FINE ARTS

"John Henry"

'An American folksong about the "steel-driving man" John Henry. It contains these lines: John Henry said to his captain, "A man ain't nothin but a man, And before I'd let your steam drill beat me down, I'd die with the hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord! I'd die with the hammer in my hand."

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

A 16th century Flemish painter known for his paintings of village scenes and religious subjects. *Brueghel's sons Pieter the Younger and Jan were also painters.

Raphael

A 16th century Italian painter. A contemporary of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, he is known for his beautiful and gracious Madonnas and "The School of Athens"

Rembrandt

A 17th century Dutch painter, considered one of the greatest painters in history. Rembrandt's work, with its strong lights and deep shadows, has a unique intensity. "The Night Watch" is one of his best-known paintings.

Jan Vermeer

A 17th century Dutch painter. He is known for painting domestic scenes of great clarity and repose, with subtle uses of light and shade.

Diego de Velasquez

A 17th century Spanish painter, who is best known for his portraits of members of the court of the Spanish king.

John James Audubon

A 19th century American artist and naturalist. The color illustrations that make up "The Birds of America" are his best works.

Phineas T. Barnum

A 19th century American showman known for his circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth." His sideshows were particularly notable, even though many of the "freaks" he advertised were hoaxes. After Barnum's death, his circus was absorbed into the Ringing Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. *According to a famous story, when someone pointed out that his customers had reason to be angry because freaks in his shows were fakes, Barnum replied, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Johannes Brahms

A 19th century German romantic composer; his works include symphonies, concertos, chamber music, songs, and "A German Requiem", a piece for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. *Brahm's "Lullaby" is a beloved short work. The words often sung to it begin, "Lullaby, and good night."

Josephine Baker

A 20th century African American actress, dancer, singer, and civil rights activist. She gained her international reputation first in Europe. After World War II she was decorated by the French government for her work in the Resistance, and at her death she was given a state funeral as a war hero.

Count Basie

A 20th century African American jazz pianist and bandleader. His real first name was William. Count Basie was known particularly for the "Big Band" sound that was popular in the 1930s and 1940s

Humphrey Bogart

A 20th century American actor, best known for his film portrayals of hard boiled characters. Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" and Rick Blaine in "Casablanca" are two of his most famous roles.

Marlon Brando

A 20th century American actor. He first gained fame on Broadway in 1947 in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." Brando transferred his brooding portrayal of Stanley Kowalski to film in 1951 and thereafter concentrated on making motion pictures, including "On the Waterfront", "The Godfather", and the controversial "Last Tango in Paris."

Mae West

A 20th century American actress. Mae West was a blonde, busty sex symbol, whose seductiveness was usually very funny because she overstated it so greatly. The popular version of her most celebrated line is "Why don'cha come up and see me sometime?" She appeared memorably opposite W.C. Fields in "My Little Chickadee."

Jack Benny

A 20th century American comedian best known for his weekly radio and television programs. Benny was admired for his sense of timing and for his deliberately slow delivery. His shows contained many "running gags" - jokes continuing from one show to another - often concerning his age, his stinginess, and his inability to play the violin.

Woody Allen

A 20th century American comic author. Since the late 1960s, he has been directing films and acting in them, usually playing a neurotic, bookish New Yorker. Some of his best known films are "Annie Hall", "Manhattan", and "Hannah and Her Sisters."

Fred Astaire

A 20th century American entertainer who danced in many film musicals with partners such as Ginger Rogers. He was admired for his speed and grace and for his apparently effortless approach to dancing.

W.C. Fields

A 20th century American film comedian noted for his comic timing and drawling speech. He frequently played a cynical swindler. His films include "The Bank Dick," "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," and "My Little Chickadee," in which he played opposite Mae West.

Steven Spielburg

A 20th century American filmmaker. His popular, widely seen works range from fantasy (E.T.) and adventure (Raiders of the Lost Ark) to serious drama and historical epics (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan).

Georgia O'Keefe

A 20th century American painter. Her paintings were highly symbolic; flowers and desert scenes were among her favorite subjects.

Edward Albee

A 20th century American playwright whose early plays reflected the influence of the theater of the absurd. His psychological dramas include "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "Tiny Alice", and "A Delicate Balance"

Richard Rogers

A 20th century American popular composer. He is known for writing the music to a long succession of musical comedies, including "Oklahoma!," "South Pacific," " The King and I," and "The Sound of Music". In all these musicals, the spoken dialogue and lyrics were written by Oscar Hammerstein II

Charlie Chaplin

A 20th century English born filmmaker and actor who did most of his work in the United States. In his silent film comedies, he created the beloved character the Little Tramp, who wore a shabby black suit, derby hat, and floppy shoes and walked with a cane. "The Gold Rush", "City Lights", and "Modern Times" are some of Chaplin's best known films.

Diego Rivera

A 20th century Mexican painter known for his murals. His work glorifies farms, peasants, and revolutionary fervor.

Aaron Copland

A 20th century composer noted for the American settings of many of his pieces. Some of his best-known works are the ballets "Appalachian Spring," "Billy the Kid," and "Rodeo"; he has also written chamber music, symphonies, and music for films

Bob Hope

A British-born twentieth-century American comedian. He is known for his work in films, especially a series of seven "Road" pictures, including The Road to Zanzibar and The Road to Morocco. His co-stars in all these films were Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. He is also famous as a tireless entertainer of American service personnel overseas.

Elizabeth Taylor

A British-born twentieth-century actress who ecame a child star with her appearance in National Velvet. She has starred in numerous films, including "A Place in the Sun", the epic "Cleopatra", and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", an adaptation of Edward Albee's drama.

"O Come, All Ye Faithful"

A Christmas carol; its original Latin version is "Adeste Fiedles." It begins O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.

Hieronymus Bosch

A Dutch painter of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His allegorical religious works include his masterpiece, "The Garden of Earthly Delights," in which grotesque, fantastical creatures mingle with human figures. *Bosch's work is often considered a forerunner of surrealism

Willem de Kooning

A Dutch-born twentieth-century American artist who was a leader of Abstract Expressionism. His monumental, highly colored, often violent works include Woman, a series of paintings done in the early 1950s.

Piet Mondrian

A Dutch-born twentieth-century artist known for his geometric paintings characterized by perpendicular lines and planes of pure primary colors. Influenced by cubism, he created a style called "neoplasticism," which he used in works such as "Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue and Broadway Boogie Woogie".

Sarah Bernhardt

A French actress of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A brilliant performer, she was considered the queen of French tragedy.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

A French artist of the late nineteenth and eartly twentieth centuries, known especially for his paintings, drawings, and posters that depict the night life of Montmartre, the district in Paris where he lived.

Claude Debussy

A French composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, known for his free rhythms and indefinite keys. His music is often compared to the paintings of the impressionists. The piano piece "Claire de lune" ("Moonlight") and the orchestra piece La Mer (The Sea) are two of his best-known works.

Georges Bizet (bee-ZAY)

A French composer of the nineteenth century, best known for his opera Carmen.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A French impressionist painter and sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the most popular of the impressinoists, he is known for his extravagant use of light and color, especially red, and for frequent use of the impressionist technique of small brushstrokes. His most famous paintings include Dance at Bouvgival and the series The Bathers.

Claude Monet

A French impressionist painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his feathery brushstrokes and for the play of light in his paintings. His painting "Impression, Sunrise" gave the name to the impressionist movement.

Henri Matisse (ma-TEES)

A French painter and sculptor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is known for his brilliant colors and bolt brush strokes and had a major influence on modern art.

Richard Strauss

A German composer and conductor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is best known for the opera Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) and for Thus Spake Zarathustra, a piece for orchestra inspired by the book of the same name by Friedrich Nietzsche. *Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner are outstanding examples of composers of the late romantic period in music.

