Section 4

Section four.

You will hear a British University lecturer in music talking about concerts in an Arts Festival.

First you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

As you all know the university is planning an Arts Festival for later this year and here in the music department we’ve planned three concerts these will be public performances and the program has just been finalized the theme of the festival is links between the UK and Australia and this is reflected in the music each concert will feature both British and Australian composers I’ll tell you briefly about the Australian music as you probably won’t be familiar with that the first concert will include music by Liza Lim who was born in Perth Western Australia in 1966 as a child Lim originally learned to play the piano like so many children and also the violin but when she was 11 her teachers encouraged her to start composing she found this was her real strengths and she studied and later taught composition both in Australia and in other countries as a composer she has received commissions from numerous orchestras other performers and festivals in several countries Liza limbs compositions are vibrant and full of energy and she often explores Asian and Australian Aboriginal cultural sources including the native instrument the didgeridoo this is featured in a work called the compass her music is very expressive so although it is complex it has the power of connecting with audiences and performers alike in the festival we’re going to give a semi staged performance of the Oresteia this is an opera in seven parts based on the trilogy of ancient Greek tragedies by Aeschylus limb composed this when she was in her mid-20s and she also wrote the text along with Barry Koski it’s performed by six singers a dancer and an orchestra that as well as standard orchestral instruments includes electric guitar and a traditional Turkish stringed instrument Lim wrote that because the stories in the tragedies are not easy to tell the sounds she creates are also disturbing and they include breathing sobbing laughing and whistling the work lasts around 75 minutes and the rest of the concert will consist of orchestral works by the British composers Ray Vaughan Williams and Frederick Delius moving on now to our second concert this will begin with instrumental music by British composers Benjamin Britten and Judith where after the interval we’ll go to Australia for a piece by Ross Edwards the Tower of remoteness according to Edwards the inspiration for this piece came from nature when he was sitting alone in the dry bed of a creek overshadowed by the leaves of palm trees listening to the birds and insects the Tower of remoteness is scored for piano and clarinet Edward says he realized years after writing the piece that he had subconsciously modelled its opening phrase on a bird call Ross Edwards was born in 1943 in Sydney Australia and studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of music and the universities of Adelaide and Sydney he’s well known in Australia and in fact he’s one of the country’s most performed composers he’s written a wide range of music for symphonies and concertos to some composed specifically for children Edwards’s music has been described as being deeply connected to Australia and it can be regarded as a celebration of the diversity of cultures that Australia can be proud of the last of the three Australian composers to be represented in our festival is Carl vine born in 1954 vine like Liza limb comes from Perth Western Australia he took up the cornet at the age of five switching to the piano five years later however he went to university to study physics before changing to composition after graduating he moved to Sydney and worked as a freelance pianist and composer before long he had become prominent in Australia as a composer for dance and in fact has written 25 scores of that type in our third concert vine will be represented by his music for the flag handover ceremony of the Olympics held in 1996 this 7-minute orchestral piece was of course heard by millions of people worldwide and will hear it alongside works written by British composers Edward Elgar and more recently Thomas a des

that is the end of section four, you now have half a minute to check your answers that is the end of the listening test.

In the IELTS test you would now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.