Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Schubert, Franz Peter

(Encyclopedia)Schubert, Franz Peter fränts pāˈtər sho͞oˈbərt [key], 1797–1828, Austrian composer, one of the most gifted musicians of the 19th cent. His symphonic works represent the best legacy of the cla...

Wagner, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wagner, Richard vägˈnər [key], 1813–83, German composer, b. Leipzig. Wagner's second wife, Cosima Wagner, 1837–1930, was the daughter of Liszt and the comtesse d'Agoult. From 1857 to 1870 sh...

Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold

(Encyclopedia)Lenz, Jakob Michael Reinhold yäˈkôp mĭkhˈäĕl rīnˈhôlt lĕnts [key], 1751–92, German writer. He was a friend of Goethe, whom he first imitated, then lampooned. A gifted poet, he wrote lyric...

Runge, Philipp Otto

(Encyclopedia)Runge, Philipp Otto fēˈlĭp ôtˈō ro͝ongˈə [key], 1777–1810, German painter. Immersed in the mysticism of the romantic movement in Germany, Runge became a central figure of romantic painting....

German Catholics

(Encyclopedia)German Catholics, religious groups founded in 1844 by dissidents from the Roman Catholic Church. They were led by two excommunicated priests, Johann Czerski of Schneidemühl, Posen, and Johann Ronge o...

conducting

(Encyclopedia)conducting, in music, the art of unifying the efforts of a number of musicians simultaneously engaged in musical performance. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance the conductor was primarily a time beat...

Lilith

(Encyclopedia)Lilith lĭlˈĭth [key], female demon of Jewish mythology, originally probably the Assyrian storm demon Lilitu. In Talmudic tradition many evil attributes were given to this supposedly nocturnal creat...

Vischer, Friedrich Theodor

(Encyclopedia)Vischer, Friedrich Theodor frēˈdrĭkh tāˈōdôr fĭshˈər [key], 1807–87, German aesthetic philosopher. He taught at Tübingen, and later at Zürich and Stuttgart. Vischer was not only one of t...

minnesinger

(Encyclopedia)minnesinger mĭnˈĭsĭngˌər [key], a medieval German knight, poet, and singer of Minne, or courtly love. Originally imitators of Provençal troubadours, minnesingers developed their own style in th...

Fröding, Gustaf

(Encyclopedia)Fröding, Gustaf gŭsˈtäv fröˈdĭng [key], 1860–1911, Swedish lyric poet. His first two volumes of poems, Guitar and Concertina (1891) and New Poems (1894), both translated into English in 1925,...