Frank Zappa, Johannes Brahms and The Beatles ...
By Evelyne Vittoz on Thursday, September 11 2008, 21:05 - Terminale ES2 - Permalink
For next week (in fact next Friday) dear students, I gave you a bac exam to prepare and the text evokes these different musicians
Since this text alludes to times when you were not yet born and in the case of Brahms, I wasn't born either ;), I'll help you with these cultural references.
- Frank Zappa (1940-1993) was a very prolific musician and a very good guitarist who was often very provocative and original.: his career spanned thirty years !
The album that Mr Hoggs played could have been "We're Only Here for the money" whose cover is a parody of the cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
and which criticizes the hippie movement. I don't know Frank Zappa very much and his lyrics are often shocking so if you are interested in him, check for yourself :)
- Brahms (1833-1897), a German composer and pianist.
One of the pieces I know and I'm no classical music specialist ;) is the third movement of the Third Symphony
Poco Allegretto
and this piece of piano music with a video montage full of paintings by Monet and other great painters.
Andante moderato in E flat major
I love YouTube. Don't you ?
- For the Beatles, the text quotes a very moving song about a girl running away : for a very nice video of She's leaving home Click here , a song which is arranged like a classical music tune. The three lines in your text are a direct quotation of the song :)
We struggled hard all our lives to get by
She's leaving home after living alone,
For so many years....
- Then the narrator in our text also speaks about She loves You and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. (that I mentioned in the message for my premières here).
Please me, Please me is also named in the text. And the version I'm offering you is a very modern one played by Paul Mc Cartney, one of the two remaining Beatles with Ringo Starr.
- Finally, the text also names Brian Epstein ( pronounce Stin) and George Martin who were the producers of the Beatles pop group in the 1960's.
- In the sixties, one didn't have an I-Pod to listen to music ;) . The narrator uses a Grundig reel to reel tape-recorder like the one below :
and the teacher, a stereophonic record-player (= un tourne-disque ) like that one:
How things have changed in 40 years !
Allright, normally you shouldn't have any problems with the cultural background (= arrière-plan) and I hope you will appreciate the text you have to study.
Hang on tough ! (= accrochez-vous ! ) :)