Country & Culture Week 4

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

The position of the arts in Britain is a mixture of public apathy and private enthusiasm. Publicly, the arts are accepted and tolerated. The arts seem to be valued most when they involve a general knowledge and follow the great tradition of 'free education'. However, most brits prefer sport, television or chatting with friends and family over anything cultural. This does not take away thousands of British people that do enthusiastically involve themselves in the arts. 

British theatre has such a fine acting tradition that Hollywood is raiding its talent for actors to star in films. Same goes for British television. British theatre is much admired, and it's something British actors take pride in. Many of the most well-known television/film actors have started with theatre. This is a short list of those actors who made it big in the film/television industry but have a theatre background.

West End is a district in London is a place where many tourist attractions, and theatres are located including the Apollo theatre, Sondheim theatre and London Palladium. Les Misérables is one of the longest-running musicals in the West End theatres (Sondheim theatre). New York's broadway is the equivalent of London's West End. The Phantom of the Opera is Broadway's longest running musical.  

Andrew Lloyd Webber is a famous composer who composed and produced some of the most famous musicals in the world. He has won 7 tony awards, 7 Oliviers and an Oscar. Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and School of Rock are amongst the musicals he has composed and/or produced. Webber currently owns including the London Palladium. 

You can read more about Webber, his theatres. his foundation and his achievements on his website. 

What are syllables? and what does John Green mean by stressed and unstressed syllables?
(if you don't know look it up)

Read this short biography on Shakespeare, and also take a look at his 'Lost years' and 'Career' (you can find those headers on the left side of the page) 

This is an example of the rhyme scheme mentioned by John Green in the video you just watched. I have highlighted the rhyme in Sonnet 18. It is as following: ababcdcdefefgg. Practice this at home by looking at Sonnet 130 and if you really want to challenge yourself after class. Read both sonnets and pay attention to Shakespeare's iambic pentameter. 

https://www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/richardii/page_170/

00:42

You just heard Ben Wishaw as Richard II speak in iambic pentameter. Do you remember how melodic it was? Now look at the first two sentences and count the syllables.  

My care is loss of care, by old care done;

- each coloured item is a syllable - 

Your CARE is GAIN of CARE, by NEW care WON.

-each coloured item is a syllable - 

- the items in capital are stressed syllables. The others are untressed - 

Now listen to the rest of the video, and try to count the syllables in Richard's sentences. Also pay attention to the stressed and unstressed syllables. 

This is Slave Ship (slavers throwing overboard the dead and dying, typhoon coming on) by Joseph Mallord William Turner. When reading about slavery, Turner stumbled onto the story of the slave ship Zong. In 1781, the captain of the slave ship ordered to throw 132 ailing Africans overboard into the shark-infested waters just off Jamaica. 'Live cargo' was insured, but they could not claim any insurence for the slaves that died on board due to natural causes. Only property that were 'losses at sea' would be reimbursed by insurers. By throwing these sick slaves into the ocean the captain hoped to be able to collect this insurance. Turner was appalled by this story and turned it into a painting. The ship is sailing in rough waters, and if you look at the bottom row, you can see black iron shackels from the slaves peeking out of the water. In his book, The Power of Art, Simon Schama descrbed the painting as Turner's typhoon of blood, retribution and redemption. 

Turner was part of a movement called Romanticism which reached its peak from around 1800 till 1890. The characteristics of Romanticism are the focus on intense emotion as an aesthetic experience and individualism. It was mostly seen in the visual arts, music and literature. Romanticism was a reaction to the rapid changes of the Industrial Revolution, and many artists used the countryside, and nature as an escape.  

Turner's art also falls under the term Sublime, which was a theory put forth by Edmund Burke. The Sublime in terms of art refers to a greatness beyond all possibilities. The viewer might be overwhelmed by fear, and may be reminded of their own mortality. The pictures often involve huge cliffs, storms, massive waves and other forces of nature that might seem daunting and dangerous. The Sublime (both in visual arts as in literature) is closely related to Romanticism. 

 

The famous, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich is an example of Sublime art. 

David Hockney is a british painter, printmaker and photographer. He contributed to the pop art movement of the 1960's and is considered to be one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. Hockney's subject of interest ranges from landscapes to, portraits of friends, his dogs and still lifes. As an artist he is very experimental and he has experimented with painting, drawing, printmaking, watercolours, photography and other media including computer and iPad drawing programs. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are cited to be his inspirations.

Andy Warhol might be most famous for his involvement in the pop art movement. Everyday life inspired pop artists, and they used imagery from popular and mass culture like advertising and comic books. Warhol used photographic silkscreen printing to easily reproduce the images from popular culture he wanted to use for his art. Among his first photographic silkscreen works are his paintings of Marilyn Monroe. In 1962, he began a series of celebrity portrait including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor. In 1971, Warhol and Craig Braun designed the cover for The Rolling Stones' album Sticky Fingers. The Velvet Underground used a Warhol print of a banana for one of their albums as well.  During this time he received hundreds of commissions from socialites, music and film stars, and others. Everyone seemed to want to have art by Warhol. Besides art Warhol also produced music videos, had his own television show on MTV and modeled in fashion shows. 

Jackson Pollock developed one of the most radical abstract styles in the history of modern art, and is considered to be the leading force behind the abstract expressionist movement. By the mid 1940s Pollock used a method called 'drip paintings'. His canvases were set on the floor, or laid out against a wall and then Pollock would allow the paint to drip from the paint can. This form of painting had a direct relation to the artist's emotions, expression and mood. 

