Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

cotinga

(Encyclopedia)cotinga kōtĭngˈgə [key], any of the New World tropical birds of the family Cotingidae. Cotingas range from N Argentina to the southern border of the United States; most are forest species and inha...

Boulez, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Boulez, Pierre pyĕr bo͞olĕzˈ [key], 1925–2016, French conductor and composer of modernist classical music. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Olivier Messiaen (1944–45) and studied twel...

Rephidim

(Encyclopedia)Rephidim rĕfˈĭdĭm, rēfĭdˈĭm [key], in the Bible, unlocated place in Sinai where Moses struck the rock and brought forth water. ...

Hale, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Hale, Philip, 1854–1934, American music critic, b. Norwich, Vt. He was music critic of the Boston Post (1890–91), Boston Journal (1891–1903), and Boston Herald (1903–34) and annotated the prog...

eurythmics

(Encyclopedia)eurythmics or eurhythmics both: yo͝orĭᵺˈmĭks [key], harmonious bodily movement, especially as expressed according to the system of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, who developed eurythmics (1903) at the ...

Hooker, John Lee

(Encyclopedia)Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting Delta bl...

Ellora

(Encyclopedia)Ellora ĕlōˈrə [key], village, E central Maharashtra state, India. Extending more than 1 mi (1.6 km) on a hill are 34 rock and cave temples (5th–13th cent.), most of them Hindu but some Buddhist ...

borer

(Encyclopedia)borer, name applied to various animals that are injurious because of their ability to penetrate plant or animal tissues. Among insects, some borers are beetles, e.g., the flatheaded apple-tree borer, ...

waterfall

(Encyclopedia)waterfall, a sudden unsupported drop in a stream. It is formed when the stream course is interrupted as when a stream passes over a layer of harder rock—often igneous—to an area of softer and ther...

Dallapiccola, Luigi

(Encyclopedia)Dallapiccola, Luigi lo͞oēˈjē dälˌläpēkˈkōlä [key], 1904–75, Italian composer, b. Pazan, Istria (now in Croatia). Dallapiccola was in a detention camp during World War I; because his wife ...

Browse by Subject