The Sound of Music- Evelyn Glennie Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Name the various places and causes for which Evelyn performs.
Answer
Evelyn performs in concerts internationally. In addition, she also gives concerts free of charge in prisons and hospitals. In addition, she holds classes for young musicians.
Question 2. When was her deafness first noticed?
Answer
Her deafness was first noticed at the age of eight.
Question 3. What are Evelyn’s main achievements?
Answer
Evelyn has brought percussion to the front of the orchestra. She has given inspiration to those who are handicapped. Besides this, she has brought great pleasure to millions.
Question 4. At what age did Evelyn go to the Royal Academy of music in London?
Answer
She went there at the age of seventeen.
Question 5. What was Evelyn’s special field of interest?
Answer
She was interested in music.
Question 6. Who was Ron Forbes?
Answer
He was the music instructor in Evelyn’s school.
Question 7. What award did Evelyn win in 1991?
Answer
In 1991 she was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Prestigious Soloist of the Year Award.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How did Evelyn’s parents come to discover her deafness?
Answer
Evelyn’s deafness was first noticed when she was eight years old. In fact, her mother had noticed it when Evelyn had not responded to a call for a performance on the piano. Her deafness was confirmed at the age of eleven when her poor academic performance forced her parents to consult a specialist, who discovered that her hearing was badly impaired because of gradual nerve damage.
Question 2. How old was Evelyn when she went to the Royal Academy of Music? Why was she nervous on her way to the academy?
Answer
Evelyn was only seventeen years of age when she was selected to the Royal Academy of Music, London. She had come straight from a farmland in Scotland, she had not experienced much of the world. In addition, she was profoundly deaf and was going to a big institute like The Royal Academy of Music. Her nervousness was the result of her young age, her lack of exposure and her hearing disability.
Question 3. Why was Evelyn “nervous yet excited” as she waited for the train?
Answer
While leaving for the Royal Academy of Music, Evelyn was excited despite her nervousness as going to the Royal Academy of Music, London was a dream come true for her. She was going to join a three-year course in an institute she had dreamed of joining. It excited her to think that despite her hearing impairment she had made her way to such a prestigious institute.
Question 4. Who wiped Evelyn to continue with music? What did he do and say?
Answer
It was Ron Forbes, the percussionist, who encouraged and helped. Evelyn to continue with music. While her teachers discouraged her, he noticed her potential and decided to develop it. He told Evelyn to train different parts of her body to sense musical notes. He turned two drums with different notes to make her sense the higher ones through the upper part of her body and the lower ones through down her waist.
Question 5. Who advised Evelyn’s parents to take her to a specialist? Why?
Answer
Evelyn managed to hide her growing deafness from students and teachers for some time. However, by the time she was eleven years old, her performance in school deteriorated and her marks began to fall. It was then that the headmistress advised her parents to consul a specialist.
Question 6. Which qualities of character enabled Evelyn to move ahead in life?
Answer
Unfaltering determination and hard work enabled Evelyn to move ahead in life without looking back. Instead of yielding before her handicap, she decided to overcome it and lead the life of a normal person. Being a workaholic, she put in her earnest efforts and kept advancing further and further.
Question 7. “Everything suddenly looked black”. Why did Evelyn feel this way?
Answer
When Evelyn was advised to use hearing aids and join a school for the deaf, she felt that her future was bleak and dark. She was depressed, as she felt she would not be able to lead a normal life nor pursue her interest in music.
Question 8. What reveals that Evelyn has succeeded immensely in her career?
Answer
Evelyn’s success in her career is revealed by the fact that she has command over about a thousand musical instruments. As a percussionist, she is the most admired one at the international level. In 1991, the Royal Philharmonic Society conferred on her the most prestigious “Soloist of the Year Award”.
Question 9. How did Evelyn’s teachers respond when she expressed her desire to play a xylophone?
Answer
Evelyn had always loved music and despite her deafness, she expressed a desire to play the xylophone when she saw another girl playing it. However her teachers felt that she would not be able to play it because of her impaired hearing and they discouraged her from doing so.
Question 10. How did Evelyn open her mind and body to musical sounds and vibrations?
Answer
As the guide I by Ron Forbes, Evelyn learnt to listen through different parts of the body other than her ears. Her mind and body were sensitized to notice and differentiate various sounds and vibrations of music. She compensated for the loss of hearing with this awakened and sharpened sense in other parts of her body.
Question 11. What kind of recognition did Evelyn get at the Royal Academy of Music?
Answer
When Evelyn was seventeen, she joined the Royal Academy of Music. She scored the highest marks in the history of the academy. She was one of the most brilliant students of the academy and won many top awards during her three-year course.
Question 12. Why did Evelyn say, “Men with bushy beards give me trouble”?
Answer
Evelyn could understand what others were saying by reading the movement of lips and by watching faces and eyes. It was difficult for her to read the movement of lips of the men with bushy beards in order to grasp what they were saying. She jokingly remarked that men with bushy beards gave her trouble.
