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overture

(Encyclopedia)overture, instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and w...

Schumann, Robert Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Schumann, Robert Alexander sho͞oˈmän [key], 1810–56, German composer. Both as a composer and as a highly articulate music critic he was a leader of the romantic movement. He studied theory with H...

Du Bois-Reymond, Emil

(Encyclopedia)Du Bois-Reymond, Emil āˈmēl dü bwä-rāmôNˈ [key], 1818–96, German physiologist of French descent. A pupil and successor (after 1858) of Johannes Müller at the Univ. of Berlin, he is known es...

Henschel, Sir George

(Encyclopedia)Henschel, Sir George hĕnˈshəl [key], 1850–1934, German-English conductor, composer, and baritone. His first appearance (1877) in England was as a singer, and there he and his wife inaugurated (c....

Brendel, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Brendel, Alfred brĕndĕlˈ [key], 1931–, Austrian pianist, b. Moravia (now in the Czech Republic). He debuted publicly in 1948 and, after winning a prize at the Busoni competition in Bolzano, Italy...

Müller, Karl Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Müller, Karl Alexander, 1927–, Swiss physicist, Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1958. In 1983, Müller and co-researcher Johannes Georg Bednorz discovered superconductivity in a cerami...

Eeden, Frederik van

(Encyclopedia)Eeden, Frederik van frāˈdərĭk vän āˈdən [key], 1860–1932, Dutch novelist and poet, a practicing physician. He founded a cooperative farm colony (1898). His work is pervaded by deep mysticism...

Vermeer, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Vermeer, Jan or Johannes vərmērˈ, Dutch yän vərmārˈ, yōhänˈəs [key], 1632–75, Dutch genre and landscape painter. He was born in Delft, where he spent his entire life. He was also known as...

Holz, Arno

(Encyclopedia)Holz, Arno ärˈnō hôlts [key], 1863–1929, German critic and poet. His influence as a founder of the German naturalist school and as a critic is more important than his work itself. He was particu...

Philomena of Dacia, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Philomena of Dacia, Peter, or Peter Nightingale, fl. 1291–1303, Danish astronomer and mathematician. He taught at the Univ. of Bologna (1291–92) and in Paris, and was a canon of Roskilde Cathedral...