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Hindu music

(Encyclopedia)Hindu music. The music of India is entirely monodic. To Westerners it is the most accessible of all Asian musical cultures. Its tonal system divides the octave into 22 segments called srutis, not all ...

butter

(Encyclopedia)butter, dairy product obtained by churning the fat from milk until it solidifies. In most areas the milk of cows is the basis, but elsewhere that of goats, sheep, and mares has been used. Butter was k...

Windward Islands

(Encyclopedia)Windward Islands, southern group of the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies, curving generally southward for c.300 mi (480 km) from the Leeward Islands toward NE Venezuela. Excluding Barbados and Trini...

Boas, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Boas, Franz bōˈăz, –ăs [key], 1858–1942, German-American anthropologist, b. Minden, Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Kiel, 1881. He joined an expedition to Baffin Island in 1883 and initiated his field...

physics

(Encyclopedia)physics, branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy, and the relation between them; it was called natural philosophy until the late 19th cent. and is still known by this na...

Mezzogiorno

(Encyclopedia)Mezzogiorno mĕtˌsōjôrˈnō [key], region of S Italy. The Mezzogiorno comprises the modern Italian regions of Abruzzi, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, and the islands of Sicily and ...

Moorish art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Moorish art and architecture, branch of Islamic art and architecture developed in the westernmost lands of the Muslims, known as the Maghreb: N Africa and Spain. The Great Mosque at Al Qayrawan in Tun...

atonality

(Encyclopedia)atonality āˌtōnălˈĭtē [key], in music, systematic avoidance of harmonic or melodic reference to tonal centers (see key). The term is used to designate a method of composition in which the compo...

Saint Peter's Church

(Encyclopedia)Saint Peter's Church, Vatican City, principal and one of the largest churches of the Christian world. The present structure was built mainly between 1506 and 1626 on the original site of the Vatican c...

savings and loan association

(Encyclopedia)savings and loan association (S&L), type of financial institution that was originally created to accept savings from private investors and to provide home mortgage services for the public. The fir...