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B. De Luca, D. J. Ellis, P. Pace, S. Ranzoli Books and Bookmarks COMPLEMENTARY AND LINK MODULES Literature and Other Forms of Art LOESCHER EDITORE De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2629 © Loescher Editore

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Page 1: Books and Bookmarks - Loescher · Books and Bookmarks ... Literature and Other Forms of Art LOESCHER EDITORE 2629 pp. I-IV/001-059/B:2629 pp. I-IV/001-059/B 16/09/09 12:06 Page I

B. De Luca, D. J. Ellis, P. Pace, S. Ranzoli

Books and BookmarksCOMPLEMENTARY AND LINK MODULES

Literature and Other Forms of Art

LOESCHER EDITORE

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De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2629 © Loescher Editore

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© Loescher - 2003http://www.loescher.it

I diritti di traduzione, di memorizzazione elettronica,di riproduzione e di adattamento totale o parzialecon qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm e le copie fotostatiche)sono riservati per tutti i paesi.

Fotocopie per uso personale (cioè privato e individuale) nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume possono essere effettuate negli esercizi che aderiscono all’accordo tra SIAE - AIE - SNS e CNA - Confartigianato - CASA del 18 dicembre 2000, dietro pagamento del compenso previsto in tale accordo.Per riproduzioni ad uso non personale l’editore potrà concedere a pagamentol’autorizzazione a riprodurre un numero di pagine non superiore al 15%delle pagine del presente volume.Le richieste per tale tipo di riproduzione vanno inoltrate a:

Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzionedelle Opere dell’Ingegno (AIDRO)Via delle Erbe 220121 MilanoTel. e fax 02809506e-mail: [email protected]

L’editore, per quanto di propria spettanza, considera rare le opere fuori del proprio catalogo editoriale. La riproduzione a mezzo fotocopia degli esemplari di tali opere esistenti nelle biblioteche è consentita, non essendo concorrenziale all’opera. Non possono considerarsi rare le opere di cui esiste, nel catalogo dell’editore,una successiva edizione, le opere presenti in cataloghi di altri editori o le opere antologiche.

Ristampe

6 5 4 3 2 1 N

2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003

Loescher Editore S.r.l. opera con sistema qualitàcertificato CERMET n° 1679-Asecondo la norma UNI EN ISO 9001-94

Coordinamento del progetto : Mario SaccoCoordinamento editoriale: Laura TrimarchiRedazione: Laura Trimarchi, Daniela PenzavalleProgetto grafico: Elio Vigna Design - TorinoRicerca iconografica: Emanuela Mazzucchetti, Valentina RattoCartografia: LS International Cartography - MilanoFotolito: Graphic Center - TorinoVideoimpaginazione: Camaggio S.r.l. Grafica - Torino

Stampa: Sograte - Città di Castello (PG)

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Reading Frida Kahlo 12

Self-Portrait between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States 12STUDY BOX: How to Analyse a Painting 14

Watching a Film 17

A Moonlit Scene 17

Misery directed by ROB REINER 17

A Film from a Novel 22

A Passage to India directed by DAVID LEAN 22STUDY BOX: The Language of Film 24

Listening to Music 25

Basic Notions to Talk about Music 26

A Poem in Music 29

Into My Heart an Air That Kills, music by C. W. ORR 29

A Musical Portrait 30

Le Carnaval des Animaux, music by CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 30

Music in Films 32

Great Expectations, music by PATRICK DOYLE 32STUDY BOX: Connections between Literature

and Music 33

■ Assignment Giving an Oral Report 35

D

C

B

A

STEPFour

B

A

STEPThree

B

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 1

The Language of Literatureand Other Forms of Art 2

Moonlight in Poetry, Art, Film and Music 3

Moonlight in Poetry 3

Silver by WALTER DE LA MARE 3

Moonlight in Painting 5

Fishermen at Sea by J. M. WILLIAM TURNER 5

Moonlight in Film 6

Great Expectations directed by ALFONSO CUARÓN 6

Moonlight in Music 6

Clair de Lune, music by CLAUDE DEBUSSY 6STUDY BOX: Language as the Material of Poetry 7

Reading a Painting 8

Reading Van Gogh 9

The Starry Night 9

A

STEPTwo

D

C

B

A

STEPOne

MODULE

1

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TAB LE O F C O NTE NTS

IV

Personal FileQUICK REFERENCE

The Languages of Visual Art, Film and Music 37

REVIEW 38VISUAL ART 38FILM 38MUSIC 39

EXTENSION 40POETRY AND VISUAL ART 40

GET READY FOR TESTING 42INTERNAL CERTIFICATION 42

Step One, 42 Step Two, 42Step Three, 42 Step Four, 43

NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato) 43

KEYS 44Review 44Extension 45Get Ready for Testing 46

AppendixA. E. HOUSMAN Into My Heart 49

PAT MORA Immigrants 51

DICTIONARY

VISUAL ART 54FILM 56MUSIC 58

➔ Audiocassettes and music cassette of Books and Bookmarks

➔ Videocassette of Books and Bookmarks

Symbols

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TO THE TEACHER

The material in this booklet is from Volume 1A of the main Course, Books and Bookmarks.It can be used by those who have adopted the Compact version of Books and Bookmarks or

any other Course book: it provides linking or complementary materials which can easily integrateinto a literary curriculum enabling students to experience a new and important aspect of theirliterary studies.

This booklet brings together literature and art, film and music through a genuinelyinteractive procedure. The aim is to introduce students to basic notions and technical terms whichwill allow them to enjoy and describe a painting, a film and a piece of music and also traceconnections with literary texts.

It can act as an introduction to all the Beyond Literature sections in Books and Bookmarks(Compact Edition). It can also be used independently and, to facilitate this, an Appendix containsall the literary texts you may need to refer to over and above those analysed in detail.

The booklet is not accompanied by a Teacher’s Guide: for keys to the activities, teachers candownload appropriate sections of the Books and Bookmarks Teacher’s Guide from the Loescherwebsite www.loescher.it/booksandbookmarks, or refer to the printed Guide of the main volume ofBooks and Bookmarks.

The booklet does, however, contain self-study materials for review, extension and testpreparation purposes.

TO THE STUDENT

The learning itinerary of the booklet develops over several Steps.In the first Step you will read a poem, see a painting, watch a film clip and listen to a piece of

music all related to the same topic. In subsequent Steps you will work on other examples of art,film and music, acquire the basic notions and language of each medium and learn how to pairthem with enjoyable literary texts.

You may refer to the last section of the booklet called Personal File for materials and activitieswhich can facilitate your learning process.

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2

The Language of Literatureand Other Forms of Art

This booklet focuses on the peculiarities of the languages of art, film andmusic and their relationship to the language of literary analysis.It acts as an introduction to all the Beyond Literature sections in Books andBookmarks but it is also independent of them.In the first Step you will read a poem, look at a painting, watch a film clipand listen to a piece of music which all deal with the same topic; you willconsider what impression each medium makes on you. In subsequent Stepsyou will work on other examples of art, film and music and learn the basiclanguage of each.

L E V E L ●●● basic

T Y P E O F M O D U L E textual and interdisciplinary

P R E R E Q U I S I T E S • knowledge of the basic features of fiction, poetry and drama

• ability to identify theme

O B J E C T I V E S • express personal responses to a work of art

• learn to identify the basic features of the language of art, film and music

• learn some basic guidelines for reading a painting, watching a film and listening to music

• learn some technical terms to talk about art, film and music

• compare how theme is conveyed by different artistic languages

M AT E R I A L S POETRY • Silver (1913) by Walter De la Mare

VISUAL ART • Fishermen at Sea (1796) by J. M. William Turner

• The Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh

• Self-Portrait between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States (1932)by Frida Kahlo

FILM • clip from A Passage to India (1984) directed by David Lean

• clip from Misery (1990) directed by Rob Reiner

• clip from Great Expectations (1998) directed by Alfonso Cuaròn

MUSIC • Le Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of Animals, 1886) by Camille Saint-Saëns

• Clair de Lune (Moonlight, 1890) by Claude Debussy

• Into My Heart (1935) by C. W. Orr

• music of the clip from the film Great Expectations (1998) composed by Patrick Doyle

T I M E approx. 20 hours

L I N K S POETRY • Into My Heart (1896) by A. E. Housman (APPENDIX)• Immigrants (1986) by Pat Mora (APPENDIX)

M O D U L E

1

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M1 • THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART

3

LEAD IN What Is Art Made of?

Each form of art has its own particular language through which works of artare created. Although using a different medium, different arts may conveythe same emotions.

1 Think of the moon.

a What feelings, emotions do you associate with the moon?Here is a list for you to complete.

■■ sadness ■■ joy ■■ other (specify) ......................................

■■ sense of mystery ■■ loneliness

b Choose two feelings and say in what context the moon can arouse them.

2 What colours or sounds do you associate with the moon?

Moonlight in Poetry, Art, Film and MusicO B J E C T I V E S

In Step One you will:

• distinguish between the denotation and connotation of a word

• analyse the connotative aspects of words

• express spontaneous reactions to a painting, to a piece of music, to a film.

You are going to examine how the moon can be portrayed in a poem, apainting, a piece of music, and a film, and how it can arouse in the

reader and in the viewer a variety of feelings and associations of ideas.

Moonlight in Poetry Silver (1913)by Walter De La Mare (1873-1956) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 7

The moon is the protagonist in the poem Silver by the English poet WalterDe La Mare.

1 Read the poem on p. 4 and say where it is set and at what time of the year.Underline the clues to time and place.

STEP One

A

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LITE R ATU R E AN D OTH E R F O R M S O F ART

4

SilverSlowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon1; her refers to…

This way, and that, she peers, and sees she refers to…

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

5 One by one the casements2 catch Why One by one?

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch3;

Couched in his kennel, like a log4, his refers to…

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote5 the white breasts peep their refers to…

10 Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse6 goes scampering7 by,

With silver claws and a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Through your literary studies in Italian and in English, you are certainly familiar with somebasic aspects of the language of poetry and your knowledge can help you understand thetext and then express how the image of a moonlit landscape is rendered and what effectsand feelings it creates.

2 The word ‘silver’ is repeated throughout the poem.

a Ring the word to see how often it is repeated.

b The dictionary definition, that is to say the denotation of silver, is a precious metal.1 What associated feelings, ideas, etc. does the word in the poem arouse in you as a reader?

In other words, what are its connotations? 2 To what semantic areas does “silver” belong? Tick as appropriate.

■■ colour

■■ money

■■ magic (i.e. strange influence or power)

■■ romance (i.e. a story of love, adventure, often set in a remote time and place which is moreexciting than real life)

■■ other (specify) .........................................3 Which of the connotative meanings of ‘silver’ seems to dominate the poem? How does it

transform the landscape?

3 The poet uses other poetic devices to reinforce the transformation of the landscape.

a Identify examples of personification in the text and say how personification reinforces theconnotative value of ‘silver’ in the poem.

b The word ‘silver’ consists of three soft consonant sounds – /s/, /l/, /v/. Which of these sounds areechoed through alliteration in other words of the text? How do they add to the atmosphere?

1. shoon, old form for ‘shoes’ (scarpe).2. casements, windows (finestre).3. thatch, roof covering of straw, once common in the Englishcountryside (tetto di paglia).4. like a log, (here) fast asleep (profondamente addormentato).

5. cote, short for ‘dovecote’, a shelter for doves (colombaia).6. harvest mouse, a small field mouse (topolino dei campi).7. scampering, running quickly (corre velocemente).

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M1 • THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART

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The way words are used reveals the feelings of the observer as he contemplates the night scene.

4 What are the observer’s feelings? Do they coincide with yours?

Moonlight in PaintingFishermen at Sea (1796) by J. M. William Turner (1775-1851) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 8

Now look at a moonlit scene in the seascape Fishermen at Sea by theEnglish painter J. M. William Turner. The artist has pictured the place wherethe turbulent waters of the River Solent flow into the calmer waters of theEnglish Channel. The spectacular cliffs of the Isle of Wight, called theNeedles, can be seen on the left. The picture has got a content, that is to say a subject matter, that you candescribe.

1 What can you see in the picture?

J. M. W. Turner, Fishermen at Sea, oil on canvas, 91.4 � 122.2 cm, London, Tate Gallery.

B

Tate

Gal

lery

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LITE R ATU R E AN D OTH E R F O R M S O F ART

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2 Look at the painting again.Mark how much you like it on the scale from 0 to 5, where 0 indicates that the painting doesn’tarouse your interest at all and 5 means that you find it extraordinary.

0 1 2 3 4 5

Your choice probably derives from a spontaneous reaction to the painting.It may not be easy for you to understand the reasons for your response and, for themoment, you may also lack the language to talk about it.

