1、Art for arts sake Unit overviewUnit key features Organizing suggestionsPassage 1How we listenPassage 2The mystery of Girl with a Pearl EarringPassage 1 is an analytical essay, reasoning about and explaining three different levels of listening to music. Passage 2 is an expository and narrative piece
2、of writing about a famous Dutch painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Use Passage 1 for understanding how an analytical essay is organized and how the writer develops his explanations and presents his reasons. Use Passage 2 for learning how narratives are used in an expository writing to describe a
3、nd discuss the theme of the passage. Give background information of the passages to aid Ss understanding. Reading skills(a) Evaluating the text(b) Predicting(c) Linking ideas(d) Reading aloud, and paying attention to the pronunciation of the names of the artists, music and paintings Use Passage 1 fo
4、r skills (a) and (b). Use Passage 2 for skill (c). For both passages, use the approach of reading aloud to highlight the importance of pronunciation skills.Speaking skills Performing debates in Talking point activities Using questions to develop oral discussionUse speaking activities for: presenting
5、 arguments in Talking point activities organizing and presenting thoughts and viewsWriting skills and tasks Guided writing: Listing items Unit task: Producing a leaflet on places of artistic interest Learning to write a succession of ideas by using sequential discourse markers, especially structurin
6、g adverbs Encourage Ss to use structuring adverbs in their essay writing which will help to organize their thoughts and signal to the readers their key points of view. Cognitive skillsLearning to give different views by presenting reasons with evidence or examplesEncourage Ss to learn to think in di
7、fferent ways and to identify issues through questioning. Reading across culturesThe top five paintings in Western artThe passage is a descriptive account of five famous Western paintings. Help Ss get to know some Western paintings and appreciate both Western and Chinese arts through the activities i
8、n this section. Unit3Unit 3 Art for arts sake 78Teaching suggestions and answer keys Starting point 1 Work in pairs. Read the quotations and discuss the questions. Teaching tipsEncourage Ss to elaborate on the meanings and make their own comments, especially if they know something about the people w
9、ho gave the quotations. Please refer to the following examples. 1 Can you explain in your own words what each artist is trying to say? No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde, Irish poet / playwrightThis quotation means that great a
10、rtists see reality in a different way to most people and that this is the key to great art. In other words, artists show us alternative perspectives on the world. If they simply showed us what we already see, they wouldnt be artists. Oscar Wilde (18541900) was an Irish playwright and poet who was fa
11、mous for his witty remarks and social observations which were humorous and critical. He wrote the play The Importance of Being Ernest.I dont paint things. I only paint the difference between things. Henri Matisse, French painterI think this probably means that Henri Matisse (18691954) did not paint
12、things to look realistic. He didnt just try to represent things in art in the way that we normally see them. Rather, he wanted to show how one thing differed from another. So he was comparing things through art. Matisse used strong, expressive colours, and his paintings have a decorative effect of c
13、olour, line and form. His sculptures are unconventional too. Without music life would be a mistake. Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopherObviously, this means that music is very important for life. Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900) is known for the way he rejected absolute moral values, as he argued
14、that people were free to create their own values. Of course, people are free to create their own world without music, but that would be a mistake!Poetry is what gets lost in translation. Robert Frost, American poet This must simply mean that you cant really translate poetry. You can translate the wo
15、rds, maybe, but the qualities of poetry that really make it poetry get lost when the words are translated. Robert Frost (18741963) is known for his accessible and readable poetry, so you might expect to be able to translate his poems easily. But the quotation tells us to think about poetry thoroughl
16、y and feel it as more than combinations of words. Art is a kind of illness. Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer Literally, it means that art is a bad thing, or is unhealthy. But I think it means that art is contagious; it goes from the artist to audience and from person to person like an illness, and
17、you cant resist it because it may take over your life. Giacomo Puccini (18581924) composed operas with a strong gift for melody and dramatic effects in exotic plots. His operas are very “catching” like an illness, so you remember the melodies easily.Art for arts sake Unit 3792 Which quotation do you
