Reading 3/Review Test 2 (Prep)

A Even the Greeks couldn't agree about it. Was music a source of order and proportion in society, regulating its innate chaos in ways similar to the disciplines of geometry and architecture? Or did its ability to express passionate emotions beyond the reach of words create the potential for disorder and anarchy? Compare the behaviour of an audience listening to classical string quartets with headbangers at a rave, and the age-old conflict between Apollo and Dionysius is made manifest all over again in our own time.

B Shakespeare, though, came clean. For him, 'the man who hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night.' Throughout his plays, Shakespeare perceives music as a healing force, an art whose practice makes man whole.

C Yet, despite the growth of the science of music therapy within the last two centuries, and despite the huge weight of books published on the miraculous 'Mozart effect', our schools and colleges have fallen strangely silent. The so-called 'Mozart effect' presents anecdotal and statistical evidence for advances in both social and academic skills in those children exposed in their formative years to the music of Mozart. But, in an age obsessed by pragmatism and by short-term vocational learning, music has been marginalized in both primary and secondary education. Compared with the holy trinity of reading, writing, and arithmetic, music is regarded as a luxury pastime. As a result, children are leaving school not only totally ignorant of their own musical heritage, but lacking in social, physical, and mental skills which musical performance can uniquely promote.

D Playing an instrument requires a degree of concentration and coordination which brings into play a plethora of mental and physical skills which are being eroded in our push-button world. Socialization and team-work are also involved. Schools with wind bands, string ensembles, jazz groups, and orchestras are right up there at the top of the league tables. In excelling in musical activity, the students' performance in many other fields of learning is refocused and radically improved.

E There are medical aspects too. Long before British primary schools discovered the recorder — that most basic of all modern woodwind instruments — Australian Aborigines had developed the didgeridoo. Like the clarinet and the flute, this haunting and beautiful instrument helped to overcome both upper and lower respiratory tract problems and encouraged better sleep. In playing a wind instrument, abdominal muscles are used to support the breathing system. And these are the very muscles which come into play when an asthmatic is experiencing an attack.

F But what of those individuals and schools which simply cannot afford a musical instrument? What of those institutions where not a single member of staff can read music? This is where the human being's most primitive form of music-making comes into its own. Singing is free. Everyone possesses a voice. And, with it, the body expresses itself in the most fundamental and organic way.

G The Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly knew this, and developed his own system of training ear and voice within a simple yet comprehensive system of body language. Today, an organization called The Voices Foundation adapts and applies Kodaly's methods, aiming to give children back their singing voices, and to make our schools ring with music-making once again. Their advisors and teachers have already achieved extraordinary turn-around effects the length and breadth of Britain and in schools in the troubled areas of South Africa.

H Important work is currently being done in Finland, Israel, and the United States on pre-school, even pre-birth, musical education. Music in the womb is very much part of the life of the unborn future citizens of Finland. And one has only to look at the educational standards, health records, and professional musical activity in this small nation to see what dividends music in education pays from the earliest days of human life.

I Mozart has been celebrated in his anniversary years of 1991 and again in 2006. By the time of the next Mozart-Year, shall we have allowed music to conjure a better society for us all? Or, relegated to the ranks of mere entertainment, will music be eroded of its unique power to heal and to make whole?

A In the theatre of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, on the evening of 27 September 1922, a new form of film-making made its commercial debut: 3-D. The film, The Power of Love, was then shown in New York City to exhibitors and press, but was subsequently not picked up for distribution and is now believed to be lost. The following three decades were a period of quiet experimentation for 3-D pioneers, as they adapted to new technologies and steadily improved the viewing experience. In 1952, the "golden era" of 3-D is considered to have begun with the release of Bwana Devil, and over the next several years audiences met with a string of films that used the technology. Over the following decades it waxed and waned within filmmaking circles, peaking in the 1970s and again in the 1990s when IMAX gained traction, but it is only in the last few years that 3-D appears to have firmly entered mainstream production.

B Released worldwide in December 2009, the fantasy film Avatar quickly became the highest-grossing film ever made, knocking Titanic from the top slot. Avatar, set in 2154 on a planet in a distant solar system, went on to become the only film to have earned US$2 billion world-wide, and is now approaching the $3 billion mark. The main reason for its runaway popularity appears to be its visual splendour; though most critics praised the film, it was mostly on account of its ground-breaking special effects. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised Avatar's "powerful" visual accomplishments, but suggested the dialogue was "flat" and the characterisations "obvious". A film analyst at Exhibitor Relations has agreed, noting that Avatar has cemented the use of 3-D as a production and promotional tool for blockbuster films, rather than as a mere niche or novelty experiment. "This is why all these 3-D venues were built", he said. "This is the one. The behemoth… The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived".

C Those who embrace 3-D note that it spices up a trip to the cinema by adding a more active "embodied" layer of experience instead of the viewer passively receiving the film through eyes and ears only. A blogger on Animation Ideas writes, "...when 3-D is done well — like in the flying scenes in Up, How to Train Your Dragon and Avatar, there is an added feeling of vertigo. If you have any fear of heights, the 3-D really adds to this element..." Kevin Carr argues that the backlash against 3-D is similar to that which occurred against CGI several years ago, and points out that CGI is now widely regarded as part of the film-maker's artistic toolkit. He also notes that new technology is frequently seen to be a "gimmick" in its early days, pointing out that many commentators slapped the first "talkie" films of the early 1920s with this same label.

D But not everyone greets the rise of 3-D with open arms. Some ophthalmologists point out that 3-D can have unsettling physical effects for many viewers. Dr. Michael Rosenberg, a professor at Northwestern University, has pointed out that many people go through life with minor eye disturbances — a slight muscular imbalance, for example — that does not interrupt day-to-day activities. In the experience of a 3-D movie, however, this problem can be exacerbated through the viewer trying to concentrate on unusual visual phenomena. Dr. Deborah Friedman, from the University of Rochester Medical Center, notes that the perception of depth conjured through three dimensions does not complement the angles from which we take in the world. Eyestrains, headaches and nausea are therefore a problem for around 15% of a 3-D film audience.

E Film critic Roger Ebert warns that 3-D is detrimental to good film-making. Firstly, he argues, the technology is simply unnecessary; 2-D movies are "already" 3-D, as far as our minds are concerned. Adding the extra dimension with technology, instead of letting our minds do the work, can actually be counter-purposeful and make the overall effect seem clumsy and contrived. Ebert also points out that the special glasses dim the effect by soaking up light from the screen, making 3-D films a slightly duller experience than they might otherwise be. Finally, Ebert suggests that 3-D encourages film-makers to undercut drama and narrative in favour of simply piling on more gimmicks and special effects. "Hollywood is racing headlong toward the kiddie market," he says, pointing to Disney's announcement that it will no longer make traditional films in favour of animation, franchises, and superheroes.

F Whether or not 3-D becomes a powerful force for the film-maker's vision and the film-going experience, or goes down in history as an over-hyped, expensive novelty, the technology certainly shows no signs of fading in the popularity stakes at the moment. Clash of the Titans, Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon have all recently benefited at the box office due to the added sales that 3-D provides, and with Avatar's record set to last some time as a totem of 3-D's commercial possibilities, studios are not prepared to back down.