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bass, in music

(Encyclopedia)bass bās [key], in musical harmony, the part of lowest pitch. The term is used for the lowest-pitched male voice and for instruments of low pitch, such as bass clarinet, bass drum, bassoon (bass oboe...

bow, in music

(Encyclopedia)bow bō [key], implement used in playing stringed instruments. Its name originated from the fact that in its early form it resembled an archer's bow, but by the 17th cent. the European bow had gradual...

Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin

(Encyclopedia)Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin shärl äNrēˈ väläNtăNˈ ălkăNˈ [key], 1813–88, French pianist and composer; his original surname was Morhange. He was a pianist of great virtuosity and wrote m...

Abreu, José Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Abreu, José Antonio, 1939–2018, Venezuelan music educator, economist, and politician. With degrees in petroleum economics and in organ and composition, Abreu was an economics professor at various V...

Birmingham-Southern College

(Encyclopedia)Birmingham-Southern College, at Birmingham, Ala.; United Methodist; coeducational; formed 1918 by the merger of Southern Univ. (chartered 1856; opened 1859 at Greensboro, Ala.) and Birmingham College ...

Smith College

(Encyclopedia)Smith College, at Northampton, Mass.; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; chartered 1871, opened 1875 through a bequest of Sophia Smith. The first president, Laurenus Clark Seelye, was in...

Tovey, Sir Donald Francis

(Encyclopedia)Tovey, Sir Donald Francis tōˈvē [key], 1875–1940, English pianist and musicologist, grad. Oxford, 1898. As a pianist he appeared in England and on the Continent after 1900 and in the United State...

Iowa, University of

(Encyclopedia)Iowa, University of, at Iowa City; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1847, opened 1855. It has a noted program in the creative arts, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop, one of the most prest...

Catholic University of America

(Encyclopedia)Catholic University of America, at Washington, D.C.; the national university of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States; coeducational; founded 1887 and opened 1889. It includes a college of ar...

Houston Grand Opera

(Encyclopedia)Houston Grand Opera, opera company in Houston, Tex., founded 1955 by the German-American impresario and conductor Walter Herbert, who was general director and conductor until 1972. The company perform...