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helicopter

(Encyclopedia)helicopter, type of aircraft in which lift is obtained by means of one or more power-driven horizontal propellers called rotors. When the rotor of a helicopter turns it produces reaction torque which ...

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolai Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolai Andreyevich nyĭkəlī əndrāˈəvĭch rĭmˈskē-kôrˈsəkôf [key], 1844–1908, Russian composer; one of the group of nationalist composers called The Five. He prepared h...

Chagall, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Chagall, Marc märk shəgälˈ [key], 1887–1985, Russian painter. In 1907, Chagall left his native Vitebsk for St. Petersburg, where he studied under L. N. Bakst. In Paris (1910) he began to assimil...

Bausch, Pina

(Encyclopedia)Bausch, Pina pēˈnə boush [key], 1940–2009, German dancer and choreographer. After training with Kurt Jooss, she studied in New York with Antony Tudor, Paul Taylor, José Limón, and Paul Sanasard...

Diaghilev, Sergei Pavlovich

(Encyclopedia)Diaghilev, Sergei Pavlovich syĭrgāˈ pävˈləvĭch dyäˈgĭlyĭf [key], 1872–1929, Russian ballet impresario and art critic, grad. St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music, 1892. In 1898 he founded ...

Balanchine, George

(Encyclopedia)Balanchine, George bălˈənshēnˌ [key], 1904–83, American choreographer and ballet dancer, b. St. Petersburg, Russia, as Georgi Balanchivadze. The son of a Georgian composer and a Russian mother,...

Auden, W. H.

(Encyclopedia)Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh Auden) ôˈdən [key], 1907–73, Anglo-American poet, b. York, England, educated at Oxford. A versatile, vigorous, and technically skilled poet, Auden ranks among the major ...

rutherfordium

(Encyclopedia)rutherfordium rŭᵺˌərfôrˈdēəm [key], artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Rf; at. no. 104; mass number of most stable isotope 265; m.p., b.p., and sp. gr. unknown; valenc...

oratorio

(Encyclopedia)oratorio ôrətôrˈēō [key], musical composition employing chorus, orchestra, and soloists and usually, but not necessarily, a setting of a sacred libretto without stage action or scenery. The imme...

Mass, in Christianity

(Encyclopedia)Mass, religious service of the Roman Catholic Church, which has as its central act the performance of the sacrament of the Eucharist. It is based on the ancient Latin liturgy of the city of Rome, now ...

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