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Piston, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Piston, Walter, 1894–1976, American composer and teacher, b. Rockland, Maine. Piston studied at Harvard and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris; he joined the faculty of Harvard in 1926. He became a Gugge...

Nancarrow, Conlon

(Encyclopedia)Nancarrow, Conlon, 1912–1997, American-Mexican composer, best known for his works for the player piano, b. Texarkana, Ark., studied Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and with Nicolas Slonimsk...

Boulanger, Nadia

(Encyclopedia)Boulanger, Nadia bo͞oläNzhāˈ [key], 1887–1979, French conductor and musician, b. Paris. Boulanger was considered an outstanding teacher of composition. She studied at the Paris Conservatory, wh...

hydraulic machine

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Hydraulic pressure: In any hydraulic device the pressure exerted by one piston is transmitted throughout the fluid. Since pressure equals force divided by area, a small force (F1) exerted on a ...

pump

(Encyclopedia)pump, device to lift, transfer, or increase the pressure of a fluid (gas or liquid) or to create a vacuum in an enclosed space by the removal of a gas (see vacuum pumps under vacuum). The centrifugal ...

steam engine

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Steam engine steam engine, machine for converting heat energy into mechanical energy using steam as a medium, or working fluid. When water is converted into steam it expands, its volume increa...

serial music

(Encyclopedia)serial music, the body of compositions whose fundamental syntactical reference is a particular ordering (called series or row) of the twelve pitch classes—C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B—t...

Stirling engine

(Encyclopedia)Stirling engine, an external combustion reciprocating engine having an enclosed working fluid that is alternately compressed and expanded to operate a piston, thus converting heat from a variety of so...

Carter, Elliott Cook, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Carter, Elliott Cook, Jr., 1908–2012, American composer, b. New York City. Carter is considered by many to be the most important late-20th-century American composer. Mentored early in life by Charle...
 

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