Question 13. What did James Blades say about Evelyn’s music?
Answer
James Blades remarked that God may have taken away her sense of hearing but He has given her something extraordinary. What we hear, she feels, far more deeply than any of us. She is a talented musician who expresses music so beautifully.
Question 14. What is Evelyn’s contribution to percussion?
Answer
Evelyn has contributed to percussion by securing for it a front place in orchestra. She has shown how the music of the percussion instruments is deeply moving and touches the hearts and emotions of people.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Evelyn is very down-to-earth and does not succumb to hero worship. Comment.
Answer
Evelyn Glennie did not let her loss of hearing get her down. She was determined to make a career in music, and with the help of percussionist Ron Forbes, she trained herself to feel music through every part of her body. She never looked back from that point onwards. She toured the United Kingdom with a youth orchestra and by the time she was sixteen, she had decided to make music her life. She auditioned for the Royal Academy of Music and scored one of the highest marks in the history of the academy.
She gradually moved from orchestral work to solo performances. At the end of her three-year course, she had captured most of the top awards. And for all this, Evelyn doesn’t accept any hint of heroic achievement. “If you work hard and know where you are going, you’ll get there.” And she got right to the top, the world’s most sought-after multi-percussionist with a mastery of some thousand instruments, and hectic international schedule.
Question 2. Which traits of Evelyn’s personality enabled her to overcome the challenge of deafness?
Answer
Evelyn’s firm determination, her industrious nature and her clarity of aim are well revealed in her statement. These values of her character have enabled her to overcome her handicap of deafness very bravely. Although she developed hearing impairment at a young age of eight only, she has never let it become a stumbling block in her way to success.
Firmly determined to lead the life of a normal person, Evelyn never gave up her passion for music. The encouragement and training provided by Ron Forbes paved the way for her advancement and she stuck to the path with unstaggering confidence. It was this confidence and faith in herself that made her dare to audition for the Royal Academy of Music, London where she received the topmost awards.
Evelyn is a workaholic. This helped her to toil hard, in fact much harder than the classical musicians to bring percussion to the front stage in the orchestra. She believes that no goal is unachievable for those who work hard and are focused on the goal. With her earnest efforts, she moved from orchestra to solo performances and eventually became an internationally renowned percussionist owing to her command over a large number of instruments. She had the courage and confidence to trample down her disability and move on without looking back.
Her firm decisions, her sincere efforts, her passionate labour, and her untiring devotion to music are a source of inspiration for the people with challenges.
Question 3. Evelyn did not succumb to her disability. Comment.
Answer
Evelyn Glennie was always interested in music. In fact, her mother realised she was having problems with her hearing when at the age of eight years Evelyn was to give a piano recital and she didn’t hear her name being called. By the age of twelve, Evelyn had lost her hearing. However, she did not let this stand in the way of her pursuing her passion music.
Though she was advised to wear a hearing aid and to attend a special school for the deaf, Evelyn did not give up. Despite facing discouragement from her teachers, she wanted to lead a normal life and play xylophone. However, Ron Forbes, a great percussionist, trained her to listen to the musical sounds and vibrations not through ears, but through other parts of her body.
He created two drums with different sounds to make her hear the higher beats from the upper part of her body and the lower beats from below her waist. The experiment was so effective that Evelyn opened her mind and body to the fine sounds of music. Evelyn now believes that music penetrates into her through every part – through her skin, cheekbones and even her hair.
When she plays xylophone, she feels that the sounds move from the stick into the tips of her fingers. When the drums are played, she can feel the resonant sounds pouring into her body. She takes off her foot wears on a wooden stage and the vibrations of the instruments pass from her bare feet into her legs. Thus, Evelyn has sensitized the different parts of her body to the different sounds of music.
Question 4. Evelyn Glennie’s deafness was more than compensated by other parts of her body so far as the music was concerned. Discuss.
Answer
Evelyn Glennie had a deep passion for music but unfortunately, she lost her hearing completely at the age of eleven years. She wanted to lead a normal life and play the xylophone, but her teachers discouraged her considering her deafness to be an obstruction. However, Ron Forbes, a great percussionist, trained her to listen to the musical sounds and vibrations not through ears, but through other parts of her body. He created two drums with different sounds to make her hear the higher beats from the upper part of her body and the lower beats from the parts lower than her waist. The experiment was so effective that Evelyn opened her mind and body to the fine sounds of music.
Evelyn now believes that music penetrates into her through every part – through her skin, cheekbones and even her hair. When she plays the xylophone, she feels that the sounds move from the stick into the tips of her fingers. When the drums are played, she can feel the resonant sounds pouring into her body. She takes off her footwear on a wooden stage and the vibrations of the instruments pass from her bare feet into her legs. Thus, Evelyn has sensitized the different parts of her body to the different sounds of music.