Moonlight in FilmGreat Expectations (1998) directed by Alfonso Cuarón

You are going to watch a clip from Great Expectations (1998) directed by AlfonsoCuarón, a modern film version of the classic 19th-century novel by Charles Dickens(1812-70). It tells the story of a young boy who grows up to fulfil his dreams of loveand achievement. The clip is from the beginning of the story and shows part of thecrucial meeting between the boy and a man who will change his life.

1 Watch the clip.

a In how many ways do you detect the presence of the moon on the screen?

b Choose the words in the following statements that, in your opinion, best apply to what happens onthe screen.

The moonlight creates a particular atmosphere of hope / suspense / excitement.It contributes to suggesting feelings of fear / curiosity / distrust in the characters.

c Does the moonlight make a positive or negative impression on the viewer? Explain why.

Moonlight in MusicClair de Lune (1890) music by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 8

You are going to listen to a piece of music about moonlight: Clair de Lune,an early composition by Claude Debussy.

1 Look at the title of the composition. What do you expect the music to be like?

lively sweet passionate brilliant soft sad cheerful smooth slow peaceful disquieting shrill

tender with a clearly recognisable refrain

2 Listen to the tape.

a How did the performance meet your expectations?

b How would you describe the quality of the music?

c Did the music appeal to you or not? Give reasons for your answer.

C

D

(➔ Videocassette ofBooks and Bookmarks)

(➔ Music cassette ofBooks and Bookmarks)

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M1 • THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART

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STUDY BOX Language as the Material of Poetry

CHECK… 1 Consider the poem Silver and write a short paragraph on the followingtopic: How the moonlight creates a magical atmosphere.

2 Complete the sentences below in your notebook.

The moon moves silently over the sky and brightens up an unnamed place in the English

countryside. Her beams fall on several elements of the rural landscape, such as

1) ................................................. . The moon is given human qualities. She 2) ................................................. .

The device of personification is one of the major causes of the ‘magical atmophere’

the poem creates. An equally effective device is the repetition of the adjective ‘silver’.

Each time the adjective is repeated it is applied to a different element which cannot

escape the moon’s 3) ................................................. . The word ‘silver’ acquires a rich connotative

dimension which belongs mainly to the semantic areas of 4) .................................................. .

The soft sounds of words like 5) ................................................. add to the atmosphere of magic

and silence.

The slow progression of the moon in the night sky brings about a soft process of

transformation of an idyllic rural corner of England into a magic, ‘silver’ setting.

…AND LEARN From the analysis of the poem Silver you have seen how aspects of language

contributed to creating a particular atmosphere. The knowledge of technical

features helped you to get a fuller understanding of the magic worked by words.

Likewise the impressions created by a painting, a film or a piece of music derive

from the way technical aspects are used by a painter, a film director and a

composer. A knowledge of them may help you both to understand and enjoy

art, film and music to a greater degree and to be able to talk about them and

express your personal responses.

D e La Mare was born in Kent. He left school at 16 and for twenty years worked for an

oil company. His first poems and stories were published in his mid-twenties.

He remained a prolific writer of poetry and prose, for children as well as adults, throughout

his long life. His best-known volumes of poetry are Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes (1913),

Memory and Other Poems (1938) and Winged Chariot (1951) in which he shows a very

personal imagination.

BIOGRAPHIES

WALTER DE LA MARE (1873-1956)

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➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r T e s t i n g , p . 4 2

J. M. WILLIAM TURNER (1775-1851)

The son of a barber, he entered the Royal Academy at the age of 14 and became a full

member in 1802. He travelled widely both in Britain and in Europe. A very original

painter in the use of light and colour, he is considered the greatest 19th-century landscapist.

He broke away from conventional forms of painting, anticipating the French Impressionists°

of the late 19th and early 20th century.

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)

F rench composer, Claude Debussy studied piano in Paris and won the Prix de Rome

in 1884 with L’enfant prodigue. Back in Paris he joined Symbolist circles and

became a friend of Impressionist painters and Symbolist poets. In his lifetime his

compositions, as for example Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune, were criticised as

‘formless’, but he is now considered one of the greatest innovators in the use of

harmony. He is often described as ‘impressionist’ because through his music he conveys

personal and subjective ‘impressions’, emotions, sensations and recollections. His

production includes chamber music, music for orchestra, music for the stage and the

piano.

Reading a PaintingO B J E C T I V E S

In Step Two you will:

• learn basic notions and technical terms concerning composition, line, colour,perspective and light in painting

• learn how to read a painting following a series of guidelines

In order to understand what a painting wants to convey and how it conveys it,that is to say, in order to ‘read’ a painting, you need to acquire some specific

technical skills and language.You will analyse two pictures and this will help you to become a more expertviewer.

STEP Two

° ➔ Dictionary of Visual Art (APPENDIX, p. 54)

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Reading Van GoghThe Starry Night (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 16

In the poem Silver, a ‘magic’ moonlit scene is created through words andsounds. Now look at how the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh has rendered a night scene with moon and stars in his painting The Starry Night: the nightsky shows a blazing moon and stars over a Provençal village.

Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, oil

on canvas, 73.7 � 92.1 cm, New York, The Museum

of Modern Art.

A

1 What elements make up the night scene? Complete the list below:

A cypress tree (on the left), a cluster of olive trees (on the right), surrounding hills, .......................... .

This is an oil painting in which the paints are made by mixing pigments into an oil base.The format, that is the size and overall shape of the picture, is the conventional horizontallandscape format.When you start describing a painting, it is worth considering the composition – the wayin which the various parts of a picture are arranged on the canvas. You should draw ahorizontal line dividing the picture into two halves: the upper section and the lowersection. Then you should draw a vertical line down the middle, splitting the image into itsleft and right sections. The result is an image divided into four sections: you can refer tothem when describing the painting.

Orb

is P

ublis

hing

Ltd

.

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Now imagine drawing a horizontal line and a vertical line across Van Gogh’s painting asshown below.

In a painting another major component is the line. It can be:

3 Decide what kind of lines Van Gogh has used to create his starry night.

Lines can suggest feelings and ideas in paintings. Straight horizontal and vertical lines areconventionally used to express order, harmony, quietness, stability. Curvy and wavy linesmay be used to suggest a sense of progress and movement of objects. Jagged lines arecommonly used to express an explosion of feelings, speed and disturbance of the mind.

4 What functions do you think lines serve in Van Gogh’s painting?

The last component we need in order to read The Starry Night is colour, which has greatimportance in art. The purest colours (➔ wheel of colours, p. 11) are yellow (1), red (2)and blue (3) and they are known as primary colours.

2 Concentrate on what theupper and lower sectionsinclude.

a Is the representation of thedark earth and of the starrysky equally divided betweenthe two sections?

b Where is the focus of thepainting? On the earth oron the sky?

c Are the moon and starsdepicted in usualproportion to one anotherand to the landscape?What does that tell youabout Van Gogh’s focus?

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They cannot be produced by blending but they mix, in various combinations, to form allthe others. Secondary colours are produced by a mixture of two primaries: for example,yellow and blue produce green.The more blue you add, the darker the green is, if you use more yellow, the green will be lighter.Colours which are contiguous on the wheel, like red and orange, blend together andtend to produce a sense of harmony. Colours which are opposite on the wheel, likegreen and red, are called complementary colours and create the strongest contrast.

Colours can be grouped in different ways to create particular effects. The grouping can be:– monochromatic, if a single colour with all its shades and tones dominates over the others.

Overtones of a single colour (e.g., dark red, light red) blend together and do not contrast.– polychromatic, if many colours are used.

5 Look at the painting by Van Gogh.

a Which are the two dominant colours? Are they primary or secondary?

b What is each used for?

You have analysed the composition, the line, the colours of the Starry Night. Now considerthe painting as a whole.

6 Consider the feelings and mood the painting suggests.

a How do you think Van Gogh felt in the presence of the starry night?

b How do you like the painting? How would you rate it on a scale from 0 to 5? ( ex. 2, p. 6).

c Are you now able to understand what aspects of the painting have influenced your choice — for example, the composition, the line, the colour?

Literature and arts have often been defined as ‘sister arts’. You can easily weave anetwork of associations between literary texts and paintings on several levels: subjectmatter, theme, mood/atmosphere, use of verbal/visual language, artist’s aim,reader’s/viewer’s response.

7 Compare Van Gogh’s painting to the poem Silver and identify what the two texts have in common in their representations of a moonlit night.

The wheel of colours Complementary colours

yellow

purple green orange

red blue

White

Black

When placed nextto one another,complementarycolours create thestrongestcontrast.The juxtapositionof black and whiteproduces the same strongcontrast.

1

2

3

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Reading Frida KahloSelf-Portrait between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States (1932) by Frida Kahlo (1907-54) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 16

You can establish even closer connections between literature and art if the literarytext and the painting deal with the same theme, express similar responses to it andthe writer and the artist are of the same race and from the same cultural heritage.This is the case with the painting by Frida Kahlo that can be associated withthe poem Immigrants (1986) by Pat Mora (➔ Appendix, p. 51). Pat Mora is a Mexican American poet (➔ Biography, Appendix, p. 53) and Frieda Kahlo is a Mexican artist who spent several months in the US. She was staying in the States when she painted the picture we are going to analyse. Study the poem and do or review exercises 1-4, pp. 51-52.

The painting shows Frida Kahlo standing between Mexico and the US.

1 A few elements enrich the artist’s portrait, such as her braided hair and necklace.

a Can you name some more?

B

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States, oil painting on tin, 31 � 35 cm, New York, private collection.

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b Describe what Kahlo looks like incorporating the elements you have identified.Begin like this: The artist stands on top of a concrete block where her name and the date of thepainting are inscribed. She wears a bright pink dress, braids in her hair, ……… .

The painter has created a sense of space by giving the painting depth and the variousitems which fill up the picture seem to be at different distances from the viewer.

2 Consider the items below and say what you can see• in the foreground (the part of a painting which appears closest to the viewer)• in the middleground• in the background (the part which appears farthest away from the viewer).

Artists give their work a sense of depth by using perspective.Perspective relies on the fact that:– objects/people look smaller and less detailed the further away they are– people/objects in the foreground hide part of more distant ones– imaginary lines converge in the distance.

Study the composition of the painting. Draw a vertical line down the middle splitting thepicture into a left section and a right section. The central focus is the artist’s figure whichdivides – as well as unifies – the two halves.

3 Consider the right half of the image. Don’t concentrate on details. Try to form an overallimpression of this US section.

a What is the right side dominated by? What is the sky like over this side?

b What kind of lines prevail in this section? What do they suggest?

background

middleground

foreground

Mexican cacti in blossom a stone skeleton head a Mexican pyramidthe American flag industrialised chimneys the concrete blockgray pipes and shafts a dark flood lightred speaker two fertility figures

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The left side is full of symbolic Mexican items. Besides the two fertility images, you cansee the two oldest Mexican divinities represented by the sun and the moon over theMexican pyramid.

4 Which adjectives would you use to describe the objects which characterise the Mexicanside? Which the US side? You can choose from the list below or add your own.

inorganic geometric industrial repetitive organic rural historical

5 Consider how the artist has used colour.

a On which side are bright colours mostly found? On which side does colour tend to bemonochromatic? Can you think of a reason?

b What is the function of the pink dress the artist wears?

You get the colour pink by mixing red and white. You get brown by mixing red and black.Therefore, the contrast between pink and brown is very strong.

The last aspect we can consider is light. Light in a picture can derive from a precisesource which can be natural (the sun, the moon) or artificial (e.g., a lamp, a candle): itlooks real and usually produces visible shadows. When no source can be identified, lightis diffused and unreal.Light can emphasise objects and people; it can produce sharp contrasts, brightlyilluminating some parts and throwing others into darkness. If unreal, it makes the picturelook timeless and static.

6 What is the light like in Kahlo’s picture?

7 The picture has been said to express the theme of dualities (e.g., Mexican/American;earth/industry) about which the artist had strong feelings when she was painting this picture inthe US: she was homesick and felt isolated.

a How does the painting illustrate the theme?

b Do you find the same theme in the poem Immigrants by Pat Mora? Give reasons.

STUDY BOX How to Analyse a Painting

Look again at Turner’s seascape. Now try to read it in the light of what you have beenstudying: composition, perspective, line, movement, colour. Then complete thefollowing analysis of the painting. Use the following words given in jumbled order.

straight glimmer sources horizontal relationship half green middleground lines background lamp quiet

If you draw a 1) ............................................................ line across the middle of the painting, you will

realise that the moonlit sky takes up more than 2) ............................................................ of the canvas.

In the foreground, the dark, heaving surface of the River Solent seems to threaten the viewer.