Ludwig van Beethoven

A German composer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries whose works spanned the classic and romantic musical traditions. Considered one of the greatest composers of all time, he is particularly well-known for his "Moonlight Sonata" and other sonatas for piano; for his string quartets; for his concertos; and for his nine symphonies. The Third Symphony ("Eroica"), Fifth Symphony, and Ninth Symphony ("Choral") are the most famous. *Beethoven began to grow deaf midway through his career but continued to compose great works.

Albrecht Durer

A German painter and engraver of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Durer's career came at the beginning of the Reformation, which he supported, and many of his subjects are religious. His woodcuts - prints made from a carved wooden block - are particularly notable.

Bauhaus

A German school of applied arts of the early twentieth-century. It's aim was to bring people working in architecture, modern technology, and the decorative arts together to learn from one another. The school developed a style that was spare, functional, and geometric. Designs for buildings, chairs, teapots, and many other objects are highly prized today, but when the school was active it was generally unpopular. It was closed by the Nazis, but its members, including Walter Gropius, spread its teachings throughout the world.

Walter Gropius

A German-born twentieth-century architect who was a founder of the Bauhaus school. After 1937 he lived in the United States and taught at Harvard University, where he continued to advocate Bauhaus principles, particularly the use of functional materials and clean, geometric designs. His work greatly influenced modern architecture.

El Greco

A Greek painter of the late 16th and early 17th centuries who spent most of his career in Spain. He is famous for his paintings of religious subjects and for his distorted, elongated figures.

Vaslav Nijinsky

A Russian ballet dancer, widely considered to have been one of the best male dancers of the twentieth century.

Igor Stravinsky

A Russian composer, widely considered one of the greatest of the twentieth century. Among his celebrated works are the ballets "The Rite of Spring," "The Firebird," and "Petrushka".

Wassily Kandinksky

A Russian-born painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who was a pioneer of abstract expressionism. His early canvases are turbulent abstractions; after 1920 his work incorporated brightly colored geometric forms. *Kandinsky taught at the Bauhaus from 1922 to 1933.

Mark Rothko

A Russian-born twentieth century American artist. His early figurative works gave way to highly abstract paintings characterized by floating horizontal bands of subtle color with soft, blurred edges. Rothko was an important influence on abstract expressionism.

Marc Chagall

A Russian-born twentieth-century artist whose vivid, playful works incorporate dreamlike images. He is also known for his stained-glass panels in Jerusalem and his murals at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

"Coming Through the Rye"

A Scottish song with words by Robert Burns. It begins, "If a body meet a body, coming through the rye . . . "

Francisco Goya

A Spanish painter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Among his works is a series of paintings and etchings that powerfully depict the horrors of war.

Paul Klee (KLAY)

A Swiss artist who painted mainly in the 20th century. He is known for his whimsical, small-scale works that display a mastery of line, form and subtle colors. *Klee taught at the Bauhaus from 1920 to 1931.

The Nutcracker

A ballet by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, dramatizing a children's story of Christmas. It is frequently presented during Christmas.

Swan Lake

A ballet by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in which a prince fights for the love of the Swan Queen. It is one of the most famous ballets.

Jolly Roger

A black flag with a white skull and crossbones, flown in past centuries by pirate ships.

"Saint Louis Blues"

A blues song by the 20th century African American composer of W.C. Handy

trumpet

A brass instrument with a brilliant tone, much used in classical music, as well as in military music and jazz.

trombone

A brass instrument; the player can change its pitch by sliding one part of the tube in and out of the other. The tone of one is mellower than the trumpet.

allegro

A brisk, lively musical tempo. "Allegro" is Italian for "cheerful".

"The Thinker"

A bronze statue by Auguste Rodin. The seated subject is supporting his chin on his wrist and his arm on his knee.

Saint Paul's Cathedral

A cathedral in London, designed by Christopher Wren and recognizable by its huge dome. Saint Paul's Cathedral is one of the city's major landmarks.

Arturo Toscanini

A celebrated Italian conductor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He spent much of his career in the United States. In his later years, he conducted the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) Symphony Orchestra, which was organized for him.

Isaac Stern

A celebrated twentieth-century American violinist. He is known for his work to save Carnegie Hall from destruction, as well as for his musical performances.

Pablo Casals

A celebrated twentieth-century Spanish cellist. After Francisco Franco came to power in Spain, he went into exile in France and later moved to Puerto Rico. He gave a famous performance at the White House in 1961.

Sistine Chapel

A chapel adjoining Saint Peter's Basilica, noted for the frescoes of biblical subjects painted by Michelangelo on its walls and ceilings. The Creation is one of the notable subjects of the ceiling paintings, and the judgment day is depicted on the rear wall of the chapel. *Michelangelo had to work on his back to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The project took four years to complete.

cathedral

A church building in which a Christian Bishop has his official seat; "cathedra" is Latin for "chair". Cathedrals are usually large and imposing, and many have been important in the development of architecture. The building of a cathedral, especially in the Middle Ages, was a project in which the entire town took part.

H.M.S. Pinafore

A comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan about the marriage of the beautiful daughter of the captain of the ship in the title. It contains many notable songs, including, "I'm Called Little Buttercup" and "When I Was a Lad."

"The Mikado"

A comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, about the efforts of a Japanese prince to win the hand of the national executioner's daughter. Memorable songs from "The Mikado" include "Three Little Maids From School" and "Tit Willow."

Carnegie Hall

A concert hall, world famous for its acoustics, in New York City *Carnegie Hall was the home of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for many years. When the orchestra announced in 1959 that it was moving a new building, plans were made to tear Carnegie Hall down. Because of the efforts of the violinist Isaac Stern and other artists, however, it has been preserved as a concert hall.

"Rhapsody in Blue"

A concerto for piano and orchestra from the early 1920s by George Gershwin; one of the first pieces of "serious" music to contain elements of jazz.

classic

A descriptive term for a period in Western music, encompassing roughly the last half of the 18th century, that includes the works of Franz Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the early works of Ludwig van Beethoven, among other composers.

bohemian

A descriptive term for a stereotypical way of life for artists and intellectuals. According to the stereotype, bohemians live in material poverty because they prefer their art or their learning to lesser goods; they are also unconventional in habits and dress, and sometimes in morals.

off-Braodway

A descriptive term for parts of the theatrical community of New York City, that presents small-scale, often experimental dramas. The costs of off-Broadway productions are generally much lower than those of Broadway plays.

staccato

A direction in music meaning that the notes should be performed in an abrupt, sharp, clear-cut manner. *The term "staccato" has been applied generally to things that occur in rapid bursts, such as gunfire.

The Birth of a Nation

A dramatic silent film from 1915 about the South during and after the Civil War. It was directed by D. W. Griffith. The film, the first so-called spectacular, is considered highly controversial for its portrayal of African-Americans.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

A dramatically leaning tower in Italy, built as a bell tower for the cathedral of the city; the tower dates from the twelfth century. Soon after its construction, the foundation sank, causing it to lean. *Closed to the public in 1990, the tower was reopened in the early twenti-first century after engineers reduced the rate of inclination by about sixteen inches.

kettledrum

A drum consisting of a skin stretched over a large shell in the shape of a half-sphere. The pitch of the kettledrum can be changed by manipulating screws at the edge of the skin or pedals at the bottom of the drum. Kettledrums are usually used in the classical music in sets of two or more and are known by their Italian name, Timpani

Barrymore family

A family of American actors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The most famous of them were John and Lionel and their sister, Ethel, all of whom appeared frequently on the stage and in films. The dashing-looking John was known as the "Great Profile." His granddaughter Drew continued the acting tradition into the twenty-first century.

