Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) quasar kwāˈsär [key], one of a class of blue celestial objects having the appearance of stars when viewed through a telescope and currently believed to be the most distant and most luminous objects...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 spectral class, in astronomy, a classification of the stars by their spectrum and luminosity. In 1885, E. C. Pickering began the first extensive attempt to classify the stars spectroscopically....

(Encyclopedia) march, in music, composition intended to accompany marching. The only constant characteristics of a march are duple meter and a fairly simple rhythmic design. In mood, marches range from the moving de...

(Encyclopedia) abacus ăbˈəkəs [key], in architecture, flat slab forming the top member of a capital. In classical orders it varies from a square form having unmolded sides in the Greek Doric, to thinner proporti...

(Encyclopedia) impressionism, in music, a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th cent. It was begun by Debussy in reaction to the dramatic and dynamic emotionalism of romantic music, especially that of Wagn...

(Encyclopedia) orders in council, in British government, orders given by the sovereign on the advice of all or some of the members of the privy council, without the prior consent of Parliament. Orders in council, fi...

(Encyclopedia) suspension, in chemistry, mixture of two substances, one of which is finely divided and dispersed in the other. Common suspensions include sand in water, fine soot or dust in air, and droplets of oil ...

(Encyclopedia) retrograde motion, in astronomy, real or apparent movement of a planet, dwarf planet, moon, asteroid, or comet from east to west relative to the fixed stars. The most common direction of motion in the...

(Encyclopedia) canzone or canzona, in music, a type of instrumental music in Italy in the 16th and 17th cent. The term had previously been given to strophic songs for five or six voices; usually the canzone had thre...

(Encyclopedia) calypso, a form of folk song developed on the island of Trinidad and also popular in other Caribbean countries. Thought to have begun with 19th-century black slaves, calypso songs developed and contin...