In the 3) ............................................................ , a fishing boat is at the mercy of the waves, while further on

the right another fishing boat is almost disappearing into the darkness of the night. In the

4) ............................................................ , the high cliffs look impressive in the semi-darkness. Beyond them,

CHECK…

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the calm waters of the English Channel 5) ............................................................ in the moonlight. The

contrast between the vortex movement of the river and the quiet waters of the Channel is

created through the use of curvy, wavy 6) ............................................................ in the foreground and

middleground which change into horizontal 7) ............................................................ lines in the background.

The light is real and derives from two 8) ............................................................ : the light of the moon and the

fire of the 9) ............................................................ in the central boat. The moonlight falls on a few elements

in the painting and turns them ‘silver’: the 10) ............................................................ water of the Channel in

the distance, the top of the surging waves and the open wings of the seabirds. Colours are

tones and shades of 11) ............................................................ , yellow and brown. Everything adds to

suggest a non-equal 12) ............................................................ between man and nature: nature overwhelms

man who is an integral but small part of its domain.

…AND LEARN As you have realised, visual art has its own language and conventions.

They concern composition, line, colour, perspective and light. A sound

knowledge of some of these aspects can allow you to enjoy and analyse a

painting in some depth.

Connections between You can weave many connections between literary texts and paintings: they Literature and Art can be about the same subject or the same theme, create a similar mood and

arouse similar responses in the reader and the viewer, or they can belong to the

same cultural context and voice the same ‘spirit of the age’.

The paintings that you will analyse in this volume respond to one of the

following criteria:

• they exemplify how similar results can be achieved through different media

(words and images);

• they express similar or different responses to the same historical or cultural

events;

• they are about the same subject or the same theme.

A Reading of A technical reading of The Starry Night by Van Gogh can reveal its rich The Starry Night meaning. The painting portrays a night scene in Provence. In the foreground the

upper part of a dark cypress tree seems to dominate the left-hand section of the

painting. In the middleground a small village is resting peacefully under a starry

sky and a radiant moon. In the background the curves of the surrounding hills

mark the division between land and sky. The part of the picture that is most

striking is the starry sky which takes up more than half of the canvas. The rapid,

whirling movement of the sky contrasts with the quiet stability of the sleeping

village, movement and stability which largely depend on the use of different,

contrasting lines.

Much of the nocturnal atmosphere is evoked through the intense blue colour

which is torn apart by the yellow overtones of the sparkling stars. Night-time is

often associated with moods which are removed from the world of reason, closer

to dreams and nightmares. The whole picture seems to convey the emotion the

artist may have felt contemplating the extraordinary beauty of the night scene.

Considered alongside the poem Silver by Walter De La Mare, you will see that

in both art forms the moon is not static, it is a moving, animate object although

▼ ▼

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the type of movement is quite different. Silver puts across a strong feeling of

peace and tranquillity whereas Van Gogh’s contemplation evokes passionate,

almost uncontrollable emotion.

A Reading of Self-Portrait Technical knowledge of the language of art can also open up the meaning ofbetween the Borderline the painting by Kahlo. The painting is symmetrical. If you draw an imaginary

of Mexico andvertical line down the middle, you divide it into two halves: the artist stands in the United Statesbetween the two halves, and is a prominent figure in the painting. Her prominence is

emphasised by her pink dress. The objects on the left side are organic, colourful and

symbolic of Mexico and Mexican heritage: they stand for the living earth, fertility, the

ancient forces of religion. The objects on the right side are inorganic, geometric,

industrial shapes which are symbolic of the technological civilisation of the US in which

there is no room for nature, art, religion and history. The artist who feels homesick and

is not at ease in the US, shows her affection for Mexico through the pleasant, colourful

curvy shapes of the Mexican side. Her personal drama finds expression in the sharp

contrast between the technological forms of the US and the rural forms of Mexico.

The light in the painting is unreal and makes the painting timeless. The theme

is that of dualities between the US and Mexico, earth and industry, life and death.

The artist is torn between the two halves of the painting which are the two halves

of her life, of life.

In terms of theme, we can identify a lot of common ground between the poem

Immigrants by Pat Mora and Kahlo’s painting. Both describe the feelings of tension and

the difficulties of assimilation associated with emigration into a foreign culture.

The Dutch artist decided to become a painter in 1880 after a number of unsuccessful jobs.

He spent a few years in Paris where he was affected by the Impressionists’° bright colours

and desire to capture the ‘impression’ of open air in their pictures. He then went to live in the

South of France where he eventually took his life. Most of his paintings have a basis in natural

landscapes, but they constantly depart from an objective representation: he interprets them

expressively, introducing feelings based on his inner vision.

FRIDA KAHLO (1907-54)

M exican painter and wife of Mexico’s most famous artist, Diego Rivera, who was twice her

age. Their relationship was often strained but lasted to her death. Throughout her life she

had to endure great physical and moral suffering which never crushed her spirit. As an artist, she

was a self-taught painter and was influenced by Rivera, but more by Mexican folk art. Her

paintings have a naive vigour and show signs of Surrealist imagination. As Self Portrait between

the Borderline of Mexico and the United States illustrates, they are often directly autobiographical.

BIOGRAPHIES

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-90)

➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r T e s t i n g , p . 4 2

° ➔ Dictionary of Visual Art (APPENDIX, p. 54)

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Watching a FilmO B J E C T I V E S

In Step Three you will:

• analyse some clips from films

• learn some technical terms and the basic conventions of the language of film

• learn to express your analysis of films

There are many connections between literature and cinema, mainlybecause literary works have often been turned into films, which are a

form of interpretation of the original text. To discuss these connections youneed to understand the language of film which has features of its own,different from the literary ones. In Step One you watched a clip showing a moonlit scene and were asked toexpress what impression it made on you. You shall go back to it after youhave learned how to recognise the technicalities behind it.

A Moonlit Scene Misery (1990)directed by Rob Reiner, starring Kathy Bates as Annie and James Caan as Paul

First you are going to watch another moonlit scene. The clip is from the filmMisery, directed by Rob Reiner, a black-comedy thriller based on a StephenKing novel. Kathy Bates won a best-actress Oscar for playing thepsychopath Annie Wilkes who holds the writer Paul Sheldon (played byJames Caan) captive. Paul is the author of a popular series of storiescentred on a young woman called Misery. In the clip, you are going to seewhat happens when Annie, who is a keen reader of these novels, discoversthat Misery, her favourite character, dies in the last book of the series.

1 (FIRST VIEWING. SOUND ON) Watch the clip and answer the questions.

a Where and when is the clip set?

b Where is Paul? What wakes him up?

c What are Annie’s exact words at the beginning and at the end of the clip? Fill in the blanks.• At the beginning: “I’d like to stay for a chat. But I’m right at the 1) ............................... and I’ve got to find

out what 2) ............................... ”• At the end: “You, dirty bird! How could you! She can’t be 3) ............................... . Misery Chastain

cannot be 4) ............................... .”

d What feelings does Annie express with her face and tone of voice at the beginning and at the end?

e How would you describe the dominant atmosphere? You can choose from the following adjectives.tense relaxing threatening mysterious frightening

STEP Three

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Two stills from Misery.

2 Look at the two stills (above) from the clip. What does each frame show?

A shot is what is filmed from the moment when the camera starts shooting to when itstops; the length of a shot is the film-maker’s decision; it can last from one second up toa minute or more.

3 (SECOND VIEWING) Below, on the left, is the number of shots that make up the clip you havewatched and, on the right, a brief description of what they show. Match the shots and thecorrect descriptions as in the example.

Shots Descriptions

■■g 1 a) The face of Paul first asleep and then woken up by a noise

■■ 2 b) The face of Paul watching Annie with a worried expression

■■ 3 c) Annie coming into the room

■■ 4 d) Annie’s face

■■ 5 e) Annie’s house from the outside

■■ 6 f) Paul lying in bed and a partial view of the bedroom

■■ 7 g) Annie smiling and going out of the bedroom

■■ 8 h) Paul’s face on the pillow with a puzzled expression

■■ 9 i) Full moon in the sky

A sequence is a number of shots showing the development of a scene or episode.What you have seen in the clip is part of the sequence that shows Annie’s retaliationafter discovering that Paul suppressed the character of Misery in his latest novel.

Your answers to the questions in ex. 1 show that you can talk about setting, content andatmosphere in a film. With the help of some technical knowledge and vocabulary you willbe able to analyse the clip in greater depth. Here are some words very often used when describing or discussing film techniques:frame, shot and sequence.A frame is any single picture that appears on the screen. If you push the ‘still’ buttonon your video recorder, you will momentarily stop the film you are watching on a singleframe.

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4 Annie’s reaction is only the beginning of the sequence. What aspect of her reaction haveyou noticed in the clip?

Let’s now look at some other useful terms concerning frames and shots. First of all, we will consider the notion of composition in the frame which is the wayobjects and characters are arranged in relation to space in order to guide the viewer’sattention to where it matters most. These are the main types of composition:

If you draw a horizontal line in the middle of the frame, some objects or characters are in the foreground (i.e., closer to the viewer) while others are in the background(i.e., farther away from the viewer)

If you draw a vertical line in the middle of the frame, the two halves may be either equally occupied (see picture) or one may be occupied while the other is empty.

5 What kind of composition in the frame can you detect in these two frames from the clip?

The picture in the frame is organised according to a triangular structure.

The picture in the frame is organised along adiagonal line.

background

foreground

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While the long, medium long and medium shots are mainly used to carry on the story-lineof the film, the close-up, extreme CU and detail are used to enable the viewer to watchthe characters’ expressions closely or to attract the viewer’s attention to somethingmeaningful in the story.Montage is the technique of editing and putting shots together so that they conveymeaning and carry the story forward in time and place. The break that marks where one shotends and the next one begins is called a cut. These breaks should always suggest aconnection between two adjoining shots in order to ensure visual continuity in the film. Forexample, the cut between shot 1 – Annie smiling and going out of the bedroom – and shot 2– Paul’s puzzled face – contrasts the facial expressions of the two characters and makes theviewer wonder what will happen next; in other words, it creates suspense. Visual continuity isensured by the characters’ eyeline, that is to say by the fact that the character in each shotlooks in the direction where the other character is supposed to be or to have exited.

6 (THIRD VIEWING) Watch the clip again.

a Write next to each of the shots listed in ex. 3 (p. 18) what type they are.

Example: ■■g Shot 1, medium shot

b What is in your opinion the function/s of the type of shots 4, 5, 7 and 8?

c Explain the connection suggested by the cuts between: – shots 4 and 5 – shots 8 and 9What ensures visual continuity?

Close-Up (CU). The frame shows head andshoulders of a character or a very close viewof an object.

Extreme close-up (ECU). A shot whichshows part or a detail of a character’s face.

Detail (D). A shot which shows part of the human body or an object.

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Now let’s look at the main types of shots used in films.

Long shot (LS). The setting takes up mostof the space in the frame. If there is a character, s/he is seen full length.

Medium long shot (MLS). A shot in which the lower part of the character’s legs is cutoff by the lower line of the frame.

Medium shot (MS). A shot in which thelower frame line passes through the waist orthe chest of a character.

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Normal angle, high-angle and low-angle shots may simply indicate the upper or lowerlocation of characters in relation to space, but they may also suggest dominance ordependency in the characters’ relationship. High-angle and low-angle shots also conveya subjective point of view; in other words, the camera takes the position of a characterso that the viewer looks at the action as if through the character’s eyes or from overhis/her shoulder. The aim is to make the audience share the character’s experience andfeelings.

7 Refer to the list in ex. 3, p. 18.

a What kind of angles have been used in these shots? 3 (f) 6 (a) 7 (c)

b To what effect do you think?

While watching the clip over and over again, you have probably realised that the use of lighting is very important in films. It is rarely used realistically. The way the setting and characters are illuminated helps to create the atmosphere of a sequence and provides a clue as to the personality or mood of a character and the meaning of a shot.

8 Watch the clip again and focus on the use of lighting.

a What feelings does the moonlight rouse in the viewer?

b Decide which character is more dominated – by light – by darkness

c When Annie comes into Paul’s room, her face is half in light and half in darkness. Bearing in mind that she is a psychopath, what aspect/s of her personality does this use of light suggest?

9 Now go back to your answers in ex. 1, p. 17 and think of what you understood and feltwhen you first watched the clip.

a Have your feelings and impressions changed at all after the analysis of the clip?

b Which of the techniques you have learned so far do you think mostly contributed to producing yourfinal impressions?

Normal angle shot. The camera is at thesame level as its subject: the viewer looks atthe characters as if he were beside them.

High-angle shot. The camera is in a higherposition than its subject: the viewer looksdown on the characters.