Marx brothers

A family of American film comedians who flourished in the 1930s; Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera are two of their films. The brothers included the wisecracking, cigar-smoking Groucho; the harp-playing, woman-chasing Harpo, who never spoke but beeped a bicycle horn instead; and the piano-playing, Italian-accented Chico. A fourth brother, Zeppo, appeared in a few films, but a fifth brother, Gummo, did not appear in any. *Groucho Marx later had a successful career on television and as a nightclub entertainer.

percussion

A family of musical instruments played by striking their surfaces. Percussion instruments are used to accentuate and dramatize certain notes or rhythms and include instruments such as cymbals , drums, triangles, and xylophones.

Uffizi Gallery

A famous art museum in Florence, Italy

Museo del Prado

A famous art museum in Madrid, Spain. It is particularly noted for its works by Goya, El Greco, and Velazquez.

Charleston

A fast-paced dance with elaborate arm movements, that became a craze in the United States during the 1920s.

Justice

A figure in painting and sculpture that symbolizes the impartiality of true justice. The figure of Justice usually appears as a blindfolded woman with a scale in one hand and a sword in the other.

M*A*S*H

A film and later a television series about the staff of a battlefield hospital during the Korean War; it is an acronym for "mobile army surgical hospital." The film and the television program offered humor and serious observations about politics, love, friendship, and war.

jazz

A form of American music that grew out of African-Americans' musical traditions at the beginning of the twentieth century. Jazz is generally considered a major contribution of the United States to the world of music. It quickly became a form of dance music, incorporating a "big beat" and solos by individual musicians. For many years, all jazz was improvised and taught orally, and even today jazz solos are often improvised. Over the years, the small groups of the original jazz players evolved into the "Big Bands" (led, for example, by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller), and finally into concert ensembles. Other famous jazz musicians include Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, and Ella Fitzgerald.

rap

A form of pop music characterized by spoken or chanted rhymed lyrics, with a syncopated, repetitive accompaniment. Rap music originated in the second half of the 20th century in black urban communities.

reggae

A form of pop music that originated in Jamaica, combining elements of calypso and rhythm and blues with a strongly accentuated offbeat. Bob Marley was the first internationally known reggae musician.

leitmotif

A frequently recurring bit of melody, usually in opera, associated with a person, thing, or emotion; "Leitmotiv" is German for "leading theme." The leitmotif may be heard in the instrumental or the vocal part. *Letimotifs are particularly associated with the operas of Richard Wagner. *Recurring themes or subjects in other forms of art or literature are sometimes also called leitmotifs

"The Last Supper"

A fresco painted by Leonardo da Vinci depicting Jesus and his disciples at the moment Jesus announces that one of them has betrayed him. *Restoration of the deteriorating fresco has caused great controversy. Some art critics claim that the colors are now "too bright" and that Leonardo's original work has been mutilated. The restoration has been open to the public on a limited basis since 1999.

Statue of Liberty

A giant statue on an island in the harbor of New York City; it depicts a woman representing liberty, raising a torch in her right hand and holding a tablet in her left. At its base is inscribed a poem by Emma Lazarus that contains the lines "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free". Frederic Bartholid, a Frenchman, was the sculptor. France gave the statue to the United States in the nineteenth century; it was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in sections and reassembled. The statue was overhauled and strengthened in the 1980s. *For many immigrants who came of the United States by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Statue of Liberty made a permanent impression as the first landmark they saw as they approached their new home.

Colosseum

A great arena of ancient Rome, which seated fifty thousand. It is in ruins today, but its former glory can still be imagined. *Some of the contests stated in the Colosseum were between gladiators, who fought with swords; some were between people and animals. The arena could even be flooded for mock sea battles. *According to tradition, persecuted Christians were fed to lions in the Colosseum for the entertainment of the Romans

Cathedral of Chartres

A great cathedral in France. Built mostly in the 13th century, it is considered one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture. The stained-glass windows, in which blue grass predominates, are especially impressive.

Crystal Palace

A great exhibition hall built in London, England, in the middle of the nineteenth century. It was one of the first prefabricated buildings and one of the first buildings with large expanses of glass wall.

Sphinx

A great sculpture carved from the rock near the Egyptian pyramids in about 2500 B.C. It depicts a creature from Egyptian mythology with the head of a man and the body of a lion.

quintet

A group of five musicians; also a piece of music for five instruments or voices.

quartet

A group of four musicians or singers; also, a piece of music for four instruments or voices

pyramids

A group of huge monuments in the desert of Egypt, built as burial vaults for ancient Egyptian kings. The age of pyramid building in Egypt began about 2700 B.C.

orchestra

A group of musicians who play together on a variety of instruments, which usually come from all four instrument families - brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds. A typical symphony orchestra is made up of more than ninety musicians. Most orchestras, unlike chamber music groups, have more than one musician playing each musical part.

suite

A group of related pieces of music or movements played in sequence. In the Baroque era, a suite was a succession of different kinds of dances. In more recent times, suites have contained excerpts from longer works, such as ballets, or have simply portrayed a scene, as in Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite."

woodwinds

A group of wind instruments with a softer tone than that of brass instruments. Woodwind players do not set the air in their instruments in motion by blowing through their closed lips against a cup shaped mouthpiece, as players of brass instruments do. In woodwinds, the players insert the mouthpiece into their mouths and blow while pressing their lips against a single or double reed. Bassoons, clarinets, oboes, and saxophones are played in this way. In other woodwinds, the player blows across a hole or into a whistlelike mouthpiece.

"Te Deum"

A hymn of praise to God, with words taken largely from the Bible, that is used by many groups of Christians. It has been set to music by George Frederick Handel and by many other composers for performance in worship services of thanksgiving. The Latin words mean "Thee, God, we praise."

bas-relief

A kind of carving or sculpture in which the figures are raised a few inches from a flat background to give a three-dimensional effect. The term is French for "low relief"

bluegrass

A kind of folk music for guitar, banjo, violin, other stringed instruments, and voice; it is distinguished by rapid notes and improvisation by the musicians.

swing

A kind of jazz generally played by a "Big Band" and characterized by a lively rhythm suitable for dancing. The bands of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller played swing.

Dixieland

A kind of jazz originating in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the early twentieth century. The rhythms of it are usually rapid, and it generally includes many improvised sections for individual instruments.

blues

A kind of jazz that evolved from the music of African-Americans, especially work songs and spirituals, in the early 20th century. Blues pieces often express worry or depression.

folk music

A kind of music originating from the ordinary people of a region or nation and continued by oral tradition. The ballad is a typical form of folk music. Music is also called "folk" when it is made by artists and composers who are inspired by, or imitate true folk music. Composers such as Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie are folk musicians of the second kind.

spirituals

A kind of religious song originated by African-Americans. Spirituals are often written with freer rhythms and harmonies than most standard hymns. Many of them go back to the days of slavery, and they often speak of biblical models of deliverance, such as the Exodus. Several spirituals have become standard pieces of music for concert singers and choruses. "Gonna Lay Down My Burden," "Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "When the Saints Go Marching In" are spirituals.

sousaphone

A kind of tuba that wraps around the player's body so that it can be carried easily while marching. *The sousaphone is named after the bandmaster John Philip Sousa, who suggested building the instrument in this shape.

Stradivarius

A kind of violin made by the Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Those that still survive are considered the finest violins in existence.

basilica

A large Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church building. A basilica is built with several parallel aisles separated by rows of columns, ending in a semicircular structure, the apse. Saint Peter's Basilica is the church of the Vatican in Rome.

Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris

A large cathedral in Paris, France. Notre Dame is considered one of the masterpieces of Gothic architecture. It is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus; Notre Dame is French for "Our Lady."

"David"

A large marble statue made by Michelangelo of the biblical king of the same name. Michelangelo portrays him as a youth just about to do battle with the giant Goliath.

