Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

fugue

(Encyclopedia)fugue fyo͞og [key] [Ital.,=flight], in music, a form of composition in which the basic principle is imitative counterpoint of several voices. Its main elements are: (1) a theme, or subject, stated fi...

Dent, Edward Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Dent, Edward Joseph, 1876–1957, English musicologist. He studied and taught at Cambridge. Dent wrote biographies of Alessandro Scarlatti (1905), Busoni (1933), and Handel (1934), and many critical w...

Badger, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Badger, Joseph, 1708–65, American painter, b. Charlestown, Mass. By trade a glazier and house and sign painter, he turned his hand to portraiture. Generally uninspired, his work appears at its best ...

Scheler, Max

(Encyclopedia)Scheler, Max mäks shāˈlər [key], 1874–1928, German philosopher. He taught at the universities of Jena (1901–7) and Munich (1907–10), where he was influenced by Franz Brentano and the followe...

tellurium

(Encyclopedia)tellurium tĕlo͝orˈēəm [key] [Lat.,=earth], semimetallic chemical element; symbol Te; at. no. 52; at. wt. 127.60; m.p. 450℃; b.p. 990℃; sp. gr. 6.24 at 20℃; valence −2, +4, or +6. Telluriu...

Romanus II

(Encyclopedia)Romanus II, 939–63, Byzantine emperor (959–63), son and successor of Constantine VII. A profligate, he came under the domination of his second wife, Theophano. She, along with the eunuch Joseph Br...

Saint Joseph, river, United States

(Encyclopedia)Saint Joseph, river, 210 mi (338 km) long, rising in S Mich. and flowing generally westward in wide curves to Lake Michigan at Benton Harbor, Mich. South Bend, Ind., is on the river, which was an impo...

Peter III, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Peter III, 1717–86, king of Portugal (1777–86), younger brother of Joseph. He married his niece Maria I and was joint ruler with her, though she generally was the dominant figure. ...

Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de shärl ōgüstˈ lwē zhôzĕfˈ dük də môrnēˈ [key], 1811–65, French statesman; illegitimate son of Hortense de Beauharnais and the comte de Flahaut...

monitorial system

(Encyclopedia)monitorial system, method of elementary education devised by British educators Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell during the 19th cent. to furnish schooling to the underprivileged even under conditions ...
 

Browse by Subject