Low-angle shot. The camera is in a lower position than its subject: the viewer looks up at the characters.

We are now going to concern ourselves with point of view in shooting a film. Theviewer’s point of view is conditioned by the choice of angle in the shots.

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A Film from a NovelA Passage to India (1886)directed by David Lean, starring Victor Banerjee as Doctor Aziz

Now you are going to watch a third clip with a moonlit scene. The clip isfrom the film A Passage to India directed by David Lean, which is based on anovel bearing the same title by E. M. Forster (1879-1970). You will see the beginning of a sequence. Aziz, the main character, is an Indian doctor. He has been slighted by two English ladies who have rudely taken from him his ‘tonga’, the means of transport hehad hired, leaving him on foot. On the way back home, he stops at amosque.

1 (FIRST VIEWING) Watch the clip.

a Describe Aziz’s actions.

b Where is the moon when it first appears?

c What feelings do you associate with the image of the moon in this clip as compared with the clipfrom Misery?

2 (SECOND VIEWING) Apply the knowledge you have just acquired of technical notions andterms.

a How many shots are there in the clip? Tick the correct number.

■■ five ■■ eight ■■ ten

b Decide what types of shots ( p. 20) are used for the following images.

1 The moon reflected in the water ………………

2 The cupolas of the mosque ………………

3 Aziz approaching the gap in the wall and sitting down ………………

4 A distant view of town ………………

c Explain what is suggested by the cut between shots 3 and 4 described above and what ensuresvisual continuity.

d What is the main source of light in the clip? Is it used realistically? What do you think its mainfunction/s is/are in this part of the sequence?

Now let’s see how motion is represented in films. There are several ways. We shallconsider those most frequently used:1 the camera is fixed and characters or objects move towards it or away from it within

the same shot2 the camera moves with a character; this is a tracking shot3 the camera turns from side to side along an imaginary fixed horizontal line; this is a

pan shot (‘pan’ comes from ‘panorama’)4 a montage is made of very brief shots so that the quick change of image suggests

rapid motion even if the subject/s in each single shot is/are still.

B

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3 (THIRD VIEWING) Watch the clip and focus on images in motion.Which of the techniques described on p. 20 are used in these shots?

1 The English ladies departing on the tonga.2 Aziz approaching the break in the wall where he sits down.

The clip is based on the following extract from E. M. Forster’s novel, A Passage to India.

4 Read the extract and then, if necessary, watch the clip again.Underline phrases and sentences in the text below which describe something you saw in the clip.

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

He had always liked this mosque. It was gracious, and the arrangement pleased him. The courtyard —

entered through a ruined gate — contained an ablution tank of fresh clear water, which was always in motion,

being indeed part of a conduit that supplied the city. The courtyard was paved with broken slabs1.

The covered part of the mosque was deeper than is usual; its effect was that of an English parish church

whose side has been taken out. Where he sat, he looked into three arcades whose darkness was illuminated by

a small hanging lamp and by the moon. The front — in full moonlight — had the appearance of marble, and

the ninety-nine names of God on the frieze2 stood out black, as the frieze stood out white against the sky. The

contest between this dualism and the contention of shadows within pleased Aziz, and he tried to symbolize

the whole into some truth of religion or love. (...)

10 His seat was the low wall that bounded3 the courtyard on the left. The ground fell away beneath him

towards the city, visible as a blur4 of trees, and in the stillness he heard many small sounds.

When a film is based on fiction, either a novel or a short story, it needs to be adapted fortwo good reasons:– the story of a film is told through images and speech while fiction relies on the written word;– a film can only last a fixed period of time, usually two hours, which is not sufficient to

show all the events included in most novels.The process of transformation from literature into a film is called adaptation.Here are the main procedures that may be used to adapt a novel into a film:1 narration and description in the novel are replaced by images or dialogue in the film script;2 the original dialogue is used in the film script exactly as it is or it is changed;3 parts of the story or the narrator’s words are omitted in the script;4 new sections of the plot or new characters, not included in the original story, are

added to the film.

5 Refer to the list of adaptation procedures and decide which of them have been used toadapt the extract you have read into the film clip. Give examples.

1. slabs, flat pieces of stone (lastre).2. frieze, ornamental border along the top of the wall of a building(fregio).

3. bounded, limited (delimitava).4. blur, something whose shape is not clearly seen (macchia).

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STUDY BOX The Language of Film

CHECK… You should now be able to complete the following description of the clip from

Great Expectations that you watched in the first Step of this Module ( p. 6). Watch it again two or three times and fill in the spaces in the paragraph. Use thefollowing words given in jumbled order.

expression light shots long moon sequence atmosphere brief movements detail

montage close-up medium-long figures background techniques lighting

This clip shows the first part of a 1) ........................................................... which takes place at night-

time and is illuminated by the light of the moon. It begins with a close-up of the

2) ........................................................... with clouds and mist racing across its face. Then there is a

rapid 3) ........................................................... of brief shots showing a 4) ........................................................... of the

silhouette of a boy throwing an anchor and another detail of the anchor splashing into

the water. This is followed by a 5) ........................................................... shot which gradually changes

into a 6) ........................................................... as it shows the boy getting out of a boat, moving

towards the camera and looking for someone. What comes next is another quick

montage of different 7) ........................................................... , almost all of a man who appears to be

an escaped convict. 8) ........................................................... and long shots show him against a windy

moonlit 9) ........................................................... ; a detail of the chain around his ankles explains who

he is and why his 10) ........................................................... are unsteady; we see his face showing a

worried 11) ........................................................... in a close-up.

The most effective 12) ........................................................... in the clip are the montage and the use of

13) ........................................................... . The montage rapidly alternates very

14) ........................................................... shots with longer ones; it tells the story but also suggests the

state of anxiety of both characters. The 15) ........................................................... is that of the moon: it

mainly highlights the shapes of the human 16) ........................................................... against a moonlit

background and shows the expressions on their faces only briefly. Montage and lighting

create an ominous 17) ........................................................... full of suspense.

…AND LEARN As you have seen in this Step, film is a form of art with its own conventions

Comment on Film Clips and language. It is based on images, on their composition, their movement and

the way they are edited and put together. A sound knowledge of these aspects

will enable you both to enjoy a film and to analyse what you see on the screen.

Here is an example of what you can find out, for example, if you decide to

compare the clips you have been working on in this module. All of them have

one feature in common; they show moonlit scenes. But the use of moonlight

radically changes from one clip to another. If you look at the way the full moon

is presented from a technical point of view you will notice that a close-up is used

in the film Misery as well as in Great Expectations; but while in the first case the

image is still and clear, in the second case the image is animated by racing

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M1 • THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART

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clouds. In A Passage to India, the image of the moon is presented as a detail of

the ablution tank in the mosque; it is reflected in water but the viewer is

momentarily deceived and realises this only when a hand moves the surface

and breaks up the image.

In all three clips, the moonlight illuminates objects and figures but with very

different functions. In Misery light is juxtaposed to darkness in several shots:

this contrast dominates the figure of Annie and underlines her menacing

behaviour. In Great Expectations light is used to sketch silhouettes in long shots

and to show worried expressions very briefly in close-ups; this creates a tense

atmosphere of suspense. Finally in A Passage to India the moonlight defeats

darkness and clearly illuminates everything in long and very long shots; it

enhances the beauty of the place and of the landscape and suggests a consoling

effect on the embittered Doctor Aziz.

Films and Literature In this book, films are going to be used as documents when you study

literature. Like literary criticism, they offer an interpretation of a literary text

that can help you to understand it better as well as give you a chance to practice

your newly acquired viewing competence. As you go on in the book and work

on other film clips you will learn some more aspects of film technique.

The clip from A Passage to India provides an example of what happens when

a novel is adapted into a film. On the other hand, lots of screenplays are written

purposely for the screen. Today screenplay writing has become an aspect of

modern drama and several of the major contemporary playwrights, such as

Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, have shown their skill at it.

Listening to MusicO B J E C T I V E S

In Step Four you will:

• analyse some pieces of music

• learn some technical language to talk about music

• learn to express your responses to music

This Step will entirely focus on music and its basic language. Music is a typeof language other than the language of literature: it has got its own

characteristics which you need to learn to understand a musical text. We willgive you some basic guidelines to listening and you will learn sometechnical terms which will be useful to talk about music.

▼ ▼

➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r T e s t i n g , p . 4 2

STEP Four

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Basic Notions to Talk about MusicThe raw material of music is sound, which is a far more abstract substancethan the raw material of other forms of art, such as paint, marble, or bronzefor the visual and plastic arts. Musical sounds are called notes. They areseven and in English, unlike Italian, are called by the letters of the alphabet.

The succession of the seven notes with the addition of the first one on a higherlevel makes up the musical scale (also called octave).There are various types of scale according to the notesselected. A scale is the range of notes on which a musicalpiece is based. A musical scale can be played and read intwo directions, ascending and descending (➔ Fig. 1).

Music also has a ‘visual’ counterpart. The visual representation of music is made bywriting notes on the stave which is made up of five horizontal parallel lines. Notes maysit both in the spaces and on the lines, but also above or below the stave.

The C major scale

On the tape you will easily recognise the eight notes played first in ascending and thendescending order on the central octave of the piano.

1

The scale you have listened to, which is shown on the above stave, is called C major and isplayed only on the white keys of the piano, but other scales include the black keys as well.

The A minor scale

Listen to the tape and look at the illustration below. You will hear a different scale beingplayed and see which keys have been selected.

2

A

The scale you listened to was a minor scale.

The two most common scales in the western tradition of music are the major scale andthe minor scale of which you have listened to examples.

DO RE MI FA SOL LA SI

C D E F G A B

&œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

&

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ# œ œ# œ œ œ œ œ œ

ascendingdescending

ascendingdescending

C major

A minor

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

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Major scales and minor scales usually convey contrasting moods. Major scales usuallycommunicate joyful, triumphalistic, light-hearted moods, while minor scales convey moreromantic, sorrowful and melancholy moods.

D major and D minor and God Save the King in two versions

On the tape you will hear the difference in the quality of the music between a D majorscale and a D minor scale. Then you will hear God Save the King (the British nationalanthem) which is based on this scale first played in the major, the original tune, and thenin a variation in the minor mode.

There are various other types of scales on which music can be based. In the chromaticscale (➔ Fig. 3), for example, all the keys are played and it is therefore made up of 12 notes.

The chromatic scale and Dido and Aeneas

On the tape you will hear the chromatic ascending and descending scale being played and theinitial bass of Dido and Aeneas (1680) by Purcell (1659-95) based on the descending scale.

4

3

Œ

˙ œ

œ

˙ œ

&b c

œ#œ

j

œ˙ œ œ

j

œœ œ œ

j

œœ œ œ

j

œ œ# ˙j j j jj j j j

˙ œ

3 3 3 3

&b c

œ#œ œ œ œ

œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ# ˙

3 3 3 3

? b c Œ

# œ ˙

h

œ

HH

œ

b

˙

Œ

˙n

qqq

Œ

b ˙

˙

qq

qn˙

Moderately

I stand at your gate and the song that I sing is of moon light

m/p

k

k

k

k

&w w# w w# w w w# w w# w w# w wn

ascendingdescending

&œ œ

œ œ œ œ œœ œ

ascendingdescending

The chromatic scale

The pentatonic scale

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

A very ancient scale, going back to the Middle Ages, is the modal pentatonic scale (➔ Fig. 4) which uses only five notes from within the octave. It is still used in folk music.

The pentatonic scale and Auld Lang Syne

On the tape you will hear a pentatonic scale and the melody of Auld Lang Syne based onthe scale.

5

We will now examine the four most important ingredients a composer may combine togive his/her composition a distinctive flavour and style: melody, harmony, rhythm andcolour. We will analyse them in another musical piece concerning the moon, MoonlightSerenade, one of the most famous compositions of the American trombonist, band-leaderand composer Glenn Miller (1904-44).

Moonlight Serenade6

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a (FIRST LISTENING) Listen to the music. What feelings does the music convey? Would you say that it is based on a major, a minor scale or some other scale? Why?

We will now separate the single ingredients and focus on melody. Melody is a series ofnotes, within one of the musical scales, organised and shaped to make musical sense tothe listener, who can easily recognise it. What is melodic for one culture may beunpleasant to another. A synonym of melody is tune, that is, what you whistle or hum toyourself when you remember a piece of music.

b (SECOND LISTENING) Play the tape again. Listen to the performance and say how manymelodies you can recognise.

We will now concentrate only on the first part, shown in the musical score.

Melody

On the tape you will hear just the melody being played (shown on the upper stave of themusical score of Moonlight Serenade p. 27).

