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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 ...

Graham, Martha

(Encyclopedia)Graham, Martha, 1894–1991, American dancer, choreographer, and teacher, b. Pittsburgh. Her family moved from Allegheny, Pa., to Santa Barbara, Calif., when she was 14. After 1916, Graham attended th...

Whittier, John Greenleaf

(Encyclopedia)Whittier, John Greenleaf hwĭtˈēər [key], 1807–92, American Quaker poet and reformer, b. near Haverhill, Mass. Whittier was a pioneer in regional literature as well as a crusader for many humanit...

Goya y Lucientes, Francisco José de

(Encyclopedia)Goya y Lucientes, Francisco José de fränthēsˈkō hōsāˈ ᵺā gōˈyä ē lo͞othēānˈtās [key], 1746–1828, Spanish painter and graphic artist. Goya is generally conceded to be the greatest...

Shaw, George Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Shaw, George Bernard, 1856–1950, Irish playwright and critic. He revolutionized the Victorian stage, then dominated by artificial melodramas, by presenting vigorous dramas of ideas. The lengthy pref...

contemporary art

(Encyclopedia)contemporary art, the art of the late 20th cent. and early 21st cent., both an outgrowth and a rejection of modern art. As the force and vigor of abstract expressionism diminished, new artistic moveme...

Bach, Johann Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Bach, Johann Sebastian bäkh [key], 1685–1750, German composer and organist, b. Eisenach; one of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world. He brought polyphonic baroque musi...

Episcopal Church

(Encyclopedia)Episcopal Church, Anglican church of the United States. Its separate existence as an American ecclesiastical body with its own episcopate began in 1789. During the American Revolution the personal l...

Bush, George Herbert Walker

(Encyclopedia)Bush, George Herbert Walker, 1924–2018, 41st President of the United States (1989–93), b. Milton, Mass., B.A., Yale Univ., 1948. Bush's handling of domestic affairs was less successful. The savi...

woman suffrage

(Encyclopedia)woman suffrage, the right of women to vote. Throughout the latter part of the 19th cent. the issue of women's voting rights was an important phase of feminism. On the European mainland, Finland (1...

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