18、 agree with most?I agree that Poetry is what gets lost in translation because it really makes me think about language. There are obviously many translations of poetry, from one language to another. People not only translate poems, but the poetic language of prose. As students, we translate not only
19、when doing translation exercises, but also when we try to speak and write in English. We may lose something, but mainly gain something in another language.2 Work in pairs and discuss the questions. 1 When did you last go to an art gallery?I saw an exhibition of ceramics on a visit to Shanghai last y
20、ear. 2 What do you remember about it?I remember the traditional Chinese porcelain ware like dishes, plates and vases for their colours and designs. I also remember some modern ceramics which were quite startling. They looked traditional, but the designs were quite innovative. 3 When did you last rea
21、d a novel or a poem?Oh, I am always reading novels. I have just finished several crime mysteries by the Swedish writer Hennig Mankell.4 What did you think of it?I was really impressed because the detective, Wallander, is quite human. He thinks a lot about the people around him and struggles with per
22、sonal health and family problems, yet as a first-class detective he gives a lot to his job. The stories have a strong atmosphere of the landscape of southern Sweden with modern social problems that we can recognize. These are more than just the usual murder mysteries, so its not surprising that many
23、 films have been made from the novels.5 When did you last go to a concert?Quite recently. Actually, because my young cousin performed in a school concert, so I went along to the performance to give her my support. 6 What effect did the music have on you?I came home feeling really happy. The jazz, es
24、pecially, really helped me to keep my spirits up! 7 Which do you think is the greatest form of art? And why?Thats practically an impossible question! OK, lets think The greatest art would have the deepest effect on us, so we would remember it and think about it for a long time. Any good work of art
25、can do that, whether it has the form of music, painting, literature, drama or cinema. So I think its the individual piece of art, the really outstanding work in itself that has this effect, rather than one form or another. I like film and music because they are accessible, whereas literature and dra
26、ma always seem difficult to me and I dont really pretend to understand much about them. Recently I saw a film of a Shakespearean play with fantastic music and photography in it. Maybe the greatest form, these days, is a combination of forms. Unit 3 Art for arts sake 80Active reading (1)1 Work in pai
27、rs and choose the best answer to the questions. Teaching tipsSs should have their own answers. In the passage, the writer gives the answers as follows.1 Why do people listen to music? (a) To forget about their everyday problems. (b) To feel emotions which are difficult to put into words. (c) To enjo
28、y the musical experience. (d) For a mixture of all three reasons.2 How do you listen to music? (a) With one ear, as Im doing something else. (b) In the quiet of my own room so I can concentrate on the sounds.(c) By being aware of the atmosphere it creates. (d) In all three ways, it depends on the mu
29、sic. How we listenBackground informationThis passage is taken from What to Listen for in Music (1957/2002) written by the American composer, Aaron Copland. The writer suggests three separate planes or levels of listening, which are only separated (or split up mechanically) into component parts for t
30、he purpose of the analysis. This analytic model is adopted to make the point clear in a discussion about listening to music. In reality, all three planes go together simultaneously.Culture pointsIgor Stravinsky (18821971) was born near St Petersburg in Russia. He later settled in Switzerland, then i
31、n France and the US. Between 1910 and 1945 Stravinsky was probably the single strongest influence on Western music. His early ballet music is well-remembered for new sounds based on startling new rhythms and different harmonies (The Firebird, 1910; Petrushka, 19101911; The Rite of Spring, 1913; Pulc
32、inella 19191920). He then composed in a neo-classical period with intellectual rigour and in a third period of serial music, which basically uses 12 notes in a certain order. Some people say that the pleasure in listening to Stravinskys music is intellectual.Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750) is recog
33、nized as a supreme creative genius in Western music. He worked in different parts of Germany and in his lifetime was known mainly as a hard-working organist, conductor and teacher. But he wrote over 1,000 compositions orchestral, instrumental and chamber music, much organ and keyboard music, and a g