The accompaniment of the left hand (shown on the lower stave of the score) providesharmony. Harmony is what derives from the relationships among sounds. Chords canprovide an example of harmony. They are a combination of notes that are played together and may be an accompaniment to the melody providing consonance or dissonance.Harmony adds depth to a melody, like perspective adds depth to a painting.

Harmony

On the tape you will hear the harmony being played.

In this musical piece, harmony is on the whole consonant with the exception of the verylast part, but it can also have a dissonant musical quality. The use of dissonance usuallyconveys unsettling feelings.

Dissonance

On the tape you will hear an example of dissonance.

We will now examine another main ingredient: rhythm. Rhythm is the pulse of music. It refers to the way a composer groups together musical sounds. It is often identified as metre, a regular recurrence of a ‘beat’. Even if you cannot readmusic, you can hear rhythm as the regular or irregular beat in the background of a piece of music.

Rhythm

On the tape you can hear how variations of rhythm affect a musical composition.

The last, but equally important element, is colouring. Tone colour or colouring is themost varied ingredient of music and it refers to the different intensities and qualitiessound can have according to the medium used to produce it: voice and/orinstruments. The choice of voice and instruments is like the choice of paints from apalette. Colouring produces darker or lighter sounds, that is why it is often referred to asshade.

10

9

8

7

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Colouring

On the tape you can hear how different choices of musical media affect a musicalcomposition.

Voices are usually classified according to their timbre, that is their sound quality, and therange of sounds they can cover. They may be popular, if a singer just relies on a naturalgift, or educated if the singers are professionals. According to their range of sounds, malevoices are classified as tenor, baritone and bass; while female voices are classified assoprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto.

Timbre in voice

On the tape you will hear the sound quality of a soprano (popular voice) and a baritone(educated voice).

Musical instruments are usually classified into broad categories called families. Theyare divided according to the materials of which they are made and the way they producesounds. These two elements contribute to giving the timbre of the instruments, that istheir sound quality or tone-colour.The main families are strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. Both instruments and voices are associated with different moods and they may convey feelingsand create atmosphere. For example the tenor in operas is the male protagonist, the romantichero, seducer, often opposed by fate; the brass and percussion families are often associatedwith triumphalistic and rhythmic music, while the strings with more romantic feelings, but eachcomposer may give a personal interpretation of the sound quality of the instrument.

Timbre in instruments

On the tape you will hear the sound quality of a clarinet, a violin and an organ.

A Poem in MusicInto My Heart an Air That Kills (1935)music by C. W. Orr (1893-1976) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 34

sung by Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), accompanied on the piano by Graham Johnson; recorded in 1995

The setting of a poem to music is a creative interpretation of the written word bya composer, similar to the adaptation of a literary work into a painting, a comicstrip version or a film. His/her translation of the text into music may or may not beclosely related to the original text and may reflect the taste of the period. You aregoing to listen to the poem by Housman (➔ Appendix, p. 49). It was put tomusic by the song composer C. W. Orr who fell in love with Housman’spoetry and set to music 35 of his poems.

1 Go to the text of the poem (➔ Appendix, p. 49). Do or revise the exercises and focus onthe subject matter and theme. What kind of music do the subject matter and theme call for, in your opinion?

melancholy joyous nostalgic sad

13

12

11

B(➔ Music cassette ofBooks and Bookmarks)

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2 In the light of your answers to ex. 1, focus on other aspects of the musical interpretation.

a Would you use the same music for the first and the second stanzas? Why?

b What kind of voice would you choose? Why?

male female educated popular

c Which instruments, if any, would you use to accompany the tune? Why?

d Which parts of the poem would you stress through particular musical devices?

3 (FIRST LISTENING) Listen to the poem being sung.

a How did the interpretation meet your expectations?

b Complete the paragraph below which gives a first general description of the interpretation.

The poem has been set to music with the same 1) ......................................... in both stanzas. In the singing

of the poem a 2) ......................................... voice has been employed, that of a 3) ......................................... . It is

accompanied by a 4) ......................................... .

4 (SECOND LISTENING) Revise the stress pattern of the poem, listen to the song again and sayif the singing follows the same rhythmic pattern that you have marked.

5 (THIRD LISTENING) Listen again.

a Do you feel the accompaniment of the piano just beats the rhythm or modifies the melodyproviding harmonic variations?

b What mood is conveyed by the tenor interpretation and the piano accompaniment?

despair nostalgia melancholy joy regret

c How far is the choice of the voice appropriate to the interpretation?

6 Compare the text of the poem and the music.

a What mood is stressed in Orr’s music?

b Is that mood also predominant in the poem?

c Do you think Orr has successfully captured the spirit of the poem? Explain why or why not.

A Musical PortraitLe Carnaval des Animaux (1886)music by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 34

You will now listen to a piece of music taken from Le Carnaval des Animaux(The Carnival of Animals) composed in 1886 by Camille Saint-Saëns.The Carnival is divided into fourteen musical pieces where the composergives a musical portrait of various animals from the most common to thestrangest. The piece you are going to listen to is entitled The Elephant.

C(➔ Music cassette ofBooks and Bookmarks)

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1 Imagine you have to portray an elephant.

a What features would you stress?

elegance strength heaviness clumsiness weight voice size

b What musical instruments would you use to convey the features you have chosen?

piano violin trumpet drums trombone double bass

2 (FIRST LISTENING) Listen to the tape.

a What instruments did you recognise?

b What aspect/s of the elephant are evoked?

c What connotations do the instruments convey?

The work is full of quotations from other musical pieces. The melody of the two parts of The Elephant is taken from the Dance of the Sylphs from the Damnation de Faust by H. Berlioz. Before doing the exercise, check in the dictionary the meaning of ‘sylphs’ to make a guess about the reasons for the choice of the quotation.

3 (SECOND LISTENING) Listen again.

Below are listed some of the main features of the execution. Say which most contribute to conveying a sense of heaviness, size, clumsiness and whichcontribute to an ironical quality.• double bass • the melody • chords of the piano • the harmony • slow rhythm• quotations from other works • the use of very low notes

4 (THIRD LISTENING) Below is a more technical description of the piece which has two main themes. Listen again.

Put the description in the right order and say which theme emphasises the caricature aspect.

■■ a) descending melody of the double bass which closes theme A■■ b) theme B introduced by the double bass■■ c) opening of heavy piano chord■■ d) theme A introduced by the double bass■■ e) coda resuming theme B■■ f) ascending chords of the piano leading back to theme A

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Music in FilmsGreat Expectations (1998) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 34

music by Patrick Doyle

We will now turn to the music used in films, which is often calledsoundtrack, although this term generally includes all the sounds andspeeches as well as the music of a film. The motion picture soundtrack, aswe know it today, dates from the 1930s, although piano and organaccompaniments were played live to accompany silent films from thebeginning of the century. There are two main types of music in films: music internal to the action (the music meant to be heard by thecharacters in the film) and music external to the action, (the music whichcomments on the action and is meant to be heard only by the audience).

Consider the music of the clip from Great Expectations ( p. 6) which wascomposed by Patrick Doyle (➔ Biography, p. 34).

1 (FIRST LISTENING) Watch the clip and focus on the music.

a Is it internal or external to the action?

b Would you say that the music is meant to evoke feelings, underline actions or both?

c Is there a memorable melody?

d Do you think that the music is characterised by a crescendo, a decrescendo or both?

e Can you detect any climax?

2 (SECOND LISTENING) Listen again.

a Say when the music changes in quality.

b What connection is there between the change of music and the moonlight?

3 (THIRD LISTENING) Consider the music in more detail and see how it is connected withmontage. Match the items listed in column A with the appropriate item in column B.

A B

1 casting of the anchor a) underlined by gong and cymbals

2 the man shouts at the child b) beginning of main motif

3 apparition of the moon c) crescendo is momentarily interrupted

4 Choose from the list below the statement/s which best apply/ies to the music of this clip.

■■ Rhythm and harmony are more important than the melody.■■ The music conveys a sense of foreboding throughout.■■ The music particularly stresses atmosphere.■■ The music creates a sense of foreboding at the beginning and then turns more into a

commentary on action.■■ The main motif evokes a climate of tension and suspense.■■ The musical comment stimulates the emotional involvement of the viewers.

D

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STUDY BOX Connections between Literature and Music

CHECK… You should now be able to go beyond your first impressionistic response to

Debussy’s Clair de Lune.Listen again and complete the analysis below, inserting the missing words givenin jumbled order.

emotions lively right rhythm expectation slowercolouring minor melody modal dissonance Medieval

Clair de Lune is an early composition of Debussy. It is not based on a major or

1) ................................................. scale, but on a 2) ................................................. esatonic scale which shows

Debussy’s desire to connect to ancient ways of composing, rejecting both the classic and

Romantic tradition in favour of 3) ................................................. modal music.

In Clair de Lune he takes up a typical Romantic theme, the moon, but instead of using

traditional descriptive clichés and stereotypes, Debussy conveys personal and subjective

4) ................................................. . The 5) ................................................. is not clearly recognisable but the

composition can be divided into 3 sections: ABA’ plus a coda.

Part A is characterised by the echoing play between the 6) ................................................. and left

hand. The irregular 7) ................................................. of the right hand makes the progression low

and uncertain. The presence of light 8) ................................................. creates a climate of nostalgia,

suspense and 9) ................................................. . After some chords introducing part B, the rhythm

becomes more 10) ................................................. and reaches a climax; then it progressively slows

down and melody A’ takes over as a variation of A, with a 11) ................................................. rhythm

which gives the melody a certain sweetness. The quality of the music played by the

piano, a percussion instrument, goes beyond its usual timbre to reach an ethereal

12) ................................................. .

…AND LEARN Music is a form of art made of sound, with its own conventions and

The Ingredients of Music language. Its main ingredients are melody, harmony, rhythm and colour. It is

their interplay that gives a piece of music its unique quality. A knowledge of these

aspects can allow you to enjoy and analyse what you hear to a greater extent.

Literature and Music Music can be connected to the spoken and written word in various ways.

The closest relationship can be found in those forms in which words

and music are totally dependent on one another as, for example, the ballador opera. In other cases it may offer an accompaniment to literary texts

which throws new light on them. This is the case of many poems which

have been put to music. Music can be seen as a reading of the text where

the musical devices are used to convey the interpretation of the musician.

Into my Heart is a good example of music as interpretation, where the composer

gives his musical reading of the poem, stressing through his choice of voice

and piano the same feelings of nostalgia and melancholy conveyed by the words.

Music and literature can also come together when they both deal with

the same topic or theme. The music by Saint-Saëns portrays the heaviness,▼

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LITE R ATU R E AN D OTH E R F O R M S O F ART

34

clumsiness and size of the elephant through the choice of instruments such

as the double bass and the choice of a slow rhythm. It ironically magnifies

these aspects by quoting melodies applied to ethereal figures such as sylphs.

In other cases music can be used as a comment on mood and action as for

example in films. Film music can be original, that is, it is composed specifically

for the film, or it can be an adaptation of existing music. In the soundtrack of

the clip of Great Expectations the music has a descriptive quality at the

beginning, creating a sense of expectation in connection with the moonlight. It

then changes into a crescendo to underline action.

Since there have been times in history when music and literature were very

closely linked, the study of music in itself can provide insight into the culturalcontext that surrounds the literary production of a particular historical period.

▼ ▼

Both a doctor and a composer, Orr put Housman’s poems to music. His thirty-five songs

represent almost his entire output as a composer. His music was underrated during his

lifetime, but he is now considered one of the finest British song composers of the century.

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)

French composer, pianist and organist, he showed a very early aptitude for music, almost

comparable to Mozart’s. He was a friend of the Hungarian musician Liszt by whom he was

greatly influenced. His prolific output ranges from symphonic music to operas,

instrumental and orchestral music. He wrote the coronation march for King Edward VII in

1902. In his later life he travelled widely and stayed in Algeria. Some of his later works reflect

local colour.

PATRICK DOYLE (b. 1953)

British composer, actor and singer, Doyle has written music for the radio, television, films

and the theatre. In 1987, he joined Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company and

wrote music for some of the most famous Shakespearean films, such as Henry V and Much

Ado About Nothing. He had an Oscar nomination for Best Dramatic Score for Hamlet and

for Sense and Sensibility. In 1997, he fell severely ill but completed the score for Great

Expectations.

BIOGRAPHIES

C. W. ORR (1893-1976)

➔ P E R S O N A L F I L E : G e t R e a d y f o r T e s t i n g , p . 4 3

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APPLYING WHAT YOU KNOW

GIVING AN ORAL REPORT

You are going to choose either a painting you like or a clip from a film youhave particularly enjoyed or a piece of music you frequently listen to.

