Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

alphorn

(Encyclopedia)alphorn or alpenhorn [Ger.,=Alps horn], wooden horn from 3 ft to 12 ft (91 cm–3.7 m) long, sometimes curved slightly, with conical bore and a cup-shaped mouthpiece. It produces only the natural harm...

Brain, Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Brain, Dennis, 1921–57, British horn player. Brain studied with his father, Aubrey, at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He played principal horn with first the Royal Philharmonic and then the P...

Hoorn, Philip de Montmorency, count of

(Encyclopedia)Hoorn or Horn, Philip de Montmorency, count of both: hôrn [key], 1518?–1568, Netherlands nobleman, member of the council of state during the regency of Margaret of Parma. In 1562 he joined with the...

Campbell, Thomas, Scottish poet

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Thomas, 1777–1844, Scottish poet. He is best known for his war poems “Hohenlinden,” “The Battle of the Baltic,” and “Ye Mariners of England.” Among his other volumes of poetry ...

Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Prokhorov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich əlyĭksänˈdər mēkhīˈləvĭch prôˈkhərəf [key], 1916–2002, Russian physicist, b. Atherton, Queensland, Australia. In 1923 he was taken to the Soviet Union...

Hood, John Bell

(Encyclopedia)Hood, John Bell, 1831–79, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Owingsville, Ky. He resigned from the army (Apr., 1861) and entered the Confederate service 1862. He fought in the Peninsu...

Sillitoe, Alan

(Encyclopedia)Sillitoe, Alan, 1928–2010, English writer, b. Nottingham. The son of an illiterate tannery worker, he grew up in poverty, left school at 14, and was himself a factory worker as a teenager. One of th...

Salonen, Esa-Pekka

(Encyclopedia)Salonen, Esa-Pekka, 1958–, Finnish conductor and composer. Originally a French horn player, he studied (1973–77) at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy. He made his conducting debut (1979) with the Finnis...

Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston

(Encyclopedia)Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston, 1853–1937, English actor-manager. He was trained by Samuel Phelps, made his first appearance in 1874, and thereafter performed with the Bancrofts (1878), John Hare, a...

Browse by Subject