Palace of Versailles

A large royal residence built in the seventeenth century by King Louis XIV of France in Versailles, near Paris. The palace, with its lavish gardens and fountains, is a spectacular example of French classical architecture. The Hall of Mirrors is particularly well known. *The peace treaty that formally ended WW! was negotiated and signed at the Palace of Versailles.

cymbal

A large, round metal plate used as a percussion instrument. The symbols be crashed together in pairs or struck singly with a drumstick, and they are used in dance bands, jazz bands, and orchestras.

Francis Scott Key

A lawyer and poet of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" while watching the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, Maryland, in the War of 1812.

polka

A lively dance for couples, originating in eastern Europe. *Johann Strauss, the Younger wrote many of these.

Golden Gate Bridge

A long suspension bridge across a strait that connects San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean. For decades after it was opened in the 1930s, and for decades it had the longest span of any suspension bridge in the world.

Washington Mall

A long, rectangular stretch of parkland in the middle of Washington, D. C., that extends from the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial to the United States Capitol. The Washington Monument and the Vietnam Memorial are located on the Mall; the different museums of the Smithsonian Institution are found along either side.

classical music

A loose expression for European and American music of the more serious kind, as opposed to popular or folk music.

Taj Mahal

A marble mausoleum in India, built in the seventeenth century by a king for his wife. The Taj Mahal usually appears on lists of the most beautiful buildings in the world.

Lincoln Memorial

A massive monument built in Washington D.C., in honor of Abraham Lincoln. The memorial contains a statue of Lincoln seated and stone engravings of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg Address

French horn

A mellow-sounding brass instrument, pitched lower than a trumpet and higher than a tuba.

Vietnam Memorial

A monument in Washington, D.C., in honor of individuals in the American armed services who died in the Vietnam War. The memorial is a large black v-shaped marble wall set below ground level on a flat part of the Washington Mall. The names of the dead are inscribed in the wall.

surrealism

A movement in art and literature that flourished in the early twentieth century. Surrealism aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control. Salvador Dali was an influential surrealist painter; Jean Cocteau was a master of surrealist film.

romanticism

A movement in literature, music, and painting in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romanticism has often been called a rebellion against an overemphasis on reason in the arts. It stressed the essential goodness of human beings, celebrated nature, rather than civilization, and valued emotion and imagination over reason. Some major figures of romanticism in the fine arts are the composers Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms, and the painter Joseph Turner.

cubism

A movement in modern art that emphasized the geometrical depiction of natural forms. Pablo Picasso was one of the leading cubists.

postmodernism

A movement, particularly in architecture, that reacted against the pared-down modern school by reintroducing classical and traditional elements of style. An example of this style is Phillip Johnson's AT&T Building in New York City

Oklahoma!

A musical comedy by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It began a new era of sophistication in musical comedy and was the first of several very successful Rodgers and Hammerstein shows. "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," "Oklahoma," and "People Will Say We're In Love" are songs from Oklahoma!

sonata

A musical composition for one or two instruments, usually in three or four movements. The sonata of the classic era in music had a definite arrangement for its movements: the first and fourth had a fast tempo, the second had a slow tempo, and third was in either playful style (a "scherzo") or in dance form (a "minuet")

cantata

A musical composition for voice and instruments and including choruses, solos, and recitatives.

oratorio

A musical composition for voices and orchestra, telling a religious story.

forte

A musical direction meaning "to be performed loudly"; the opposite of piano. *The common keyboard instrument the piano forte ("piano" for short) got its name because it could play both soft and loud notes.

piano

A musical direction meaning "to be performed softly"; the opposite of forte. As the name of a musical instrument, it is short for pianoforte.

fortissimo

A musical direction meaning "to be performed very loudly"; the opposite of pianissimo.

pianissimo

A musical direction meaning "to be performed very softly"; the opposite of fortissimo

crescendo

A musical direction used to indicate increasing loudness. *The term is sometimes used figuratively to indicate rising intensity in general: "As the days went on, there was a crescendo of angry letters about my speech." "Crescendo" is also sometimes misused to indicate a "peak" of intensity, as in, "The angry letters about my speech hit a crescendo on Wednesday."

opera

A musical drama that is totally or mostly sung. "Aida," "Carmen," and "Don Giovanni" are some celebrated operas. A light, comic opera is often called an operetta.

brass band

A musical group composed of brass and percussion instruments. Sometimes clled marhing bands, brass bands often play at athletic events and military exercises and in parades.

string quartet

A musical group that includes two violins, a viola, and a cello. The term also refers to a composition written for these four instruments. Many composers, notably Franz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, have written string quartets.

viola

A musical instrument shaped like a violin but somewhat larger, lower pitched, and "darker" intone. A viola player hold a viola like a violin, under the chin.

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

A musical round: Row, row, row your boat Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; Life is but a dream.

Vincent van Gogh

A nineteenth century Dutch painter. Van Gogh, a troubled genius who cut off one of his ears in a fit of depression, eventually committed suicide. His work, though virtually unknown during his lifetime, i snow highly regarded. "Starry Night" and "Sunflowers" are two of his best-known paintings.

James Whistler

A nineteenth-century American artist who spent most of his career in England and France. He is best known for the painting of his mother, popularly called "Whistler's Mother."

Stephen Foster

A nineteenth-century American songwriter. He wrote the words and music to some of the country's perennially favorite songs, including " Oh! Susanna," "The Old Folks at Home," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," and "Beautiful Dreamer."

Franz Schubert

A nineteenth-century Austrian composer. Like Ludwig van Beethoven, he composed during the transition from classic to romantic period in music. He is known especially for his song cycles (leider), usually written for solo voice and piano accompaniment. His best known instrumental works are the "Unfinished" symphony and the "Trout" quintet.

Edgar Degas (day-GAH)

A nineteenth-century French painter and sculptor. Among his preferred subjects were ballet dancers and scenes of cafe life.

Paul Gauguin

A nineteenth-century French painter best known for his use of color and his paintings of Polynesian women. He abandoned his business career, family, and country to live and paint in Tahiti.

Edouard Manet (ma-NAY)

A nineteenth-century French painter, one of the originators of Impressionism. His Luncheon on the Grass, showing two clothes men and a naked woman picnicking, shocked the public of his day.

Paul Cezanne

A nineteenth-century French painter. He was an impressionist early in his career and was a leading figure in the movement toward abstract art.

Auguste Rodin

A nineteenth-century French sculptor. The Thinker is one of his best known works.

Felix Mendelssohn

A nineteenth-century German composer and performer. Besides symphonies, overtures, and concertos, he composed oratorios, notably Elijah, and the incidental music for a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Richard Wagner

A nineteenth-century German composer known for his operas, may of which dramatize myths and legends. The four-opera group "The Ring of the Nibelung" and the single opera "Tristan and Isolde" are among his best known compositions.

Robert Schumann

A nineteenth-century German romantic composer. His best-remembered compositions are his piano pieces, including "Traumerei" and "The Happy Farmer," and his songs.

Franz Liszt

A nineteenth-century Hungarian composer and pianist known for his often fierty style of composition and performance His Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano are particularly well remembered.

Frederic Chopin

A nineteenth-century Polish romantic composer who spent most of his career in France. He is known for his expressive piano pieces; he composed almost exclusively for that instrument.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

A nineteenth-century Russian composer. His most celebrated works include several symphonies, including the Symphonie Pathetique, and three ballets, "The Nutcracker", "Swan Lake", and "Sleeping Beauty".

Giuseppe Verdi

A nineteenth-century italian composer, a master of Italian grand opera. among his best-known operas are Aida, Otello, Rigoletto, and La Traviata.

National Gallery of Art

A noted art museum in Washington, D.C. The federal government pays for the operations of the buildings. The buildings themselves, and the works of art inside, were supplied by private donors.

Mona Lisa

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci of a woman with a mysterious smile. It is now of the most readily recognized paintings in the world.

The Birth of Venus

A painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the birth of the goddess Venus, also known as Aphrodite, from the foam of the sea. *The painting is often referred to humorously as "Venus on the half-shell."