1 Prepare your own analysis and present it to your class.

a Your presentation should be centered around your personal experience as a viewer/listener.

You can mention– your impressions/reactions when first looking at/ listening to the work– the elements/aspects of the analysis which opened up its meaning for you– whether your response changed as your analysis went on.

b You can prepare a simple visual aid like a sequence of the major points you intend to develop inyour talk. You can make it more personal by introducing colour, varying the size of the letters,adding symbols, etc. or arranging major points and subpoints into a map.

M1 • THE LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ART

Assignment

NES oral

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Personal FileThe Personal File consists of several sections students can use to meettheir own specific needs with or without their teacher’s guidance.• Quick Reference provides a brief and essential outline of the Module

content and/or any revision material you may need;• Review and Extension serve specific functions. Review revisits key

words and concepts the Module has taught. Extension extends students’knowledge on one or more aspects of the Module;

• Get Ready for Testing offers two kinds of tests. Those for internalcertification are objective and self-assessed. Those for the Nuovo Esamedi Stato (NES) are of various kinds and more complex.

Keys for self-correction are on pp. 44-46.

The Languages of Visual Art, Film and Music

( a l s o s e e D i c t i o n a r y o f V i s u a l A r t , F i l m a n d M u s i c , A P P E N D I X , p . 5 4 )

■ KEY WORDS IN VISUAL ART composition; straight, curvy, wavy, jagged line; primary,secondary, contiguous and complementary colours, warm and cool colours,monochromatic, polychromatic; perspective, background, foreground, middle ground; light

■ KEY WORDS IN FILM frame, shot, composition in the frame, two-shot, long shot,medium long shot, medium shot, close-up, extreme close-up, detail, normal-angle, high-angle, low-angle, subjective point of view, lighting, tracking shot, pan shot,adaptation, montage

■ KEY WORDS IN MUSIC sound, notes, musical scale, octave, ascending/descending,stave, minor scale, major scale, modal pentatonic scale, chromatic scale, melody,harmony, consonant/dissonant quality, rhythm, tone colour, instruments, timbre

M1

Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E

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R E V I E WA N D

E X T E N S I O NModule 1

VISUAL ART1 Answer the following questions concerning the analysis of a painting.

1 What does the format concern?

2 What is meant by composition? How can you describe it?

3 The line can vary enormously: it can be ..........................................

4 What is the difference between primary and secondary colours?

5 Think of the wheel of colours: which colours can produce the strongest contrast?

6 What does the word ‘foreground’ mean?

7 What does perspective create in a painting?

8 Is it correct to say that perspective relies on the fact that:

a) objects/people look more detailed the further away they are?

b) nearby people/objects hide part of more distant ones?

9 Light in a painting can derive from ..........................................

10 What are the conventional functions of light?

FILM1 Write the technical terms which correspond to the definitions.

1 ..........................................: what is filmed between the moment when a camera starts action and when it stops.

2 ..........................................: a single image projected on the screen.

3 ..........................................: a group of shots which have some thematic connection.

4 ..........................................: a shot showing part of the human body or an object.

5 ..........................................: editing and putting shots together in order to carry the film forward in time and place.

2 What is the difference between the following terms?

1 long shot and very long shot2 medium shot and medium long shot3 close-up and extreme close-up4 high-angle shot and low-angle shot

3 Write the Italian translations for the technical terms mentioned in activities 1 and 2.

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

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E X T E N S I O NModule 1

4 There are four main techniques of composition in the frame. Describe what they are.

5 Match the film devices (left) and what they are used for (right).

1 a very long / long shot

2 montage a) ensure visual continuity

3 eyeline... is used to ...

b) convey a subjective point of view

4 a high-angle shot c) carry the story forward

5 a low-angle shot d) watch expressions closely

6 a close-up

MUSIC1 Write the translation and a definition for each of the following technical terms.

notes ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

musical scale ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

stave ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

chromatic scale ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

chords ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

timbre ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

soundtrack ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

2 Answer the following questions.

1 What is one major difference between major scales and minor scales?2 What is the modal pentatonic scale?3 What is the difference between melody and harmony?4 What is rhythm?5 In films, what is the difference between music internal to the action and music external to the action?6 How are instruments and voices classified?

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

➔ key, p. 44

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R E V I E WA N D

E X T E N S I O NModule 1

POETRY AND VISUAL ARTThe painting below is by the Pre-Raphaelite° artist John Everett Millais (1829-96). It is one of hismost popular historical works – it pictures the boyhood of the explorer and poet Sir Walter Raleigh(1552?-1618) who was active in the reign of Elizabeth I.

Sir John E. Millais, The Boyhood of Raleigh, oil on canvas, London, Tate Gallery, 1870.

➔ key, p. 45

Ph

aido

n P

ress

, 199

9

° Pre-Raphaelites, a group of English artists in Victorian England who wished to recapture the simplicity and directness of painting before Raphael (Preraffaelliti).

1 Look at the painting.

a Where is the scene set?

b How many characters are there? Describe them adding as many details as possible. What are theydoing?

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R E V I E WA N D

E X T E N S I O NModule 1

1. entranced, filled with great wonder and delight (estasiato).2. derring-do, (old form) brave actions (gesta/imprese coraggiose).3. uncharted, not yet fully explored (inesplorati).

4. Jolly Jack, typically a black flag bearing a skull and crossbones;indicates a pirate ship (bandiera dei pirati).

5. ghastly, extremely unpleasant (orribili).

2 Consider the composition of the painting.

a How are the characters arranged on the canvas?

b Draw a horizontal median line across the painting. Decide what is more important – the sea or thehuman figures – and therefore where the focus of the painting is.

3 Now study how the artist has created perspective.

a Which of the following elements are in the foreground, middleground and background?

the old sailor the two children a toy sailing ship the sea the low wall

b What does the sailor hide? Give reasons.

Millais’ painting stimulated the English poet Roger McGough (b. 1937) to write a poem.

4 Read the text.

a The poem concentrates on the boys’ different attitude to the old sailor’s tales. Describe it andquote the adjectives which convey the contrast.

b Comment on the layout and say whether it suits the poem’s content and organisation.

c Consider the sound aspect of the text and analyse the rhyme.

5 In his interpretation of the painting, does the poem make explicit what is not overtlyshown in the picture?

The Boyhood of Raleigh

Entranced1, he listens to salty tales

Of derring-do2 and giant whales,

Uncharted3 seas and Spanish gold,

Tempests raging, pirates bold.

And his friend? ‘God I’m bored.

As for Jolly Jack4, I don’t believe a word.

What a way to spend the afternoons,

The stink of fish, and those ghastly5 pantaloons!

(R. McGough, in With a Poet’s Eye, ed. by Pat Adams, London, The Tate Gallery, 1986)

➔ key, p. 45

➔ key, p. 45

➔ key, p. 45

➔ key, p. 45

5

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INTERNAL CERTIFICATION

STEP One1 Consider your analysis of the poem Silver and answer the questions.

1 Who/What is said to be wearing “shoon” (shoes) in the poem?2 The night scene consists mainly of three elements: a country cottage, an orchard and...3 List the four animals which populate the moonlit scene. Which are “moveless” and which are not?4 Where are you likely to find the denotation of a word? What does the connotation of a wordconsist of? Which is more subjective?5 Which adjective would you use to describe the sound quality of ‘silver’? What aspects of thesetting does the sound of the word reinforce?

STEP Two1 Consider the paintings you have analysed and answer the questions.

The Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh1 Is the cypress tree in the background, middleground or foreground?2 Is it correct to say that the starry sky takes up half of the canvas?3 What kind of line predominates in the representation of the starry sky?4 Are blue and yellow secondary colours?Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States, by Frida Kahlo5 What can you do to study the composition of the painting?6 Are the Mexican cacti in blossom in the background, middleground, foreground? And theindustrialised chimneys?7 Which is the brightest colour in the painting?8 Can you identify a precise source of the light in the painting?Fishermen at Sea, by William Turner9 Where are the cliffs? In the foreground, middleground or background?10 Which lines are used to render the turbulent waters of the River Solent and the calmer waters ofthe English Channel?11 From how many sources does the light in the painting derive? What are they?12 Mention at least two elements on which moonlight falls.

STEP Three1 Write the type of shot for each picture.

1 ............................................................ 2 ............................................................ 3 ............................................................ 4 ...........................................................

Module 1G E T R E A DY

F O RT E ST I N G

➔ key, p. 46

*11

➔ key, p. 46

16

➔ key, p. 46

8

Write your score Band Action

49➔61 Go on

.................... / 61 34➔48 Review

0➔33 Repeat

* The numbers on the left indicate the maximum number of points for each exercise.

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2 What kind of composition is used in these frames?

1 ................................................... 2 ...................................................

3 You have watched three film clips in this module. Decide in which clip...

1 the moonlight creates:a) a sense of calm b) a threatening atmosphere c) suspense2 montage is used with a fast rhythm3 a low-angle shot is used to suggest impending danger (what does the shot show?)4 two different places are shown (what are the two places?)

STEP Four1 Link the terms listed on the left to the appropriate definition listed on the right.

1 notes a) the pulse of music2 musical scale b) a scale which uses only five notes from within the octave3 pentatonic scale c) a series of notes, within one of the musical scales, organised and

shaped to make musical sense to the listener4 chromatic scale d) the succession of the seven notes with the addition of the first one on

a higher level5 melody e) the sound quality6 harmony f) a scale of 12 notes7 rhythm g) what derives from the relationships among sounds8 timbre h) musical notes

2 Say to what musical piece analysed in the module the following statements apply.

1 The music has an ironical tone.2 Music is a creative interpretation of the written word.3 The musical comment stimulates the emotional involvement of the viewers.4 It is a musical portrait.5 Music has both a descriptive quality and an evocative one.6 The music has a nostalgic tone.

NES (Nuovo Esame di Stato)The Essay1 Write two paragraphs about how to read a painting and say what you have learned in this

step (150-200 words).

2 Write a long paragraph in which you compare the extract from Forster’s A Passage to India andthe film clip; point out similarities, differences and comment on the adaptation (120-150 words).

3 Write a long paragraph summarising the possible connections that have been illustratedin the module between music and literature (120-150 words).

➔ key, p. 46

8

➔ key, p. 46

8

➔ key, p. 46

4

➔ key, p. 46

6

GET READY FOR TESTING

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Module 1

VISUAL ART1 1 The format concerns the size and overall shape of a

picture. / 2 Composition refers to the arrangement of thevarious parts in a work of art. You can describe it bydrawing the median lines and/or the diagonal lines of thecanvas. / 3 The line can be diagonal, vertical, horizontal,thin, thick, short, long, wavy, jagged, curvy, straight, dotted. /4 Primary colours are the purest colours and they cannot beproduced by blending. Secondary colours are produced bya mixture of two primaries. / 5 Colours which are oppositeon the wheel, like green and red. / 6 The foreground is thepart of a painting which appears closest to the viewer. / 7 Perspective creates the illusion of space and depth on aflat canvas. / 8 a) No, it isn’t correct: objects/people lookless detailed the further away they are. / b) It is correct. / 9 It can derive from a precise source either natural, like thesun, the moon, or artificial. / 10 Light can emphasise objectsand people; it can produce sharp contrasts, brightlyilluminating some parts and throwing others into darkness.

FILM1 1 shot, 2 frame, 3 sequence, 4 detail, 5 montage

2 1 In a long shot a whole human figure is shown in relationto the setting while in a very long shot the setting ispredominant. / 2 In a medium shot the human figure isshown down to the waist while in a medium long shot it isshown down to the below the knees. / 3 A close-up showsthe face and shoulders of a character while an extremeclose-up usually focuses on the part of the face from theeyes to the mouth. / 4 In a high-angle shot the camera is ina higher position and looks down to figure/s and settingwhile in a low-angle shot the camera is in a lower positionand looks up to figure/s and setting.

3 shot: inquadratura / frame: fotogramma / sequence:sequenza / detail: dettaglio / montage: montaggio / longshot: campo lungo / very long shot: campo lunghissimo /medium shot: campo medio / medium long shot: pianoamericano / close-up: primo piano / extreme close-up:primissimo piano / high-angle shot: inquadratura dall’alto /low-angle shot: inquadratura dal basso.

4 The composition in the frame can be organised: 1) by dividingthe frame vertically into two halves of which both are occupiedor one is occupied and the other is empty; 2) by dividing theframe horizontally into foreground, which shows figures orobjects closer to the viewer, and background, which showsfigures or objects further away from the viewer; 3) around atriangular shape; 4) along a diagonal line.

