Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

organum

(Encyclopedia)organum ôrˈgənəm [key], in music, compositional technique, developed in Europe during the 10th cent., in which each note of Gregorian chant melody was doubled by another note. In the earliest exam...

Bell, Alexander Melville

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819–1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the hu...

Doowop Music

(Encyclopedia) Doowop (also spelled doo-wop or doo wop) music, American popular vocal music style, c. late 1940s-early 1960s. Doowop is a form of vocal harmony mu...

Lynn, Loretta

(Encyclopedia)Lynn, Loretta, 1932–2022, American country singer and songwriter, b. Butcher Hollow, Ky. One of the most successful singers in modern country music, s...

laryngitis

(Encyclopedia)laryngitis, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the voice box, or larynx, usually accompanied by hoarseness, sore throat, and coughing. Acute laryngitis is often a secondary bacterial infection tri...

Baez, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Baez, Joan bīpstr;ĕz, bäˈ– [key], 1941–, American folk singer and political activist, b. New York City. Baez began singing traditional folk ballads, blues, and spirituals in Cambridge, Mass., ...

Marlboro Music Festival

(Encyclopedia)Marlboro Music Festival, chamber music festival held on the campus of Marlboro College, Marlboro, Vt., annually in July and August. Founded in 1951 by Adolf Busch, Rudolf Serkin, and several others an...

contralto

(Encyclopedia)contralto kəntrălˈtō [key], female voice of lowest pitch. Originally, the term denoted a second voice set against (contra) a high voice (alto); thus, a second high voice. Since most second parts w...

Thomson, Virgil

(Encyclopedia)Thomson, Virgil, 1896–1989, American composer, critic, and organist, b. Kansas City, Mo. Thomson studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Until about 1926 he wrote in a dissonant, neoclassic style, bu...

Browse by Subject