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Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich

(Encyclopedia)Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich dēˈtrĭkh fĭshˈər-dēsˈkou [key], 1925–2012, German baritone. Possessed of a sensitive voice capable of a wide variety of range and expression, Fischer-Dieskau was th...

Stamford, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Stamford, city (1990 pop. 108,056), Fairfield co., SW Conn., on Long Island Sound; settled 1641, inc. 1893 as a city within the town of Stamford (the two were consolidated in 1949). A variety of light...

Sábato, Ernesto

(Encyclopedia)Sábato, Ernesto ārnāsˈtō säˈbätō [key], 1911–2011, Argentinean novelist and literary critic, b. Rojas. He received his doctorate in physics (1937) and taught until removed for anti-Peronist...

Malibran, Maria Felicità

(Encyclopedia)Malibran, Maria Felicità märēˈä fālēsētäˈ mälēbräNˈ [key], 1808–36, French-Spanish contralto. Malibran was the daughter of the tenor Manuel García and the sister of the mezzo Pauline ...

Peck, Gregory

(Encyclopedia)Peck, Gregory, 1916–2003, American movie actor, b. La Jolla, Calif., as Eldred Gregory Peck. Peck studied at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse and debuted on Broadway in The Morning Star (1942) and ...

Hirschman, Albert Otto

(Encyclopedia)Hirschman, Albert Otto, 1915–2012, U.S. economist and social scientist, b. Berlin, Germany, as Otto Albert Hirschmann, Ph.D. Univ. of Trieste, 1938. Of Jewish descent, he fled Germany when Hitler ca...

Dirksen, Everett McKinley

(Encyclopedia)Dirksen, Everett McKinley dûrkˈsən [key], 1896–1969, American politician, b. Pekin, Ill. A veteran of World War I, he held minor offices in Pekin before serving in the U.S. House of Representativ...

eunuch

(Encyclopedia)eunuch yo͞oˈnĭk [key] [Gr.,=keeper of the couch], castrated human male, particularly a chamberlain of a harem in Asia. The custom of employing eunuchs as servants in wealthy or royal households is ...

Fields, W. C.

(Encyclopedia)Fields, W. C. (William Claude Fields), 1880–1946, American comic actor, b. Philadelphia as Claude William Dukenfield. He began his career as a juggler, and much later appeared in the Ziegfeld Follie...

figure

(Encyclopedia)figure, in music, short melodic or rhythmic pattern, the smallest grouping of notes that will produce a single distinct impression. In this sense figure is synonymous with motive. In music before the ...