5 1 and 2 c; 3 a; 4 and 5 b; 6 d

MUSIC1 notes: note, musical sounds / musical scale: scala, the

succession of the seven notes with the addition of the firstone on a higher level / stave: rigo, five horizontal parallellines / chromatic scale: scala cromatica, a scale made up of12 notes where all the keys are played / chord: accordo,combination of notes that are played together / timbre:timbro, sound quality / soundtrack: colonna sonora, all thesounds and speeches as well as the music of a film

2 1 Major scales and minor scales usually convey contrastingmoods. / 2 A scale of five notes. / 3 Melody is the tune, thatis what you whistle or hum to yourself when you remembera piece of music, while harmony is what derives from therelationships among sounds. / 4 Rhythm is the pulse ofmusic. / 5 The music internal to the action is meant to beheard by the characters in the film while the music externalto the action is meant to be heard only by the audience. / 6 Instruments and voices are usually classified accordingto their timbre.

R E V I E WA N D

E X T E N S I O NKeys 1

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R E V I E WA N D

E X T E N S I O NKeys 5

Module 1

POETRY AND VISUAL ART1 a) Near the sea which is clearly visible in the upper section

of the painting. The setting looks realistic. / b) Two boys arelistening to an old sailor’s tales. The one on the left looksmore enthralled than the other. The old sailor is probablytelling about journeys by the sea and adventures in remotelands, as his finger pointing at the sea suggests.

2 a) They are arranged in such a way as to form two groups:the old sailor on the right and the two children on the left. /b) The human group takes up more space than the sea.The focus is on the action of telling and the children’sinvolvement.

3 a) the old sailor: foreground; the two children:middleground; a toy sailing ship: foreground; the sea:background; the low wall: middleground / b) The sailorhides a segment of the low wall and part of the sea. Nearbyobjects hide part of more distant ones.

4 a) Raleigh is “entranced” (line 1), his friend is “bored”. Oneis almost spell-bound by the “salty tales,” while the otherlistens but thinks “I don’t believe a word” (line 6). Onedreams of exciting adventures over the seas, the othernotices only “the stink of fish and the ghastly pantaloons”(line 8). / b) The poem consists of 4 stanzas of 2 lines each.

Stanzas 1 and 2 are about Raleigh, stanzas 3 and 4 areabout his friend. So the layout reinforces the contrast thepoem is centred around. Not only. The adjective“entranced” occurs at the beginning of line 1 and istherefore emphasised – it actually is a key word in thepoem. / c) The rhyme scheme is aa. All the rhymes areperfect, with the exception of lines 5 and 6 which arebound together through assonance.

5 The poem is an act of interpretation and makes it explicit thecontrast between the two children’s attitude to the old sailor’stales. In Millais’ work Raleigh looks moreinterested/fascinated than his friend: McGough somewhatexaggerates the contrast.

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Keys 11G E T R E A DY

F O RT E ST I N G

Module 1

STEP One1 1 The moon, which is personified. / 2 “a silver stream” /

3 Dog, doves, mouse, fish. All are moveless but the mouse./ 4 The denotation of a word is its dictionary definition. Theconnotation consists of feelings, ideas, memories, etc. It ismore subjective than its denotation. / 5 The sound is soft. Itreinforces the silent nocturnal quality of the scenery.

STEP Two1 1 In the foreground. / 2 No, the starry sky takes up more

than half of the canvas. / 3 The curvy line. / 4 Blue andyellow are primary colours. / 5 I can draw vertical andhorizontal median lines. / 6 The Mexican cacti are in theforeground. The industrialised chimneys are in theforeground. / 7 The pink of the dress Frida Kahlo iswearing. / 8 No precise source of light can be identified.The light is unreal. / 9 They are in the background. / 10 Curvy, wavy lines for the turbulent waters; horizontalstraight lines for the calmer waters. / 11 From two sources:the lamp in the central boat and the moon. / 12 Moonlightfalls on the quiet water of the Channel in the distance, thetop of the surging waves and the open wings of theseabirds.

STEP Three1 1 low-angle shot, 2 very long shot, 3 medium shot,

4 extreme close-up

2 1 diagonal line, 2 two halves of the frame are equallyoccupied

3 1 a) A Passage to India, b) Misery, c) Great Expectations / 2 Great Expectations / 3 Misery (the shot shows Annieadvancing towards Paul) / 4 A Passage to India (the firstplace is outside a building where the English ladies takeAziz’s tonga, the second place is inside the mosque)

STEP Four1 1h, 2d, 3b, 4f, 5c, 6g, 7a, 8e

2 1 The Elephant, 2 Into My Heart, 3 Great Expectations, 4 The Elephant, 5 Great Expectations, 6 Into My Heart

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Appendix

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A. E. HOUSMAN (1859-1936) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 51

Into My Heart (1896)

You are going to read a poem by A. E. Housman from his famous collection A Shropshire Lad (1896). The poem is about the beauty of the Shropshire countrysidewhich the poet could admire in the distance on his childhood walks.

1 Read the first stanza.

a What features of Shropshire does the poem mention?

b Is the speaker in Shropshire at the time of writing? Underline the clues in the text.

APPENDIX

That refers to…

George Vicat Cole, Autumn Morning,London, Royal Academy of Arts.

Hyp

erio

n R

ecor

ds L

td.,

Lond

on

Into My Heart an Air That Kills

Into my heart an air that kills

From yon1 far country blows:

What are those blue remembered hills,

What spires2, what farms are those?

5 That is the land of lost content3,

I see it shining plain4,

The happy highways5 where I went

And cannot come again.

2 Read the second stanza (lines 5-8).

a Here Shropshire is described as “the land of lost content”. The phrase combines a positive word(“content”) with a negative one (“lost”). Can you find a similar contrast of phrases in the last two lines?

b What does this contrast of phrases emphasise?

3 How would you define the mood of the speaker? Choose from the list below and givereasons for your choice.

sorrowful angry desperate regretful sad nostalgic

The poem has a distinct rhythm. Rhythm in poetry in English depends partly on thenumber of syllables in each line.

4 Count the syllables that are in each line. Are all the lines of the same length?

The length of a line depends on the number of its syllables. However, the rhythm of apoem in English is not so much a matter of the number of syllables in a line as thepattern of syllable stress.

( p. 29)➔

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50

5 Listen again to Housman’s poem.

a Mark the stressed syllables with a stroke and the unstressed syllables with a cross as exemplifiedbelow.

/ x x / x / x /

Into my heart an air that kills

b Count the number of stresses. Is the number regular or not?

The number of stresses per line forms a design which is called stress pattern. However,stressed and unstressed syllables can be arranged in various ways within a line.

6 Focus on Housman’s poem again. In most lines an unstressed syllable is followed by astressed syllable. The pattern is unstress-stress.

a Can you identify the two examples of a different stress pattern in the poem? What do they signal?

b How do you think the regular stress pattern suits the poem’s content and the speaker’s mood?

The pattern unstress-stress is described in poetry asiambic and it is the most frequently used in Englishpoetry. When you read the line, the voice usually goesup and holds on the stressed syllable to emphasise it. The diagram on the right visualises the iambic pattern.

Now consider a line of poetry from Romeo and Julietby William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

7 Listen to the tape.

a Count the syllables and mark the stressed and unstressed syllables. How many stresses are there?

b Consider how the stressed and unstressed syllables alternate.Starting from the beginning of the line, how would you describe the rhythm?

Buts o f t ! Whatl i g h t throughy o n derw i n dowb r e a k s ?

8 Each grouping of syllables, in this case pairs, is said to make up one foot. How many iambic feet are there in the line?

The line from Romeo and Juliet is an example of iambic pentameter which is widelyused in English poetry and was also extensively used in English drama by Shakespeareand by other dramatists of his time.

lambic patternlambic pattern

my my heartheart

T H E M U S I C : I n t o M y H e a r t a n A i r T h a t K i l l s , p . 2 9

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PAT MORA (b. 1942) ➔ BIOG RAPHY, p . 53

Immigrants (1986)

Look at the poem below by the contemporary Mexican American poet Pat Mora. A student has read the poem and then, after a second reading, marked the text with her notes.

1 Read the text, study how it has been annotated and do the following activities.

a Consider the way the text has been marked and find examples for each of the following operations.

highlighting circling bracketing connecting with arrows jotting notes in the margins

b Focus on what colours have been used for (for highlighting, linking, contrasting, indicatingconventions of the genre, etc.). Give examples.

APPENDIX

BIOGRAPHY

ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN (1859-1936)

Housman was born close to the Shropshire

border and from his family home he

could see the hills and fields of that county. As a

poet, his reputation was made on one volume of

poetry, A Shropshire Lad (1896). The character

of the book’s title and the poems are a

projection of the poet’s own emotions and

experiences, while the country setting of

Shropshire has its sources in observed scenes, in

personal day-dreaming as well as in literature.

His poems are usually brief, compressed and

frequently pessimistic. Their musical quality is

outstanding and several have been set to music

by a number of composers.

Fore

lake

Ltd

., 19

97

Immigrants

wrap their babies in the American flag,

feed them mashed1 hot dogs and apple pie,

name them Bill and Daisy,

buy them blonde dolls that blink blue

5 eyes or a football and tiny cleats2

before the baby can even walk,

speak to them in thick English,

hallo, babee, hallo,

whisper in Spanish or Polish

10 when the babies sleep,

whisper in a dark parent bed, that dark

parent fear, “Will they like

our boy, our girl, our fine American

boy, our fine American girl?”

Immigrantsnot literally !

➝subjectof wrap

Who?

want to be heardcontrast

do not want to beheard

central feeling

repeated four times

Why?

typicalAmerican food

not their native language

their native language

indented line

run-on lines

wrap their babies in the American flag,

feed them mashed1 hot dogs and apple pie ,

name them Bill and Daisy,

buy them blonde dolls that blink blue

5 eyes or a football and tiny cleats2

before the baby can even walk,

speak to them in thick English ,

hallo, babee, hallo,

whisper in Spanish or Polish

10 when the babies sleep,

whisper in a dark parent bed, that dark

parent fear , “Will they like

our boy, our girl, our fine American

boy, our fine American girl?”

⎫⎪⎪⎬⎪⎪⎭

1. mashed, made into a soft pulpy mass (pestate, schiacciate). 2. cleats, devices you apply to baseball and softball shoes to givethem a firmer grip (tacchetti).

( p. 12)➔

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52

2 Concentrate on the notes the student has made. What in the text has caught the student’s attention?

You can see from this text that notes and marks can be useful if they are organised withcare. If they are then transferred to a transparency or onto a screen, the annotated textcan become a personal visual aid for a talk or an oral examination.Another way of reading with a pen in hand is that of keeping a reading journal to recordyour first, second, third impressions of a work. This too will heighten your involvementwith the text.

3 Go back to Mora’s poem. Write down:

a your impressions/reactions when first reading the text

b the elements/aspects of the text which opened up its meaning for you

c whether your response changed as the reading process went on

d the elements/aspects of the text which still remain obscure (if any).

Your journal° may take the format which is suggested below.Divide the page into two sections. On one side you should take notes about what a giventext says: this is the section dedicated to the writer’s thoughts; on the other side, youshould record your own reactions to the text and relate it to what you have been learningand experiencing.

4 Complete the table below adding as many notes as you think appropriate. Examples havebeen provided for the personal section, on the right.

PAT MORA, IMMIGRANTS

Conversing with the literary text and its author Conversing with yourself about the literary text

Record what the text says Record your impressions and reactions to thetext through personal questions, notes,comments, etc.

– The text is about ................. – Do the immigrants of the title really like being in the US?– The speaker is .................

– Are they keen on using the English language?

– Why do they “speak” English and “whisper”Spanish or Polish?

It is a poem about marginalisation/ discrimination,rather than integration: the immigrants feel inferior(➔ the word “fear”, line 12).

° A. E. Berthoff, Forming, Thinking, Writing, 1978 and The Making of Meaning, 1981.

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APPENDIX

BIOGRAPHY

PAT MORA (b. 1942)

Pat Mora was born in El Paso, Texas, the border city to which her grandparents migrated

during the Mexican Revolution. She graduated from the University of Texas-El Paso

and has taught English at all levels. In Chants (1984), Borders (1986) and Communion

(1991), women’s identity is her prevalent concern. One of her most recent volumes, Agua

Santa – Holy Water (1995) consists of bilingual poems which draw on the oral and lyrical

traditions of Mexico.

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Fig. 2 : Line

Fig. 4a: Composition Fig. 5a: Perspective

Fig. 5b : PerspectiveFig. 4b : Composition

background

middleground

foreground

Hen

ry M

oore

Fou

ndat

ion

Lond

on, T

ate

Gal

lery

Orb

is p

ublis

hing

Ltd

, Lon

don,

198

5

Skira

Imperial War Museum

Fig. 3 : Light

Dictionary of Visual Art

The wheel of colours Complementary colours

yellow

purple green orange

red blue

White

Black

When placed nextto one another,complementarycolours create thestrongestcontrast.The juxtapositionof black and whiteproduces the same strongcontrast.

