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Leipzig

(Encyclopedia)Leipzig līpˈtsĭkh [key], city (1994 pop. 490,850), Saxony, E central Germany, at the confluence of the Pleisse, White Elster, and Parthe rivers. Originally a Slavic settlement called Lipsk, Leipz...

Cortés, Hernán

(Encyclopedia)Cortés, Hernán, or Hernando Cortez kôrtĕzˈ, Span. ārnänˈ, ārnänˈdō kōrtāsˈ [key], 1485–1547, Spanish conquistador, conqueror of Mexico. In Cortés's absence his enemies at home grad...

Lloyd George, David, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor

(Encyclopedia)Lloyd George, David, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor do͞oˈēvôr [key], 1863–1945, British statesman, of Welsh extraction. Lloyd George was a brilliantly eloquent, forceful, and creative statesman...

Mailer, Norman

(Encyclopedia)Mailer, Norman (Norman Kingsley Mailer), 1923–2007, American writer, b. Long Branch, N.J., grad. Harvard, 1943. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., served in the army during World War II, and at the age o...

Reichstag

(Encyclopedia)Reichstag rīkhsˈtäk [key] [Ger.,=imperial parliament], name for the diet of the Holy Roman Empire, for the lower chamber of the federal parliament of the North German Confederation, and for the low...

opera

(Encyclopedia)opera, drama set to music. In the early part of the 20th cent. the foremost operatic composer was Richard Strauss. Although influenced by Wagner, he composed operas with even richer and more stunnin...

Luxembourg, grand duchy, W Europe

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Luxembourg lŭkˈsəmbûrg, Ger. lo͝okˈsəmbo͝orkh [key], officially Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, grand duchy (2015 est. pop. 567,000), 998 sq mi (2,586 sq km), W Europe. Roughly triangular, i...

Metternich, Clemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Fürst von

(Encyclopedia)Metternich, Clemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Fürst von klāˈmĕns vĕnˈtsəl nāˈpōmo͝ok lōˈtär fürst fən mĕtˈərnĭkh [key], 1773–1859, Austrian statesman and arbiter of post-Napoleonic ...

song

(Encyclopedia)song, relatively brief, simple vocal composition, usually a setting of a poetic text, often strophic, for accompanied solo voice. The song literature of Western music embodies two broad classification...

Shaw, George Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, George Bernard, 1856–1950, Irish playwright and critic. He revolutionized the Victorian stage, then dominated by artificial melodramas, by presenting vigorous dramas of ideas. The lengthy pref...