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aleatory music

(Encyclopedia)aleatory music āˈlēətôrˌē [key] [Lat. alea=dice game], music in which elements traditionally determined by the composer are determined either by a process of random selection chosen by the comp...

Percier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Percier, Charles shärl pĕrsyāˈ [key], 1764–1838, French architect. He won (1786) the Grand Prix de Rome, and in 1794 he became associated with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. Napoleon appoin...

Turner, John Napier Wyndham

(Encyclopedia)Turner, John Napier Wyndham, 1929–2020, Canadian prime minister (1984). Born in England, he immigrated (1932) to Ontario with his Canadian-born mother after she was widowed. Trained as a lawyer, he ...

theorem

(Encyclopedia)theorem, in mathematics and logic, statement in words or symbols that can be established by means of deductive logic; it differs from an axiom in that a proof is required for its acceptance. A lemma i...

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

(Encyclopedia)Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, founded 1888, one of the world's foremost orchestras. It performs at the Royal Concertbegouw [concert building], Amsterdam, Netherlands, designed by Adolf Leonard van Ge...

piezoelectric effect

(Encyclopedia)piezoelectric effect pīēˌzōĭlĕkˈtrĭk [key], voltage produced between surfaces of a solid dielectric (nonconducting substance) when a mechanical stress is applied to it. A small current may be ...

Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de shärl grävyāˈ kôNt də vĕrzhĕnˈ [key], 1717–87, French statesman. After serving as ambassador at Trier, Constantinople, and Stockholm (where in 1772 he p...

Cronin, James Watson

(Encyclopedia)Cronin, James Watson, 1931–2016, American nuclear physicist, b. Chicago, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1955. Cronin and co-researcher Val Logsdon Fitch were awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1...

Charpentier, Emmanuelle Marie

(Encyclopedia)Charpentier, Emmanuelle Marie āmänüĕl märēˈ shärpäNtyāˈ [key], 1968–, French microbiologist, Ph.D. Pierre and Marie Curie Univ., 1995. Following postdoctoral appointments at several insti...

farce

(Encyclopedia)farce, light, comic theatrical piece in which the characters and events are greatly exaggerated to produce broad, absurd humor. Early examples of farce can be found in the comedies of Aristophanes, Pl...