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Nelsons, Andris

(Encyclopedia)Nelsons, Andris, 1978–, Latvian conductor. He studied piano and trumpet, and was a trumpeter with the Latvian National Opera as a teenager. After studying conducting in St. Petersburg, Russia, he ma...

Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel

(Encyclopedia)Chabrier, Alexis Emmanuel älĕksēˈ ĕmänüĕlˈ shäbrēāˈ [key], 1841–94, French composer. His best-known works are an orchestral rhapsody, España (1883); an opera, Le Roi malgré lui (1887)...

Bliss, Sir Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Bliss, Sir Arthur, 1891–1975, English composer. Bliss's teachers included Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gustav Holst. He was made Master of the Queen's Musick in 1953. His early work...

harpsichord

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Harpsichord harpsichord, stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. an...

Evans, Bill

(Encyclopedia) Evans, Bill, 1929-80, American jazz pianist and composer, b. Plainfield, N.J., as William John Evans, Southeastern Louisiana Univ. (B.Mus., 1950). Eva...

Walton, Sir William Turner

(Encyclopedia)Walton, Sir William Turner, 1902–83, English composer, b. Oldham. Walton studied at Oxford. One of his earliest works was a piano quartet (1918–19). In 1923, Façade, satirical poems by Edith Sitw...

Mendelssohn, Felix

(Encyclopedia)Mendelssohn, Felix (Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn) mĕnˈdəlsən, Ger. yäˈkôp lo͝otˈvĭkh fāˈlĭks mĕnˈdəls-zōnˌ [key], 1809–47, German composer; grandson of the Jewish philosopher Mos...

Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich

(Encyclopedia)Miaskovsky, Nikolai Yakovlevich nyĭkəlīˈ yäˈkəvlyĭvĭch myəskôfˈskē [key], 1881–1950, Russian composer, b. near Warsaw, grad. St. Petersburg Conservatory, 1911. Professor of composition ...

mazurka

(Encyclopedia)mazurka məzûrˈkə, –zo͝orˈ– [key], Polish national dance that spread to England and the United States at the beginning of the 19th cent. Danced by four or eight couples and characterized by s...

Duparc, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Duparc, Henri äNrēˈ düpärkˈ [key], 1848–1933, French composer. Duparc studied piano with César Franck and became one of his first composition pupils. A nervous disorder caused him to cease co...