Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

chaconne and passacaglia

(Encyclopedia)chaconne päˌsəkälˈyə [key], two closely related musical forms popular during the baroque period. Both are in triple meter time and employ a characteristic recurring harmonic pattern or actual ba...

Winter, William

(Encyclopedia)Winter, William, 1836–1917, American drama critic, biographer, and poet, b. Gloucester, Mass., grad. Harvard Law School, 1857. A member of the literary bohemians who met in Pfaff's Cellar in New Yor...

Bengel, Johann Albrecht

(Encyclopedia)Bengel, Johann Albrecht yōˈhän älˈbrĕkht bĕngˈəl [key], 1687–1752, German Lutheran theologian and biblical scholar. He was appointed (1713) professor in charge of a theological training sch...

Banstead

(Encyclopedia)Banstead bănˈstĕd, –stəd [key], town, Surrey, SE England, on the North Downs. Banstead is mainly ...

Tiryns

(Encyclopedia)Tiryns tīˈrĭnz [key], ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium b.c. I...

theorbo

(Encyclopedia)theorbo thēôrˈbō [key], large lute of the baroque period. It had an extra set of bass strings, not stopped on a fingerboard as the regular set are but plucked as open strings. These made it more s...

Bonampak

(Encyclopedia)Bonampak bōnämpäkˈ [key], ruined city of the Late Classic period of the Maya, close to Tuxtla, in Chiapas, S Mexico. Discovered in 1946, it consists of a group of temples, one of which is remarkab...

Saint-Ouen

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Ouen săNto͞oäˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 42,611), Seine–Saint-Denis dept., N central France, on the Seine River. It is an industrial suburb N of Paris and a terminal point for river shipping....

Salamis, island, Greece

(Encyclopedia)Salamis, island, E Greece, in the Saronic Gulf, W of Athens. It early belonged to Aegina but was later under Athenian control, except for a brief period after it was occupied (c.600 b.c.) by Megara. I...

Rogers, John, American sculptor

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, John, 1829–1904, American sculptor, b. Salem, Mass. Trained as an engineer, he was forced by failing eyesight to work as a machinist. He began modeling in clay as a pastime and studied sculp...

Browse by Subject