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Skara Brae

(Encyclopedia)Skara Brae skârˈə brā [key], Stone Age village, on Mainland in the Orkney Islands, N Scotland. Dating from c.3200 to 2200 b.c., the village was preserved under a sand dune until uncovered by a sto...

Křenek, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Křenek, Ernst krĕˈnĕk, Czech kerzhĕˈnĕk [key], 1900–1991, Austrian-American composer, b. Vienna. to Czech parents. He studied in Vienna and Berlin, and in the early 1920s he composed chamber ...

Albumazar

(Encyclopedia)Albumazar älˌbo͞omäˈzər [key], 805?–885, Arab astronomer, more fully Abu-Mashar Jafar ibn Muhammad. In his De magnis conjunctionibus he claimed that the world had been created when the seven p...

Matthew, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Matthew, Saint, in the New Testament, one of the Twelve Apostles. Also called Levi, he was a publican (tax collector) from Capernaum. Since the 2d cent. the first Gospel (see Matthew, Gospel according...

Bartholomew, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bartholomew, Saint bärthŏlˈəmyo͞o [key], in the New Testament, one of the Twelve Apostles, usually identified with Nathanael. Nathanael is a given name, Bartholomew an Aramaic patronymic meaning ...

Hauer, Josef Matthias

(Encyclopedia)Hauer, Josef Matthias yōˈzĕf mätēäs houˈər [key], 1883–1959, Austrian music theorist and composer. Primarily self-taught, Hauer devised a method of atonal composition that used the 12 tones ...

tuning systems

(Encyclopedia)tuning systems, methods for assigning pitches to the twelve Western pitch names that constitute the octave. The term usually refers to this procedure in the tuning of keyboard instruments. The need fo...

Briggs, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Briggs, Henry, 1561–1630, English mathematician. He was the first professor of geometry at Gresham College, London (1596–1619), and Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford (from 1619). After pub...

backgammon

(Encyclopedia)backgammon băkˈgămˌən, băkˌgămˈən [key], game of chance and skill played by two persons upon a specially marked board divided by a space, called the bar, into two tables (inner table and out...

Frank, Bruno

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Bruno bro͞oˈnō frängk [key], 1887–1945, German novelist and dramatist. His popular works include the historical novels The Days of the King (1924, tr. 1927), Trenck (1926, tr. 1928), and ...