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Sibelius, Jean Julius Christian

(Encyclopedia)Sibelius, Jean Julius Christian zhän yo͞oˈlyo͝os krĭsˈtyän sĭbāˈlyo͝os [key], 1865–1957, Finnish composer. Sibelius was a highly personal, romantic composer, yet at the same time he repre...

rationalism

(Encyclopedia)rationalism [Lat.,=belonging to reason], in philosophy, a theory that holds that reason alone, unaided by experience, can arrive at basic truth regarding the world. Associated with rationalism is the ...

paranoia

(Encyclopedia)paranoia prˌənoiˈə [key], in psychology, a term denoting persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically reasoned delusions, or false beliefs, usually of persecution or grandeur. In the former ca...

naturalism, in philosophy

(Encyclopedia)naturalism, in philosophy, a position that attempts to explain all phenomena and account for all values by means of strictly natural (as opposed to supernatural) categories. The particular meaning of ...

Vienna State Opera

(Encyclopedia)Vienna State Opera, opera house and company in Vienna, Austria, founded in 1869 as an expansion of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). Destroyed by wartime bombing in 1945, the elegant building's recons...

Brandt, Willy

(Encyclopedia)Brandt, Willy vĭlˈē bränt [key], 1913–92, German political leader. His name originally was Karl Herbert Frahm. Active in his youth in the Social Democratic party, after Adolf Hitler came to powe...

counterpoint

(Encyclopedia)counterpoint, in music, the art of combining melodies each of which is independent though forming part of a homogeneous texture. The term derives from the Latin for “point against point,” meaning ...

Old Catholics

(Encyclopedia)Old Catholics, Christian denomination established by German Catholics who separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church when they rejected (1870) the decrees of the First Vatican Council, especi...

Brethren

(Encyclopedia)Brethren, German Baptist religious group. They were popularly known as Dunkards, Dunkers, or Tunkers, from the German for “to dip,” referring to their method of baptizing. The Brethren evolved fro...

West, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)West, Benjamin, 1738–1820, American historical painter who worked in England. He was born in Springfield, Pa., in a house that is now a memorial museum at Swarthmore College. After some instruction ...