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Cluny

(Encyclopedia)Cluny klo͞oˈnē, Fr. klünēˈ [key], former abbey, E France, in the present Saône-et-Loire dept., founded (910) by St. Berno, a Burgundian monk and reformer. Cluny was one of the chief religious a...

Richard of Saint Victor

(Encyclopedia)Richard of Saint Victor, d. 1173, Scottish monk and mystic, prior of the Abbey of St. Victor, Paris. His principal importance is in the history of mystical theology, in which he is a successor to Hugh...

scale, in music

(Encyclopedia)scale, in music, any series of tones arranged in a step-by-step rising or falling order of pitch. A scale defines the interval relationship of each tone to the others upon which the composition depend...

Schenker, Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Schenker, Heinrich hīnˈrĭkh shĕngkˈər [key], 1868–1935, Austro-Polish music theorist. Educated at the Vienna Conservatory, he devoted his life to teaching and research. Schenker developed the ...

Rickey, Branch

(Encyclopedia)Rickey, Branch, 1881–1965, American baseball executive, b. Stockdale, Ohio. As manager or executive, he was with the St. Louis Browns (1913–15), the St. Louis Cardinals (1917–42), the Brooklyn D...

W and Z particles

(Encyclopedia)W and Z particles, elementary particles that mediate, or carry, the fundamental force associated with weak interactions. The discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, in the...

molybdenite

(Encyclopedia)molybdenite məlĭbˈdənīt, mō– [key], a mineral, molybdenum disulfide, MoS2, blue-gray in color, with a metallic luster and greasy feel. It occurs in crystals of the hexagonal system but more co...

Alston, Walter Emmons

(Encyclopedia)Alston, Walter Emmons, 1911–84, American baseball manager, b. Venice, Ohio. Nicknamed Smokey, he played one major-league game, for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1936, and struck out in his one at bat. ...

ellipse

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Ellipse ellipse, closed plane curve consisting of all points for which the sum of the distances between a point on the curve and two fixed points (foci) is the same. It is the conic section fo...

Rogation Days

(Encyclopedia)Rogation Days, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are Apr. 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St. Mark's D...