American Gothic

A painting by the twentieth-century American artist Grant Wood. It shows a gaunt farmer and a woman standing in front of a farmhouse; the man holds a pitchfork, and both wear severe expressions. *"American Gothic" has been the subject of many parodies on magazine covers and in advertising.

The Spirit of '76

A painting from the 19th century by Archibald M. Willard, depicting three soldiers of the American Revolutionary War. Though one is wounded, they are marching on with spirit and determination.

"Washington Crossing the Delaware"

A painting from the nineteenth century by a German painter, Emanuel Leutze, showing George Washington and a group of soldiers in a small boat crossing the Delaware River. In this romanticized but inaccurate view, the soldiers are going to launch a surprise attack against the British troops during the American Revolutionary War.

fresco

A painting on wet plaster. When the plaster dries, the painting is bounded to the wall. Fresco was a popular method for painting large murals during the Renaissance. "The Last Supper," by Leonardo Da Vinci, is a fresco, as are the paintings by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.

Pieta (pyay-TAH; pee-ay-TAH)

A painting, drawing, or sculpture of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, holding the dead body of Jesus. The word means "pity" in Italian. *The most famous of four Pietas by Michelangelo is a sculpture at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican

mural

A painting, usually large, made directly on a wall. *The Mexican artist Diego Rivera was noted for his production of murals.

recitative

A part of a cantata, opera, or oratorio in which singers converse, describe action, or declaim. It moves the action forward between the high musical moments. Recitatives are distinguished from arias, which are more expressed and musically elaborate. Recitatives usually have only one syllable of text for each note of music, and the accompaniment by instruments is often very simple.

"God Bless America"

A patriotic song written by Irving Berlin. It begins, "God Bless America, land that I love . . ."

baroque

A period in the arts, visual and musical, from about 1600 to about 1750, marked by elaborate ornamentation and efforts to create dramatic efforts. Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi were great composers of the baroque era.

mosaic

A picture or design made from small pieces of colored tile, glass, or other material set in mortar. Mosaics have been widely used in Christian churches to decorate walls and ceilings.

skull and crossbones

A picture or outline of a human skull and two crossed arm or leg bones. Pirate ships are supposed to have used the skull and crossbones on their flags.

Peter and the Wolf

A piece for orchestra by a twentieth-century Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev. Through music, it tells the story of a disobedient boy's encounter with a wolf. *Because each character in the story is represented by a different musical instrument, "Peter and The Wolf" is often used to introduce children to the various instruments in an orchestra.

concerto

A piece of instrumental music written for one or more soloists and an orchestra.

overture

A piece of music for instruments alone, written as an introduction to a longer work, such as an opera, an oratorio, or a musical comedy.

aria

A piece of music for one voice (or occasionally two voices) in an opera, oratorio, or cantata. In contrast with recitative singing, arias are melodious; in contrast with ordinary songs, arias are usually elaborate. *Some composers, such as Richard Wagner, have felt that arias interrupt the action of the opera too much and hence have written operas without them.

musical

A play or film that contains musical numbers. Musicals can be comedic or serious in tone, such as Porgy and Bess.

musical comedy

A play or film that highlights song and dance. "Oklahoma!", "My Fair Lady," "A Chorus Line," and "The Producers" are well-known musical comedies.

"Casey Jones"

A popular American song from the early twentieth century, about an actual American railway engineer, John Luther ("Casey") Jones. When his train was about to crash, Casey told his assistant to jump but stayed at the controls himself and applied the brakes. Although his train crashed and Casey was killed, the passengers survived.

"Yankee Doodle"

A popular American song, dating from the eighteenth century. The early settlers of New York were Dutch, and the Dutch name for Johnny is Janke, pronounced "Yankee". This is the most likely origin of the term "yankee". "Doodle" means "simpleton" in 17th century English. It was sung in the Revolutionary War by the British troops to poke fun at the strange ways of the Americans (Yankees), the song was soon adopted by American troops themselves. Since then, the song has been considered an expression of American patriotism. The popular version of the first stanza is: Yankee Doodle came to town Riding on a pony; He stuck a feather in his hat And called it macaroni. Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy; Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy.

"Onward Christian Soldiers"

A popular Christian hymn with music by Arthur Sullivan. The refrain is: Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war, With the Cross of Jesus Going on before.

"Peanuts"

A popular comic strip by Charles M. Schulz. The world is populated by pint-sized versions of adults: perennial optimist and born loser Charlie Brown; bossy, loud-mouthed Lucy; gentle Linus with his security blanket; Schroeder, the brooding piano player; and many others. *Perhaps the most popular character is the beagle Snoopy, Charlie Brown's dog, who is often accompanied by his feathered friend, Woodstock.

"Amazing Grace"

A popular hymn

"Blue-Tail Fly"

A popular nineteenth-century American song; the speaker in the song is an African-American slave. Its refrain is: "Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care; / My master's gone away."

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

A popular song about baseball from the early 20th century.

"White Christmas"

A popular song for Christmas, composed by Irving Berlin and memorably sung by Bing Crosby. It begins, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas . . ."

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"

A popular song from the American Civil War. The first stanza: When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah! Hurrah! We'll give him a hearty welcome then, hurrah! Hurrah! The men will cheer, the boys will shout, The ladies, they will all turn out, And we'll all feel gay, when Johnny comes marching home.

"Home, Sweet, Home"

A popular song from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its words include, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

mezzo soprano

A range of the female singing voice lower than soprano and higher than alto.

baritone

A range of the male singing voice higher than bass and lower than tenor.

Tin Pan Alley

A reference to the popular music industry in the United States; the term is not used as much today as it was a generation or two ago. *Tin Pan Alley is often associated with songwriters who are more interested in making money off their songs than in producing high-quality music.

Liberty Bell

A relic and symbol of the American Revolutionary War. The Liberty Bell, first cast in England in the 1750s, is inscribed with words from the Bible: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The bell hung in Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and was rung at the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence. It cracked while being tolled for the death in 1835 of Chief Justice John Marshall and was taken out of service. Its is now on display at Independence Hall.

calavera

A representation of a human skull. The term is most often applied to edible or decorative skulls made (usually by hand) from either sugar ("sugar skulls") or clay which are used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls' Day. Calavera can also refer to any artistic representations of skulls, such as the lithographs. The most widely known calaveras are created with cane sugar and are decorated with items such as colored foil, icing, beads, and feathers

Beatles

A rock 'n' roll singing group from Liverpool, England that was phenomenally popular in the middle and late 1960s. The intense devotion of the groups fans, especially the hysterical screaming that the group provoked in large crowds of large teenagers was called ______mania. The four members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Among their many popular songs, most of which were written by Lennon and McCartney, were "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Hey, Jude."

Casablanca

A romantic war adventure film from 1942, in which Humphrey Bogart plays a nightclub owner in Morocco and Ingrid Bergman plays his former lover. *Casablanca has a classic blend of love interest and international intrigue, and many lines from it are extremely familiar: "Here's looking at you, kid" (Bogart's toast to Bergman), and "Play it once, Sam - for old time's sake . . . Play 'As Time Goes By'" (Bergman's request to the pianist in Bogart's club), which is often misquoted as "Play it again, Sam."

abstract expressionism

A school of art that flourished primarily from the 1940s to the 1960s, noted for its large-scale, nonrepresentational works by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, and Mark Rothko.

gargoyle

A sculpture depicting grotesque human shapes or evil spirits used in many buildings of the Middle Ages, most notably on Gothic cathedrals. Some gargoyles drained rainwater, sending it clear of the walls of the building.

mobile

A sculpture made up of suspended shapes that move. *Alexander Calder, a twentieth century American sculptor, is known for his mobiles.

strings

A section of the orchestra containing the stringed musical instruments - those played by making stretched strings vibrate. In most stringed instruments, the musician draws a bow over the strings; violins, violas, cellos, and bass viols are played in this way. Other stringed instruments are played by plucking the strings; these include the banjo, guitar, harp, harpsichord, and ukulele.

tango

A sensual ballroom dance that originated in South America in the early twentieth century.

