Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Liliencron, Detlev, Freiherr von dĕtˈlĕf frīˈhĕr fən lēˈlyənkrôn [key], 1844–1909, German lyric poet, b. Schleswig-Holstein. First a Prussian army officer and later a minor government off...

(Encyclopedia) Suk, Josef yôˈzĕf so͝ok [key], 1874–1935, Czech composer and violinist, grad. Prague Conservatory, 1891; pupil and son-in-law of Dvořák. While still at the Prague Conservatory, he and three of...

(Encyclopedia) Sagan, Françoise kwärĕzˈ [key], 1935–2004, French novelist, b. Françoise Quoirez. She became famous with her precocious first book, Bonjour tristesse (1954, tr. 1955), a bittersweetly amoral po...

(Encyclopedia) Oistrakh, David Feodorovich oiˈsträk [key], 1908–74, Ukrainian violinist, b. Odessa. Encouraged by his father, an amateur violinist, he began to study his instrument at the age of five. He graduat...

(Encyclopedia) overture, instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and w...

(Encyclopedia) intermezzo ĭntərmĕtˈsō, –mĕdˈzō [key]. 1 Any theatrical entertainment of a light nature performed between the divisions of a longer, more serious work. 2 In the 17th and 18th cent., a short ...

(Encyclopedia) Jansons, Mariss, 1943–2019, Latvian-Russian conductor. He studied under von Karajan at Salzburg, and later conducted (1979–2000) the Oslo Philharmonic, raising it to international stature, and was...

(Encyclopedia) Klinger, Max klĭngˈər [key], 1857–1920, German painter, sculptor, and etcher. Before 1886 he produced cycles of original and somewhat morbidly imaginative etchings, such as Deliverances of Sacri...

(Encyclopedia) program music Instrumental music of the 19th and 20th cent. that endeavors to arouse mental pictures or ideas in the thoughts of the listener—to tell a story, depict a scene, or impel a mood. Mousso...

(Encyclopedia) Richter, Sviatoslav rĭkhˈtər [key], 1915–97, Russian pianist, b. Ukraine. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Heinrich Neuhaus. After earning an impressive critical reputation, he was aw...