-halls and theatres; 
what they all had in common was a popular choice: of music, low 
prices, and the availability of refreshments.

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Socially, the early Proms were never aimed at London’s fashionable 
society. They took place during the summer months when the more 
leisured classes would be out of London, and as a consequence there 
was little other serious music to be heard. The more serious music 
was confined to the first part of the concert.
In the 1890s up to half of a programme might consist of solo items: 
songs with piano accompaniment (often ballads of the most rip-
roaring patriotism or mawkish sentimentality), and solos for all sorts 
of instruments, particularly the cornet.
The earliest Proms would often finish with a rousing march or 
waltz to send 
the audience away happy.
All the time Wood and New-
man were succeeding in raising standards and introducing the Prom 
audiences to a wider and more serious range of music. By the fifth 
season Wood had introduced music by such ‘modern’ composers as 
Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Dvo ak, 
Saint-Saens and Balakirev. By the second season, in 1896, a practice 
had been established of Wagner Nights on Mondays and Beethoven 
Nights on Fridays.
Within a few years the ballads and the cornet solos had begun to 
fade away, and improbable fantasias on operatic tunes were giving way 
to properly prepared extracts from the operas. One very positive by-
product of World War I was the increasing number of women orchestral 
players. Apart from the harp, traditionally a ladies’ instrument, orches-
tras had until then been strictly male preserves. It was in 1913 that 
Wood had first encouraged as “mixed bathing in the sea of music”, and 
he continued to support the engagement of women players.
The Proms, now a traditional institution, continued to flourish 
after War. In 1919 the Queen’s Hall was redecorated. Broadcasting 
was to be the salvation of the Proms. In 1927 the British Broadcast-
ing Company had become a Corporation with the mandate ‘to inform, 
educate and entertain’. After intricate negotiations, the BBC agreed 
to take over the Proms. Starting in 1927, broadcasting opened the 
Proms to a far wider audience.
The Proms in the 1930s were particularly favourable to British 
music. There was hardly any British composer of significance who 
failed to have a piece introduced at the Proms during this decade, 
from the elderly Elgar to the young Benjamin Britten playing the 
solo part of his new Piano Concerto.
At this time, the only place in London suitable for large scale or-
chestral concerts was the Royal Albert Hall. Neither more beautiful 
nor more elegant, but nearly twice the size of the Queen’s Hall, with 

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a capacity of nearly 6,500 the Royal Albert Hall began its Prom career 
in the summer of 1941.
By 1947 almost every note performed at the Proms was being broad-
cast, divided between the BBC Light Programme, Home Service and 
the new Third Programme. The First Night of the Proms was televised 
for the first time in 1953, and the Last Night the following year.
By the early 1960s there was a growing feeling that the Proms 
were in need of change and renewal. The history of the Proms during 
the 1960s is essentially that of a transformation from a mainly British 
enterprise — to an international festival.
In 1966 the Moscow Radio Orchestra, conducted by Gennady 
Rozhdestvensky (later to become chief conductor of the BBC SO), 
became the first of many distinguished foreign orchestras to play at 
the Proms. Although today the mainstay of the Proms is still pro-
vided by the BBC orchestras, a modern season will be performed by 
literally dozens of other orchestras and ensembles from Britain and 
from all over the world.
In 1970 an extra late-night concert was held for the first time, and 
starting in 1971 there were experiments with different venues for 
some concerts. The Royal Opera House hosted a Prom performance 
of Boris Godunov.
Other Prom events which have gone beyond the “traditional” rep-
ertory have included brass band and steel band performances (linked 
with a picnic in Kensington Gardens); children’s Proms; and jazz of 
various shades performed by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
If you buy a ticket for one of the seats in Albert Hall — whether 
in the stalls, the boxes or the balcony — you will realize long before 
the players come on to the stage what makes the Proms so special and 
different from other concerts: the arena in front of you is crowded 
with people, many of them very young, who have come to stand 
through the concert.
Over the years, many foreign musicians have expressed their as-
tonishment at the concentration of the Prommers, who can stand in 
perfect silence during the longest works. This intensity is much ap-
preciated by performers, who sense an immediate communication, 
often hard to achieve on other large halls. The BBC’s patronage also 
extends to performers, and many young artists owe their first wide 
exposure to an appearance at the Proms. For some, it has been the 
beginning of a long relationship with their audience.
There is no doubt about the continuing vitality of the Proms as 
they complete their first hundred years. Audiences are consistently 

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large and enthusiastic. Another sign of vitality is the level of public 
debate which the Proms can stimulate. Planning and repertory are 
under constant discussion; there is the perennial question of the cor-
rect balance between old and new music, young or mature artists, 
British and foreign, the familiar and unfamiliar.
Less well-known music, both old and new, can be given more 
prominence. The range of artists performing in any one season is now 
truly international, and includes new talents alongside the world’s 
biggest names.
For the variety and quantity of music performed, for the standards 
of performance and for the huge numbers of listeners, the Proms have 
over the years become a unique and irreplaceable festival, not just in 
the musical life of Britain, but of the world.