"Ring of the Nibelung" (NEE-buh-loong)

A series of four operas by Richard Wagner, based on stories from Norse mythology; the central story is that of Siegfried and Brunnhilde. As it ends, the gods are about to be overcome. The four operas of it are The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and The Twilight of the Gods.

Star Wars

A series of popular science fiction motion pictures created by George Lucas. The first trilogy debuted in 1977 with A New Hope. The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi followed in the 1980s. Prequels, Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, and Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Sequels, Episode 7: The Force Awakens, Episode 8: The Last Jedi, and Episode 9: Rise of Skywalker. The films are noted for combining classic themes of good versus evil with cutting-edge special effects.

Water Music

A set of pieces for orchestra by George Frederick Handel. Parts of it appear to have been written for a festival that took place on boats on the Thames River in England.

Peter Paul Rubens

A seventeenth-century Flemish painter known for his paintings of religious subjects and for his voluptuous female nudes.

snare drum

A shallow cylindrical drum, with wires or pieces of catgut (snares) stretched across the bottom skin to give a sharp, rattling sound when the top skin is struck. Snare drums are used in orchestras and in nearly all kinds of bands.

ballad

A simple narrative song, or, alternatively, a narrative poem suitable for singing

Andrea Palladio

A sixteenth-century Italian architect. In works such as San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and the Villa Rotonda in Vicenza, he incorporated elements of classical Roman architecture and broke sharply with the ornate Renaissance style. His treatise Four Book of Architecture was especially influential to the designs of Christopher Wren in England.

Titian

A sixteenth-century Italian painter known for his portraits and for his innovative use of color.

Sears Tower

A skyscraper in Chicago that was the tallest building in the world until the construction of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

art for arts sake

A slogan meaning that the beauty of the fine arts is reason enough for pursuing them--that art does not have to serve purposes taken from politics, religion, economics, and so on. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oscar Wilde argued for the doctrine. *"Ars Gratia Artis", the motto of the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), is a Latin version of "art for art's sake"

fife

A small flute with a high, piercing tone, used mainly in military bands.

ukulele

A small guitar, developed in Hawaii, with four strings.

cupola

A small ornamental structure rising from a roof. Cupolas are often dome shaped.

Oscar

A small statue given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to winners of its annual awards.

piccolo

A small, high-pitched flute.

"Moonlight Sonata"

A sonata for piano by Ludwig van Beethoven. An early commentator remarked that the tranquil first movement reminded him of moonlight on the waves.

"Over There"

A song by George M. Cohan about the American troops sent to Europe to fight in World War I

"Yankee Doodle Dandy"

A song by George M. Cohan. The refrain begins, "I'm a Yankee Doodle dandy, / A Yankee Doodle, do or die . . ."

Camptown Races

A song by Stephen Foster that begins: Camptown ladies sing dis song, Doodah! doodah! Camptown racetrack five miles long, Oh! doodah day!

"Oh! Susanna"

A song by Stephen Foster. The refrain runs: Oh! Susanna, oh don't you cry for me; For I come from Alabama with my Banjo on my knee.

"This Land is Your Land"

A song by Woodie Guthrie

"Home on the Range"

A song celebrating life in the American West; the state song of Kansas. It begins, "Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,/ Where the deer and the antelope play . . ."

"Ol' Man River"

A song from the musical "Show Boat"; the river is the Mississippi River. The music to it is by Jerome Kern and the words by Oscar Hammerstein II; it was memorably sung by Paul Robeson.

"Silent Night"

A song of Christmas, originally composed in Austria in the nineteenth century. It begins, "Silent night, holy night, / All is calm, all is bright . . ."

"John Brown's Body"

A song of the Civil War that pays tribute to the abolitionist John Brown. It begins "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave." *The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was written to the tune of "John Brown's Body."

"The Drunken Sailor"

A song of the sea. Some lines from it are: What shall we do with the drunken sailor, What shall we do with the drunken sailor, Early in the morning? Hooray and up she rises, Early in the morning.

round

A song that can be begun at different times by different singers, but with harmonious singing as the result. "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" is a round.

impresario

A sponsor or producer of entertainment, especially someone who works with opera or ballet companies or performers of classical music.

baton

A stick used by some conductors of choruses and orchestras. It is traditionally used to indicate the tempo of the music.

Great Wall of China

A stone wall extending for fifteen hundred miles across northern China. Built to defend the Chinese border in ancient times, it has become a favorite destination for visitors to the country.

Beale Street

A street in an African-American section of Memphis, Tennessee, famous for its blues music. It is memorialized in the famous "Beale Street Blues."

guitar

A stringed instrument usually played by strumming and plucking. Guitars are widely used in folk music and, often amplified electronically, in country and western music and rock n' roll.

harpsichord

A stringed keyboard instrument much used in the Baroque era in music. The keys of a harpsichord move small devices that pluck the strings; the strings are not struck with hammers, as in a piano. Thus, although harpsichords often look much like pianos, their characteristic tinkly sound is unlike that of the piano, and a harpsichord cannot change the volume of the sound by striking the keys harder, as a pianist can.

banjo

A stringed musical instrument, played by plucking. The banjo has a percussive sound and is much used in folk music and bluegrass music.

Washington Monument

A structure on the Washington Mall, over five hundred feet tall, built in the nineteenth century in honor of George Washington. In shape it is an obelisk - a four-sided shaft with a pyramid at the top.

rococo

A style of Baroque art and architecture popular in Europe during the 18th century, characterized by flowing lines and elaborate decoration.

Romanesque

A style of architecture and art common in Europe between the ninth and twelfth centuries. It combined elements of the architecture typical of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The arches on Romanesque buildings are usually semicircular rather than pointed as in Gothic architecture.

primitivism

A style of art that attempts to imitate the art of primitive cultures or of children.

ragtime

A style of early jazz music written largely for the piano in the early twentieth century, characterized by jaunty rhythms and a whimsical mood. *Scott Joplin was a famous composer and performer of ragtime.

impressionism

A style of painting associated mainly with French artists of the late nineteenth century, such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Impressionist painting seeks to re-create the artist's or viewer's general impression of a scene. It is characterized by indistinct outlines and by small brushstrokes of different colors, which the eye blends at a distance. Soft, pastel colors appear frequently in impressionist paintings.

barbershop singing

A style of singing in parts for small groups, usually four singers of the same sex ("barbershop quartets"). The notes sung by the voices are usually close to each other in pitch, resulting in "tight" chords. or "close" harmony. *Barbershop singing flourished in the early twentieth century in the United States, and barbershop groups today often prefer the songs from that period, including "Sweet Adeline" and "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi."

Brooklyn Bridge

A suspension bridge built between Manhattan and Brooklyn in the late nineteenth century; Manhattan and Brooklyn are today two boroughs of New York City. At the time of its completion it was the world's longest suspension bridge. *The Brooklyn Bridge is mentioned in several common expressions about the sale of the bridge by one person to another (the bridge is actually public property). A person who "could sell someone the Brooklyn Bridge" is persuasive; a person who "tries to sell the Brooklyn Bridge" is extremely dishonest; a person who "would buy the Brooklyn Bridge" is gullible.

Star Trek

A television series of the 1960s, and later a series of successful films, in which a group of space explorers in their raft, the Enterprise, traveled through interstellar space. *The original programs spawned a number of television series during the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century.

