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vernier

(Encyclopedia)vernier vûrˈnēr [key], auxiliary scale, either straight or an arc of a circle, designed to slide along a fixed scale. Its unit divisions, usually smaller than those on the fixed scale, permit a far...

Montreux Jazz Festival

(Encyclopedia)Montreux Jazz Festival, international music festival held in Montreux, Switzerland, founded in 1967 by Chuck Nobs. Held annually for two weeks in July, it began as a purely jazz event and has evolved ...

Martin, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Martin, Mary, 1913–90, American musical comedy star, b. Weatherford, Tex. From Martin's first stage appearance in Leave It to Me (1938), she starred in several enormously successful musicals, includ...

concert

(Encyclopedia)concert, in music, public performance of a group of musical compositions. Originally the word referred simply to a group of musicians playing together; concerts by a solo performer are properly called...

concertina

(Encyclopedia)concertina kŏnsûrtēˈnə [key], musical instrument whose tone is produced by free reeds. It was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1829. It is a chromatic instrument similar to the accordion, bu...

Alcman

(Encyclopedia)Alcman ălkˈmən [key], fl. 620 b.c., Greek lyric poet of Sparta. He was the earliest writer of Dorian choral poetry whose work has survived. Short choral fragments and a longer one (part of a parthe...

Cino da Pistoia

(Encyclopedia)Cino da Pistoia chēˈnō dä pēstôˈyä [key], 1270–1337?, Italian jurist and poet, whose full name was Guittoncino dei Sinibaldi, or Sighibuldi. A friend of Dante and Petrarch, he wrote treatise...

Chladni, Ernst Florens Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Chladni, Ernst Florens Friedrich ĕrnst flōˈrĕns frēˈdrĭkh klädˈnē [key], 1756–1827, German physicist. An authority on acoustics, he made studies of the transmission of sound in various gas...

figure

(Encyclopedia)figure, in music, short melodic or rhythmic pattern, the smallest grouping of notes that will produce a single distinct impression. In this sense figure is synonymous with motive. In music before the ...

ocarina

(Encyclopedia)ocarina ŏkərēˈnə [key], musical wind instrument with eight finger holes and two thumb holes, rather egg-shaped, and made of metal, terra-cotta or plastic. Unlike other wind instuments, it produce...

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