"I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on". Mark Rothko wanted to make paintings that would bring people to tears, and he believed that art was a profound form on communication and art making was a moral act. Rothko spent his career exploring the limitless possibilities of layering variously sized and coloured rectangles onto fields of colour. These paintings conveyed human emotion from joy and ecstasy to grief and depression. Together with Jackson Pollock he is categorized to be an Abstract Expressionist. 

Explain the term 'Abstract Expressionism' (used by Pollock and Rothko) in your own words. Include it's characteristics

Go on the internet.
Find a painting by one of the painters you just learned about (Turner, Hockney, Warhol, Pollock & Rothko).
Add a picture of the painting and explain why it speaks to you.

The Beatles (from Liverpool) were amongst a few that were responsible for several innovations in pop music. These included writing your lyrics and music yourselves, and the use of more audience participation. They also helped to liberate pop music from the limitation of topics like love and teenage affection. 

Many trends with worldwide influence have come out of Britain, and not only by The Beatles. Punk was a musical genre that started in Britain around the 1970's with Sex Pistols as one of the first Punk bands. The genre soon made its way to America. The Ramones were one of the most famous american punk bands. Their logo is still used in popular fashion today. 

Read this article from Time Magazine about David Bowie's influence on music. 

Nashville, Tennessee is the place to be when it comes to country music. Famous artists like Miley Cyrus and Kings of Leon have been born there and used influences of Country in their own music. Artists like Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Kelly Clarkson and Johnny Cash live(d) in or around Nashville. The city is commonly known as "Music City", and most of its music clubs and honky-tonk bars are located in downtown Nashville which is often referred to as 'the district'. 

Coachella is probably the biggest festival in the US, and Glastonbury (together with Reading & Leeds) is the most well-known within the UK. Both festivals attract thousands of visitors every time its held. Glastonbury, unlike Coachella, isn't held every year. Every five years the festival has a fallow year which means that the festival won't take place in that year. They do this to provide locals some rest during the summer month, and not to damage the soil of the site on which the festival's held. The last fallow year was 2018, and the next one would be in 2024. Both festivals include more of the arts than just music. Glastonbury also adds comedians to their line up and Coachella puts various art and sculptures to their site every year. Festivals also have an impact on fashion. A few years ago, for example, you could not attend a festival without a flower crown. If you want to attend either one of these festivals you have to be quick because tickets sell out nearly immediately and often without an announced line-up. This is comparable to Lowlands here in The Netherlands. 

Create your own Festival.
Think of what festival you want to create (Music, film, literary, art or mixed).
Which artists will you book? (any country, think of at least 10)
Is there are certain dress code? and what types of food will you sell?
and how long will it last?

Write it all down in English. You can add up to 5 pictures to show the atmosphere you want to create.

The British Library receives a copy of every publication produced in Britain and Ireland. Their collection consists of more than 13 million books, 300.000 of them in manuscript form. They have more than 6.000 different editions of Shakespeare plays, and more than 100 different editions of most novels by Charles Dickens. These two writers might be considered to be Britains most famous authors. The library also houses around 3 million sound recordings and 8 million stamps. The collection needs more than 600 km of shelves. 

Over 60% of the British population has a library card, and borrowing a book from the library is one of the country's most popular pastimes; much more popular than going to a professional football game. 

In 2003, the BBC staged a competition called The Big Read where they wanted to find 'The Nation's favourite book'. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings came in first place, and Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice came in second. Most of the books in the Top 10 were works of Fantasy. Surprisingly, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came in fifth. The Big Read was a great success. Libraries had to buy multiple copies of the top 10 books and sales also went up. 

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and also Pride & Prejudice have all been turned into succesful films. 

The Great Gatsby is considered to be one of the greatest american novels ever written. It portrays the essence of the 'roaring-twenties' and looks critically at the american dream. When F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940, he died believing himself to be a failure because his novels seemed unsuccessful. It wasn't until the 50's and 60's that The Great Gatsby gathered attention. Nowadays, Fitzgerald cannot be missed when discussing american literature. 

In 2013, The Great Gatsby was transformed into a major motion picture with Leonardo Dicaprio as protagonist Jay Gatsby. Another of Fitzgerald's works, a short story named The Curious Case of Benjamin Button also made its debut on the big screen with Brad Pitt as the lead. 

Watch this little biography on Mark Twain, who is known as the father of American Literature. 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the first of its time in a few aspects. The book dealt with racism, and is still considered to be a controversial novel. Huck Finn, and Jim (a black slave that fled from his owner) work together on finding freedom and set sail on the Mississippi river. It shows how white and black worked together to chase one of America's unalienable rights, freedom. 

Another aspect is the use of language. Normally novels were written in a classy form of English, but Mark Twain used normal every day speech. Huck Finn is an uneducated boy, and he speaks like that. 

Name as many Hollywood production companies and/or producers/directors as you can

Watch this clip on the development of colour in films

Read this article on the history of Hollywood

Go to this website and read the following paragraphs: Walt Disney's first cartoons, Animation studios, Mickey Mouse and other characters and lastly Walt Disney Movies. 

These six companies are considered to be the biggest in the film industry. You might recognize the logos from any of the films you've seen. 

Watch Steamboat Willie, Walt Disney's first succesful animated film 

Watch this clip on the origin on Hollywood

In your personal opinion:
What's the best film ever made and why do you think that?