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Brahms, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Brahms, Johannes brämz, Ger. yōhänˈnĕs bräms [key], 1833–97, German composer, b. Hamburg. Brahms ranks among the greatest masters of the romantic period. The son of a musician, he early showed...

Saxe-Weimar

(Encyclopedia)Saxe-Weimar săks-vīˈmär [key], Ger. Sachsen-Weimar, former duchy, Thuringia, central Germany. The area passed in the division of 1485 to the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty and remained wit...

German literature

(Encyclopedia)German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...

Alcott, Bronson

(Encyclopedia)Alcott, Bronson ôlˈkət, ăl–, –kŏt [key], 1799–1888, American educational and social reformer, b. near Wolcott, Conn., as Amos Bronson Alcox. His meager formal education was supplemented by ...

Basel

(Encyclopedia)Basel bäl [key], Fr. Bâle, canton, N Switzerland, bordering on France and Germany. It is bo...

symphony

(Encyclopedia)symphony [Gr.,=sounding together], a sonata for orchestra. The Italian operatic overture, called sinfonia, was standardized by Alessandro Scarlatti at the end of the 17th cent. into three sections, th...

Charles XII, king of Sweden

(Encyclopedia)Charles XII, 1682–1718, king of Sweden (1697–1718), son and successor of Charles XI. The regency under which he succeeded was abolished in 1697 at the request of the Riksdag. At the coronation he ...

Gauss, Carl Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Gauss, Carl Friedrich kärl frēˈdrĭkh gous [key], born Johann Friederich Carl Gauss, 1777–1855, German mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. Gauss was educated at the Caroline College, Brunsw...

sulfuric acid

(Encyclopedia)sulfuric acid, chemical compound, H2SO4, colorless, odorless, extremely corrosive, oily liquid. It is sometimes called oil of vitriol. Although sulfuric acid is now one of the most widely used c...

Strasbourg

(Encyclopedia)Strasbourg sträzbo͞orˈ [key], Ger. Strassburg, city (1990 pop. 255,931), capital of Bas-Rhin dept., NE France, on the Ill River near its junction with the Rhine. It is the intellectual and commerci...