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Vestris, Gaetan

(Encyclopedia)Vestris, Gaetan gäātäNˈ vĕsˈtrēs [key], 1729–1808, Italian-French classical dancer, b. Florence. Vestris was one of the greatest dancers of the 18th cent. Born of an Italian theatrical family...

Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de

(Encyclopedia)Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de shärl ōgüstˈ lwē zhôzĕfˈ dük də môrnēˈ [key], 1811–65, French statesman; illegitimate son of Hortense de Beauharnais and the comte de Flahaut...

D'Indy, Vincent

(Encyclopedia)D'Indy, Vincent văNsäNˈ dăNdēˈ [key], 1851–1931, French composer. D'Indy was a pupil of César Franck. In 1894, Charles Bordes, Guilmant, and d'Indy founded the Schola Cantorum, Paris, of whic...

Montparnasse

(Encyclopedia)Montparnasse môNpärnäsˈ [key], quarter of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine River, centering on the intersection of the Boulevard de Montparnasse and the Boulevard Raspail. Its famous cafés (t...

Bourmont, Louis Auguste, comte de Ghaisnes de

(Encyclopedia)Bourmont, Louis Auguste, comte de Ghaisnes de lwē ôgüstˈ kôNt də gân də bo͞ormôNˈ [key], 1773–1846, marshal of France. An émigré, he fought against the French Revolution under the princ...

Chouteau

(Encyclopedia)Chouteau sho͞otōˈ [key], family of American fur traders. René Auguste Chouteau, 1749–1829, b. New Orleans, accompanied (1763) his stepfather, Pierre Laclede, on a trading expedition to the Illin...

Francken

(Encyclopedia)Francken frängk [key], family of Flemish painters in the 16th and 17th cent. Prominent members were Hieronymus Francken, c.1540–1610, student of Frans Floris, who worked mainly in Antwerp in a clas...

celesta

(Encyclopedia)celesta sĭlĕˈstə [key], keyboard musical instrument patented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel of Paris. It consists of a set of steel bars fastened over wood resonators and struck by hammers operated fro...

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