Culture of Great Britain

CONTENTS 1 Artistic and cultural life in Britain. 2 Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren. 3 Westminster Abbey. 4 St. Paul s Cathedral. 5 The Tower of London. 6 Festivals of music and drama. 7 The Bath Festival. 8 The Chichester Theatre Festival. 9 The Welsh Eisteddfod. 10 The Edinburg Festival. 11 The national musical instrument of the Scots. 12 Music and musicians. 13 Art Galleries. 14 The art of acting. 15 British Drama Theatre today. CULTURE of GREAT BRITAIN Artistic and Cultural Life in Britain Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich. It passed several main stages in its development.

The Saxon King Alfred encouraged the arts and culture. The chief debt owed to him by English literature is for his translations of and commentaries on Latin works. Art, culture and literature flowered during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Elizabeth I it was the period of English domination of the oceans.

It was at this time that William Shakespeare lived. The empire, which was very powerful under Queen Victoria, saw another cultural and artistic hey-day as a result of industrialisation and the expansion of international trade. But German air raids caused much damage in the First World War and then during the Second World War. The madness of the wars briefly interrupted the development of culture. Immigrants who have arrived from all parts of the Commonwealth since 1945 have not only created a mixture of nations, but have also brought their cultures and habits with them. Monuments and traces of past greatness are everywhere.

There are buildings of all styles and periods. A great number of museums and galleries display precious and interesting finds from all parts of the world and from all stage in the development of nature, man and art. London is one of the leading world centres for music, drama, opera and dance. Festivals held in towns and cities throughout the country attract much interest.

Many British playwrights, composers, sculptors, painters, writers, actors, singers and dancers are known all over the world.

Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren

Inigo Jones was the first man to bring the Italian Renaissance style t... The style he built in was pure Italian with as few modifications as po... All those who followed him had to adapt this new foreign building tech... The best-known buildings designed by Ch. Businessmen wanted art for their money. The architect was to provide a...

St. Paul s Cathedral

The Chapel of King s College is the most beautiful building in Cambrid... The towers were built in 1735-1740. It contains an interesting collection of swords and standards of the K... There are two letters, E.R on the front of their tunics. The range of music included is wide and young performers are given opp...

The Chichester Theatre Festival

The fame achieved by the Edinburgh Festival, to say nothing of the lar... The latest festival town to join the list is Chichester, which has ear... With an apron stage there is no proscenium arch, or stage sets of the ... This calls for the use of an entirely different technique on the part ... Chichester itself is a small country town in the heart of Sussex, and ...

The Welsh Eisteddfod

It attracts Welsh people from all over the world. The programme includ... Next in importance is the great Llangollen International Music Eistedd... There are at least twenty-five other major Eisteddfods from May to Nov... It gives intelligent diversion for most of the twenty - four hours eac... The programmes always include some of the finest chamber music ensembl...

The national musical instrument of the Scots

The national musical instrument of the Scots. Now bagpipes can be seen and head only in the northern counties of Eng... It is also native to India and China. For long it has been considered a national Scottish instrument. The windpipe is filled either from the mouth or by a bellows, which th...

Music and musicians

Webber have been a great success both in Britain and overseas. The fam... They take place every night for about three months in the summer, and ... Sullivan will always be remembered.. Concerts are rarely given out-of-doors today except for concerts by br... In the 60s and 70s groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the...

Art Galleries

If you stand in Trafalgar Square with your back to Nelsons Column, you... It has been in this building since 1838 which was built as the Nationa... The most famous works among them are Venus and Cupid by Diego Velazque... Thus, the Tate Gallery exhibits a number of interesting collections of... He was the most traditional artist of his time as well as the most ori...

The art of acting

He hardly appeared to be acting at all. But, later, under the influence of David Garrick and some other actors... VOCABULARY reign - царствование expansion - расширение chiefly - главн... During the 19th century acting became more and more naturalistic. The theatre-goers warmly received the production of Thomas Stearns Eli...