Supplementary text

 

1.  Try to explain what a promenade concert means.

2.  Are there promenade concerts in your city or town?

3.  Now read the text.

Promenade Concerts

At the Proms the audience are very mixed and there is always a high proportion of young people. The promenaders in particular are informal, these are summer concerts, and it is certainly the thing to be extremely enthusiastic. Applause is often warm and frequently begins before the last notes have died away and is often indiscriminate. As many Londoners get their first introduction to concert-going through these popular concerts, part of the audience has still to learn to differentiate between a good and a bad performance.

The Promenade Concerts are given on every week-day from mid-July to mid-September in the Albert Hall with attendances usually between 4,000 and 6,000 at each concert.

Although the term Promenade Concert is normally associated today with the series of concerts founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and the conductor Henry Wood – a festival known today as the BBC Proms – the term originally referred to concerts in the pleasure gardens of London where the audience could stroll about while listening to the music (French se promener = to walk).

Pleasure gardens, which levied a small entrance fee and provided a variety of entertainment, had become extremely popular in London by the eighteenth century. Music was provided from bandstands (known as ‘orchestras’) or more permanent buildings, and was generally of the popular variety: ballroom dances, quadrilles (medleys), cornet solos etc. Other entertainments would have included fireworks, masquerades and acrobatics.

Back in those days, a young British conductor by the name of Henry Wood was concerned about the state of music in Britain. He was worried by the low standard of performance, at the lack of British musicians and the infrequent opportunities for the ordinary person to hear good music.

The successful policy of mixing classical and modern music in one programme has won acceptance for new music.

After almost three hundred years of musical sterility in Britain, a number of composers have established themselves in the twentieth century - Elgar, Britten, Bush, Hoist, Ireland, William Walton and Vaughan Williams are few of the better known names. Many of them were heard for the first time at the Proms. Such foreign composers as Debussy, Mahler, Bartok and Shostakovich were likewise introduced to London audiences, and today, as every concert is broadcast in full or in part, millions of listeners can enjoy the music.

Another Prom innovation was the employment of women members of the orchestra. It happened during the First World War when Henry Wood began accepting the best players regardless of sex.

During the course of the years a famous tradition has grown up. It began in Henry Wood's time; he was asked to compose something for the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. He arranged a set of tunes, sea-shanties and a hornpipe, and called the whole A Fantasia based on Traditional Sea-Songs. By chance he arranged it as the last item in the last concert of the series. It proved a tremendous success and was played each year as the last item. The Fantasia is still played today in its original position. At one point a hornpipe is played and the audience stamp in time to the music with their feet.

The combination of good music and a lovely atmosphere has won many friends in London and the provinces, and it is small wonder that, especially for the younger generation, the Proms are the musical attraction of the year.

Махачкала, 2019