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key, in music

(Encyclopedia)key. 1 In music, term used to indicate the scale from which the tonal material of a given composition is derived. To say, for example, that a composition is in the key of C major means that it uses as...

public relations

(Encyclopedia)public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving parti...

Scarlatti, Alessandro

(Encyclopedia)Scarlatti, Alessandro älĕs-sänˈdrō skärlätˈtē [key], 1660–1725, Italian composer. He may have studied with Carissimi in Rome, where his first opera was produced in 1679. In 1684 he went to ...

band

(Encyclopedia)band, in music, a group of musicians playing principally on wind and percussion instruments, usually outdoors. Prior to the 18th cent., the term band was frequently applied in a generic sense to cover...

fan

(Encyclopedia)fan, device for agitating air or gases or moving them from one location to another. Mechanical fans with revolving blades are used for ventilation, in manufacturing, in winnowing grain, to remove dust...

hygrometer

(Encyclopedia)hygrometer hīgrŏmˈətər [key], instrument used to measure the moisture content of a gas, as in determining the relative humidity of air. The temperature at which dew or frost forms is a measure of...

parachute

(Encyclopedia)parachute, umbrellalike device designed to retard the descent of a falling body by creating drag as it passes through the air. The development of modern aircraft has led to many experiments in the aer...

smuggling

(Encyclopedia)smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been ...

York, city, England

(Encyclopedia)York, city and unitary authority (2011 pop. 198,051), N England, at the confluence of the Ouse and Foss rivers. It is located at the historical junction of the three ridings of Yorkshire. York, a rail...

barometer

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Aneroid barometer barometer bərŏmˈətər [key], instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure. It was invented in 1643 by the Italian scientist Evangelista Torricelli, who used a column...