Fig. 1: Colour

Fig. 3 : J. M. William Turner, Fishermen at Sea, 1796.

Fig. 4a : V. Van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889.

Fig. 4b : H. Moore, Platform Scene, 1941.

Fig. 5a : P. Nash, We are Making a New World, 1918.

Fig. 5b : Constable, A Cornfield, 1826.

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background (fig. 5a): the part of a painting whichappears farthest away from the viewer (sfondo).

canvas: a tightly stretched cloth surface on which topaint (tela).

complementary colours (fig. 1): colours that are on oppositesides of the wheel of colours (e.g. yellow and purple;green and red; blue and orange). When placed next to oneanother, complementary colours create the strongestcontrast. Also called opposite colours (colori opposti).

composition: the arrangement of the various parts in awork of art (composizione).To describe a painting and understand itscomposition, you should draw imaginary linesconnecting its various parts or trace the median linesand/or the diagonal lines of the canvas.In fig. 4a the horizontal median line shows that thestarry night takes up the whole upper section as wellas part of the lower section and therefore that thefocus is on the starry sky.In fig. 4b all the sheltering people are arranged alongthe diagonal line from bottom left to top right.

contiguous colours (fig. 1): colours which are next toeach other on the wheel, like red and orange. Theyblend together and tend to produce a sense ofharmony (colori contigui).

cool colours (fig. 1): the range of colours, from blue togreen to purple, which reminds us of things which arecold (colori freddi).

drawing: picture made on paper using various materialssuch as pencil, pen and ink, chalk, charcoal (disegno).

figurative art: art in which recognisable figures orobjects are portrayed (arte figurativa).

foreground (fig. 5a): the part of a painting which appearsclosest to the viewer (primo piano).

format: the size and overall shape of a picture (formato).

Impressionists: a late 19th-century movement whichdeveloped in France. Their aim was to render thepassing moment by means of a sketchy technique,intense colour and the practice of outdoor, on-the-spot painting (Impressionisti).

light (fig. 3): light in a picture can emphasise objects andpeople; it can produce sharp contrasts, brightlyilluminating some parts and throwing others into darkness(luce). It can derive from a precise source which can benatural (the sun, the moon) or artificial (e.g., lamp, candle). When no source can be identified, light is diffusedand unreal.

line (fig. 2): it is a major component in painting together withcolour and can suggest feelings and ideas. For example,straight horizontal and vertical lines are conventionallyused to express order, harmony, quietness, stabilty. Curvyand wavy lines may be used to suggest a sense ofprogress and movement of objects. Jagged lines arecommonly used to express an explosion of feelings, speedand disturbance of the mind.

middleground (fig. 5a): the middle part of a view(secondo piano).

miniature: a painting or a drawing on a very small scale,usually small enough to adorn a piece of jewellery(miniatura).

monochromatic (fig. 1): having varying shades of onecolour (monocromatico). Shades of a single colour,e.g., dark red, light red, opaque red, blend togetherand do not contrast.

mural: a painting, usually quite large, done on a wall,often on an outside wall of a building (murale).

oil: a paint made from mixing pigments into an oil base(olio).

opposite colours (fig. 1): ➔ complementary colours.

perspective (fig. 5b): technique of creating the illusion ofspace and depth in pictures (prospettiva).Perspective relies on the fact that:– objects/people look smaller and less detailed the

further away they are– nearby pople/objects hide part of more distant ones– nearby people/objects are painted in stronger colours– imaginary lines converge in the distance.

polychromatic: having a variety of colours (policromo).

portrait: a painting of a person who is referred to as thesubject or sitter. A portrait can be head only, bustlength, half length, three-quarter length, full length(ritratto).

Pre-Raphaelites: a group of English artists in VictorianEngland who wished to recapture the simplicity anddirectness of painting before Raphael (Preraffaelliti).

primary colours (fig. 1): yellow, red and blue. They arethe basic colours (colori primari). They can be mixed to make the secondary colours(e.g. yellow + red = orange; red + blue = purple; blue + yellow = green).

Realism: a 19-century movement which based its styleon real everyday observations (Realismo).

secondary colours: ➔ primary colours.

shade: a degree of colour, e.g., midnight blue, light blue,etc. (sfumatura).

space: the illusion of length, width and depth, created, bya number of devices, in an artwork that is flat (spazio).

subject: what is represented in a work of art (soggetto).

tempera: any painting in which the pigment is dissolvedin water and mixed (tempered) with an organic gumor glue (tempera).

warm colours (fig. 1): the range of colours, from yellowto red to orange, which reminds us of things whichare hot (colori caldi).

watercolour: it is a kind of paint where colouredpigments are mixed with a substance that allows themto dissolve in water, and they are usually painted onpaper (acquerello).

APPENDIX

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Dictionary of Film

TYPES

OF SHOT

COMPOSITION

IN THE FRAME

1 2 3

4 5 6

7

10 11

8 9

background

foreground

The two halves of the frame are equallyoccupied; often the character/s shown in onehalf of the frame is/are in the foregroundwhile those in the other half are in thebackground.

Some characters are in the foreground of theframe while others are in the background.

12 13

The picture is organised according to a triangular structure.

The picture is organised along a diagonalline.

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adaptation: the changes that are made to a novel, shortstory or play to turn it into a film (adattamento).

cast and credits: all the people who contributed to themaking of the film and whose names are shown at thebeginning and/or end of the film (titoli di testa e di coda).

close-up (fig. 5): a shot which shows only the head andshoulder of the subject (primo piano).

composition in the frame (figs. 10, 11, 12, 13) the waycharacters are arranged in the frame in relation tospace (composizione della inquadratura).

cut: the break in a film which marks where one shot endsand the next begins; a normal cut suggests a clearconnection between two adjoining shots (stacco).

detail: a shot which shows part of the human body or anobject (dettaglio).

dissolve: an image that mixes with and graduallydissolves into another (dissolvenza).

establishing shot: a shot taken at a distance from thesubject, showing the general setting as well as thesubject in the frame (inquadratura totale).

extreme close-up (fig. 6): a shot in which only a detail or partof the head of the subject is shown (primissimo piano).

eyeline (fig. 7): an imaginary line which joins the gaze ofthe characters in a frame (linea degli occhi).

frame: 1) the rectangular image projected on the screen;2) any single unit of the film; twenty-four of thesepass through the camera and the projector in onesecond of shooting and viewing (fotogramma).

high-angle shot (fig. 8): a shot taken with a camera in ahigh position, looking down on figures and objects(inquadratura dall’alto).

jump cut: a switch from one action to another action,which presents a break in the temporal and spatialprogression of the film (montaggio discontinuo).

long shot (fig. 2): a shot that shows a whole figure inrelation to immediate surroundings, (campo lungo);very long shot (fig. 1) a shot in which a settingoccupies more space than the subject in the frame(campo lunghissimo).

low-angle shot (fig. 9): a shot taken with the camera in alow position, looking up at figures and objects(inquadratura dal basso).

medium long shot (fig. 3): a shot in which the lower part ofthe legs of the subject are cut off (piano americano).

medium shot (fig. 4): a shot in which the lower line of theframe cuts off the lower part of the body of thesubject (campo medio).

montage: the technique of editing and putting shotstogether in order to carry the film forward in time andplace (montaggio).

normal-angle shot (fig. 7): a shot taken with the cameraat the same level as its subject (inquadratura ad angolo

normale).

pan shot: a movement of the camera from a fixed base tothe right or to the left along an imaginary horizontalaxis (panoramica); to pan: to move the camera fromside to side to make a pan shot.

sequence: a group of shots which have some thematicconnection (sequenza).

shot: what is filmed between the moment when a camerastarts action and when it stops (inquadratura).

shot-countershot: the technique that shows separateshots of two speakers in a dialogue one after theother (campo-controcampo).

soundtrack: all the speech and sounds that can be heardin a film; the background music of a film (colonna

sonora).

subjective point of view: a technique that shows a shotor a sequence as if through the eyes of one character.(Soggettiva)

three shot (fig.12): a shot showing three characters inthe frame (inquadratura a tre).

tracking shot: a shot taken with the camera movingtogether with a character (carrellata).

two-shot (fig. 7): a shot showing two characters in theframe (inquadratura a due).

very long shot: ➔ long shot.

visual continuity: the organization of shots in a sequence to give the appearance that the action happens without interruptions (continuità visiva).

voice-over: the voice of an unseen person that givesinformation about what is being shown on the screen(voce fuori campo).

zoom: the technique of changing the camera focus sothat distant objects seem to come closer to the viewer(zoom in, zummata in avanti) or to move away from theviewer (zoom out, zummata indietro).

APPENDIX

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Dictionary of MusicThe Forces of Music

INSTRUMENTS

VOICES

The composition of the orchestra:winds, brass, strings and percussion.

Yam

aha,

199

5

clarinet

violin

kettledrums

Yam

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1995

piano

organ

Soth

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s 19

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Salp

etre

/Far

abol

a

Some Instruments

middle C (= Italian do)�

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The numbered items with the icon are exemplified onthe cassette.

■■1 arpeggio: the notes of a chord ‘spread’, that isplayed one after the other (arpeggio).

ballad: originally a song to be danced, later applied toanything singable, simple, popular in style and for solovoice (ballata).

baritone: a male voice between the tenor and the bass(baritono).

bass: the lowest male voice (basso).

chamber orchestra: small-sized orchestra which canplay in a room or small hall (orchestra da camera).

■■2 chord: a combination of notes played together(accordo).

■■3 chromatism: musical effects created by the useof fragments of the chromatic scale, a scale madeup of twelve notes (cromatismo).

colouring: (tone colour), the different qualities of thevarious sounds. As colouring produces darker or lightersounds, it is often referred to as shade (coloritura).

contralto: the lowest female voice (contralto).

dissonance: a chord which is jarring to the ear(dissonanza).

folk songs: songs of unknown authorship passed fromone generation to another (canzoni folk).

harmony: what derives from the relationships amongsounds. Harmony is not a synonym of melody but itbacks it up, providing decorative effects (armonia).

leitmotiv: a leading musical motive also calledrepresentative theme (leitmotiv).

lute: very old string instrument played by plucking thestrings (liuto).

melody: a series of notes organised and shaped to makemusical sense to the listener. A synonym of melody istune (melodia).

mezzo-soprano: a female voice between the sopranoand the contralto (mezzo-soprano).

musical instruments: one of the two forces of music.They are usually classified into broad categoriescalled families. They are divided according to thematerials of which they are made and the way they produce sounds. These two elements contributeto giving the timbre of the instruments, that is their sound quality or tone-colour (strumenti musicali). The main families are strings (archi),woodwind (fiati), brass (ottoni) and percussion(percussioni).

musical scale (also called octave): the succession ofthe seven notes with the addition of the first one on ahigher level. In western classic music they are dividedinto major and minor (scala musicale o ottava).

musical: a popular genre, developed from the operetta,which started in the 30s in Broadway (musical).

notes: the seven musical sounds (note).

octave: ➔ musical scale.

orchestra: large combination of instruments playingtogether as a group (orchestra).

pentatonic scale: a scale of five notes (scala pentatonica).

■■4 pizzicato: a way of playing string instrumentsby plucking the strings (pizzicato).

programme music: music which tells a story, or evokespictures in the mind of the listener (musicadescrittiva).

rhythm: regular beat in the background of a piece ofmusic (ritmo).

■■5 rolls: rapid succession of notes on a drum(rullo).

serial music: based on a series of 12 notes (dodecaphony)(musica seriale).

soprano: the highest female voice (soprano).

soundtrack: all the sounds, speeches and music of a film(colonna sonora).

■■6 staccato: way of playing a note so that it isshortened and therefore ‘detached’ from thesubsequent one (staccato).

stave: the five horizontal parallel lines on which music iswritten (rigo musicale).

symphony: originally (17th and 18th century) aninstrumental piece, often consisting of three shortmovements, it is now used for various large-scaleorchestral compositions (sinfonia).

tenor: the highest male voice (tenore).

theme: a melody which has an important part in theconstruction of a composition and on which variationscan be built (tema).

timbre: sound quality of a voice or instrument (timbro).

tone colour: ➔ colouring.

■■7 tremolo: a way of playing the violin with a rapidreiteration of notes (tremolo).

■■8 trill: a rapid alternation of a main note with thenote above it (trillo).

APPENDIX

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De Luca, Ellis, Pace, Ranzoli - Books and Bookmarks, cod. 2629 © Loescher Editore