Bolshoi Theater

A theater in Moscow known for its company of ballet dancers.

reed

A thin piece of wood or plastic used in many woodwind instruments. It vibrates when the player holds it in the mouth and blows over it or through it. Clarinets and saxophones use a single one; bassoons and oboes use a double one.

maestro

A title for distinguished artists, especially those in music. It may be given to teachers, composers, conductors, or performers. "Maestro" is Italian for "master".

mausoleum

A tomb, or a building containing tombs. Mausoleums are often richly decorated. The Taj Mahal is mausoleum.

pagoda

A tower with several different stories, each of which has its own roof. Pagodas are common in eastern Asia and originally served religious purposes as memorials or shrines.

"Auld Lang Syne"

A traditional Scottish song, customarily sung on New Year's Eve; the title means "Time Long Past." The words, passed down orally, were recorded by the eighteenth century poet Robert Burns. the song begins: Should auld [old] acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min'? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne!

"Deck the Halls"

A traditional song of the Christmas season. It begins, "Deck the halls with boughs of holly; / Fa la la la la la la la la . . ."

abstract art

A trend in painting and sculpture in the twentieth century. Abstract art seeks to break away from traditional representation of physical objects. It explores the relationships of forms and colors, whereas more traditional art represents the world in recognizable images.

Marian Anderson

A twentieth century African American contralto, known for her roles in opera and also for her performances of spirituals. *In 1941, a planned concert by Anderson at Constitution Hall was blocked by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), who owned the hall, because she was black. With the support of the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his wife, Eleanor, Anderson gave a free concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which was attended by more than 75,000 people. *Anderson was the first black person to sing with the Metropolitan Opera of New York City.

Franklin Lloyd Wright

A twentieth century American architect known for his highly original methods of uniting buildings with their surroundings.

Andy Warhol

A twentieth century American artist whose best-known work was a precise, enlarged image of a can of Campbell's tomato soup. He also painted Coke bottles, Brillo pads, and rows of images of Marilyn Monroe. *Warhol once stated, "In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes."

Arthur Rubinstein

A twentieth century Polish-born American pianist. Rubinstein was particularly famous for his interpretations of the music of Frederic Chopin.

Paul Robeson

A twentieth-century African-American actor and singer, best known for his roles in Porgy and Bessand in the movie version of Show Boat, in which he sang " Ol' Man River." *Robeson was politically controversial because he compared the treatment of black people in the United States unfavorably with their treatment in the Soviet Union. He lived outside the United States for many years.

Ella Fitzgerald

A twentieth-century African-American jazz and popular singer, known for the clarity of her voice and her ability to interpret the works of a great variety of songwriters, including Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers.

Duke Ellington

A twentieth-century African-American jazz composer, songwriter, and bandleader; his real first name was Edward. Ellington's most popular songs include "Mood Indigo," "Satin Doll," "Sophisticated Lady," and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Louis Armstrong

A twentieth-century African-American jazz trumpet player and singer. His nickname, "Satchmo," was short for "Satchel Mouth." Armstrong, whose career spanned five decades, was celebrated for his trumpet solos and the gravelly voice in which he sang songs such as "Hello, Dolly" and "It's a Wonderful World."

Orson Welles

A twentieth-century American actor and filmmaker. His masterpiece is Citizen Kane, the story of a newspaper tycoon (widely thought to be based on William Randolph Hearst), which he directed and played the title role. *For Halloween of 1938, Welles wrote a famous radio dramatization of "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, the story of an invasion of the Earth by warriors from Mars. Welles's play included several fictional radio news reports about the invasion. Many listeners who missed the beginning of the play thought that they were hearing about an actual Martian attack and panicked.

Ginger Rogers

A twentieth-century American actress and dancer. She danced with Fred Astaire in a famous series of film musicals.

Katherine Hepburn

A twentieth-century American actress. She has appeared in films over several decades and won the Academy Awards in 1933, 1967, 1968, and 1981. She often costarred with Spencer Tracy. "The Philadelphia Story" and "The African Queen" are two of her best-remembered pictures.

Norman Rockwell

A twentieth-century American artist and illustrator, known for his warm-hearted paintings of rural and small-town life in the united States. Many of his paintings appeared cover illustrations for the magazine The Saturday Evening Post.

Grandma Moses

A twentieth-century American artist who painted scenes of farm life; her style, which seems childlike, is a noted example of primitivism. She began to paint in her late seventies, when she was too old for farm work.

Edward Hopper

A twentieth-century American artist whose stark, precisely realistic paintings often convey a mood of solitude and isolation within common-place urban settings. Among his best-known forks are Early Sunday Morning and Nighthawks.

Rube Goldberg

A twentieth-century American cartoonist and sculptor. He was famous for his humorous diagrams of incredibly intricate machines designed to carry out simple tasks. *A contraption is named after him for a machine that has extraneous parts, which appears to have been designed by patchwork.

Bill Cosby

A twentieth-century American comedian, actor, and producer. He is best known for his stand-up routines, including "Fat Albert," which later became an animated cartoon, and for his ground-breaking television series I Spy and The Cosby Show. *In the early 2010s, he was accused of numerous counts of drugging and raping women from the 1970s through the 1990s. His reputation and legacy has diminished significantly ever since.

Glenn Miller

A twentieth-century American composer and bandleader. His band was noted for its smooth but sophisticated performances of dance numbers such as "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade."

Leonard Bernstein

A twentieth-century American composer and conductor. He served for many years as the director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra but is probably best known for his Broadway productions, such as West Side Story.

George Gershwin

A twentieth-century American composer known for putting elements of Jazz into forms of classical music, such as the concerto. His works include Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, and the music to the opera Porgy and Bess. Together with his brother, Ira, he wrote many musical comedies.

Martha Graham

A twentieth-century American dancer and choreographer. A celebrated practitioner of modern dance, she founded the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City.

Isadora Duncan

A twentieth-century American dancer who won fame mainly in Euroe. Her choreography, improvisational and unfettered, rebelled against traditional ballet and was highly influential in the formation of modern dance. *She was killed tragically when her long scarf became entangled in the wheel of her moving automobile.

James Stewart

A twentieth-century American film actor known for his gangly figure and halting, even stammering style of speech. He appeared in a great variety of movies, including Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Harvey, Anatomy of a Murderer, and several of the films of Alfred Hitchcock. He won an Academy Award for his part in "The Philadelphia Story" in 1940.

Walt Disney

A twentieth-century American film-maker and showman His studios are especially known for meticulous craftmanship in animated films. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty are some of his best-known productions. Two giant amusement parks, in California and Florida, are based on his characters and concepts.

Bob Dylan

A twentieth-century American folksinger and songwriter. His music, with its strong note of social protest, was especially popular during the 1960s, when he wrote songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and "Like a Rolling Stone."

Will Rogers

A twentieth-century American humorist known for his folksy ut sharp social and political commentary. One of his statements for which he is remembered is "All i know is just what I read in the papers."

Benny Goodman

A twentieth-century American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. He was known as the "King of Swing."

Jimi Hendrix

A twentieth-century American musician known for his highly amplified, innovative work on the electric guitar with his most famous group, 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience'. Despite his death at the age of twenty-seven, he greatly influenced the changing world of rock 'n' roll, and was known for lighting his Fender Stratocaster on fire, as well as his amazing rendition of 'The Star Spangled Banner' on electric guitar, which was performed at the famous Woodstock festival. *The Experience Music Project, a museum and performance center in Seattle, is dedicated to Hendrix, who was born and is buried in the city.

Andrew Wyeth

A twentieth-century American painter, best known for his work "Christina's World"

Jackson Pollock

A twentieth-century American painter, famous for creating abstract paintings by dripping or pouring paint on a canvas in complex swirls and spatters.

Ansel Adams

A twentieth-century American photographer particularly noted for his black-and-white depictions fo the American West, including Yosemite National Park. He stressed the importance of straightforward photography and high-quality printing techniques.