34、reat deal of church music for singing, including some of the greatest spiritual music ever written. Bach, with Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell, Scarlatti, and others, wrote in the baroque style of music. Bach said, “Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well.” Art for arts sake Unit 381Fugue
35、is a musical style typical of the baroque period and later. It has three or four voices which at first imitate and chase each other in a sequence of subjects and answers, which are elaborated in episodes in three main sections of an exposition, then a middle and final section.The Well-Tempered Clavi
36、chord, now usually known as The Well-Tempered Clavier or the 48 Preludes and Fugues, was written by Bach, 17221742. Each prelude is a freely-composed work, which explores a particular musical idea without a specified form. In contrast, the fugues follow a stricter musical form, introducing and explo
37、ring themes in a particular way. These may have originally been technical exercises but they remain complex, elegant pieces of music which explore all the major and minor keys of Western music. They opened up a whole world of musical tonality. The title refers to the tuning of keyboard instruments,
38、which was then being standardized. A clavichord was a musical instrument that was similar to a piano, and was used in the 17th century before pianos were developed.Language points1 For lack of a better terminology, one might name these: (1) the sensuous plane, (2) the expressive plane, (3) the sheer
39、ly musical plane. (Para 1)The expression for lack of a better terminology is used to introduce rather inexact terms. It means since we dont have any exact terms, Im going to use these rather rough terms.The word sensuous suggests physical pleasure which relates to your physical senses rather than to
40、 your emotions and thoughts.A plane is a level of thought, development or existence.The word sheer is used to emphasize the amount or degree of something. The sheerly musical plane refers to the level of the musical material, melodies, rhythms, harmonies etc. The sheer pleasure (Para 2, Line 2) mean
41、s great or pure pleasure.2 The only advantage to be gained from mechanically splitting up the listening process into these hypothetical planes is (Para 1)The word hypothetical means to be based on situations or events that seem possible rather than on actual ones. Here, the planes are not real, they
42、 are just part of a model for analysis and discussion. 3 One turns on the radio while doing something else and absent-mindedly bathes in the sound. A kind of brainless but attractive state of mind is engendered by the mere sound appeal of the music. (Para 2)To bathe means to swim or wash yourself in
43、 a bath, river or lake. To bathe in the sound means to immerse yourself in the sound, like in water. To engender means to cause a feeling or attitude to exist. The expression engendered by the mere sound appeal means to be created only by the appeal or attraction of the sound.4 Music allows them to
44、leave it . dreaming because of and apropos of the music yet never quite listening to it. (Para 3)The expression apropos of means relating to; it is used to introduce something else about the subject you are talking about. The expression is derived from French, and the final -s is silent in pronuncia
45、tion.Unit 3 Art for arts sake 825 . but you must not allow it to usurp a disproportionate share of your interest. The sensuous plane is an important one in music . but it does not constitute the whole story. (Para 4)To usurp means to take a job or position that belongs to someone else without having
46、 the right to do this. The sentence you must not allow it to usurp a disproportionate share of your interest means dont let it take up a wrong amount of your interest. The expression it does not constitute the whole story means there is more to it than this.6 Here, immediately, we tread on controver
47、sial ground. (Para 5)The expression we tread on controversial ground contains a metaphor: These are ideas that some people will probably disagree about or not approve of. 7 Composers have a way of shying away from any discussion of musics expressive side. (Para 5)To shy away from something means to
48、avoid someone or be unwilling to do something because you are nervous, afraid or not confident. 8 Is it pessimistically sad or resignedly sad; is it fatefully sad or smilingly sad? (Para 6)The word resignedly means with resignation, accepting that something unpleasant must happen or that you cannot
49、change it. The whole sentence gives nuances shades of meaning of different kinds of sadness: sadness which has a feeling of pessimism (things are bad and we cant change them easily), sadness to which we may feel resigned we accept it, sadness that we feel is part of our fate we cant avoid it and it is part of our life, and sadness that also has humour, so we smile even though we feel sad.9 It is very important for all of us to become more alive to music on its sheerly musical plane. (Para 9)To become / be alive to something mea