Oscar Hammerstein II

A twentieth-century American playwright and lyricist. Hammerstein wrote the words for a large number of highly successful musicals, especially with Richard Rodgers. He also collaborated with a number of other composers, including Jerome Kern, with whom he wrote the musical Show Boat.

Elvis Presley

A twentieth-century American rock 'n' roll singer, known for his distinctive throaty tone in songs such as "Hound Dog" and "All Shook Up." He was one of the first stars of rock 'n' roll. *When Presley first appeared on television in the 1950s, the gyrations he performed while singing were considered too suggestive for broadcast. The cameras recorded him only from the waist up. *Presley died in 1977 while still in his early forties.

Alexander Calder

A twentieth-century American sculptor known especially for his mobiles.

Bing Crosby

A twentieth-century American singer and actor. He appeared several times in films with Fred Astaire and Bob Hope and received an Academy award for his part in Going My ay in 1944. His most successful song recording was "White Christmas."

Woody Guthrie

A twentieth-century American songwriter and folksinger. He flourished in the 1930s, writing numerous songs about social injustice and the hardships of the Great Depression years. Two of his best-remembered songs are "This Land is Your Land" and "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh."

Cole Porter

A twentieth-century American songwriter. His songs, such as "Anything Goes," "I Get a Kick out of You" and "I've Got You Under my Skin," are renowned for their witty, sophisticated lyrics.

Irving Berlin

A twentieth-century American writer of popular songs (words and music). His songs include "God Bless America," "White Christmas," and "There's no Business like Show Business."

Tom Stoppard

A twentieth-century British playwright who was born in Czechoslovakia. He first achieved acclaim with his "Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead", which featured Hamlet's "attendant lords," hilariously alone and adrift on an unknown stage. His other works include "Jumpers" and "Travesties".

M.C. Escher

A twentieth-century Dutch artist known especially for his lithographs and woodcuts. His works usually depict visual riddles and geometric and architectural whimsies.

Henry Moore

A twentieth-century English scluptor. He is known for using great masses of stone and other materials to depict humanlike forms.

Le Corbusier (luh kawr-buu-ZYAY)

A twentieth-century French architect and city planner known for designing buildings with unusual curves and unconventional shapes.

Luciano Pavarotti

A twentieth-century Italian tenor who made his operatic debut in La Boheme in 1961. He has sung worldwide in various operas and concert performances, including those featuring "The Three Tenors"--Pavarotti, Jose Carreras, and Placido Domingo.

Salvador Dali

A twentieth-century Spanish surrealist painter. Many of his landscapes are decorated with melting clocks.

Pablo Picasso

A twentieth-century Spanish-born painter, the most famous and influential of all modern artists. He was one of the originators of cubism, though in the course of his long career, he painted, drew, and sculpted in many other styles as well. Among his best-known works is the painting Guernica, which protests the savagery of war.

Ingmar Bergman

A twentieth-century Swedish filmmaker noted for his slow-paced, highly symbolic, often obscure works, including Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring. His later films explored personal isolation and family relationships, as in Cries and Whispers and Scenes from a Marriage.

Greta Garbo

A twentieth-century Swedish-born American film actress. She was celebrated for her classic beauty and her portrayals of moody characters. In the movie Grand Hotel, she made the famous statement, "I want to be alone." She retired from the movies in the early 1940s and lived as a recluse until her death in 1990.

Marilyn Monroe

A twentieth-century actress who became the leading sex symbol of the 1950s. While still in her thirties, she died of an overdose of sleeping pills. Among her best-known films are The Seven-Year Itch, Bus Stop, and Some Like it Hot.

Alfred Hitchcock

A twentiethh-century English-born filmmaker who specialized in suspense. Some of his best-known films are The Birds, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, and Psycho

punk

A type of rock n' roll with loud, energetic music, and often harsh lyrics criticizing traditional society and culture. It was named after the punks, an anarchistic youth movement that surfaced in Great Britain in the 1970s.

adagio

A very slow musical tempo

saxophone

A wind instrument classified as a woodwind because it is played with a reed, although it is usually made of metal. Saxophones appear mainly in jazz, dance, and military bands. They are made in several ranges, from soprano to bass.

recorder

A wooden flute played like a whistle. It was popular in the 14th through 18th centuries. Interest in it has been revived over the past few decades.

oboe

A woodwind instrument played with a double reed; similar to a bassoon, but pitched higher. Some describe its tone as nasal. *It appears frequently as a solo instrument in symphonies and other kinds of classical music.

clarinet

A woodwind instrument, usually made of black wood or plastic, and played with a single reed. It has extensive use in dixieland, jazz, and military music, as well as in classical music. *The most famous American one was Benny Goodman.

Madonna

A work of art depicting Mary, the mother of Jesus, especially one that shows her holding the infant Jesus; also a term for Mary herself. "Madonna" is Italian for "my lady"

La Scala

A world-renowned opera house in Milan, Italy; one of the leading opera houses of the world. Its name means "The Stairs" in Italian.

Johann Sebastian Bach

An 18th century German composer, organist, and choirmaster, commonly considered the greatest composer of the Baroque era. His output was enormous and includes cantatas, concertos, oratorios, organ pieces, sonatas for solo instruments, and suites for both solo instruments and orchestra; all of its is marked by elaborate counterpoint. Some of Bach's best-known works are the six "Brandenburg Concertos"; the Toccata and Fugue in D-minor for organ; and an arrangement of a hymn, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," for chorus and orchestra.

Chuck Berry

An African-American rock 'n' roll musician and composer, who influenced many musicians of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Beatles and Bob Dyan.

John Philip Sousa

An American bandmaster and composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Called the "March King," he wrote marches such as "The Sars and Stripes Forever, "Semper Fidelis," and "The Washington Post."

Charles M. Schulz

An American cartoonist who drew the syndicated "Peanuts" comic strip form 1950 until shortly before his death in 2000. Unlike many other cartoonists, he did not allow others to do the initial drawings for the strip.

"Down in the Valley"

An American folksong. It begins, "Down in the valley, the valley so low, / Hang your head over; hear the wind blow. . . "

"I've Been Working on the Railroad"

An American folksong. It begins, :I've been working on the railroad / All the livelong day . . ."

"On Top of Old Smoky"

An American folksong. It begins: On top of old Smoky, All covered with snow, I lost my true lover. By a-courting too slow.

"Clementine"

An American folksong. Its refrain is: Oh my darling, oh my darling, Oh my darling Clementine! You are lost and gone forever, Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

Harry Houdini

An American magician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, famed for his ability to escape from straitjackets, chains, handcuffs, and locked chests.

My Fair Lady

An American musical comedy of 1956, with words by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. It is based on the play Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, about a professor in London who teaches a low-born flower girl how to speak and act like the nobility. The songs "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced all Night" come from the musical.

Winslow Homer

An American painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known especially for his rich watercolor paintings of sea scenes.

Mary Cassatt

An American painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She spent most of her artistic career in France, in close association with the impressionists, particularly Edgar Degas. She is best known for her pictures of mothers and children.

"America"

An American patriotic hymn from the 19th century, sung to the tune of the national anthem of Great Britain, "God Save the Queen." It begins, "My country, 'tis of thee."

"Battle Hymn of the Republic"

An American patriotic hymn from the Civil War by Julia Ward Howe, who wrote it after a visit to an encampment of the Union Army. The tune is that of John Brown's Body.

"America the Beautiful"

An American patriotic hymn from the nineteenth century. It begins, "O Beautiful for spacious skies."

Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone)

An American pop singer known for her many incarnations, ranging from an early "Material Girl" to a movie star ("Evita") to a mother and wife. Many consider Madonna a promotional genius for her ability to reinvent herself.

Bruce Springsteen

An American rock singer and guitarist who first gained fame with his albums in the 1970s. His populist music and style strongly reflect working-class values, particularly in albums such as "Born in the USA, released in the 1980s. *His nickname was "the Boss"

"Dixie"

An American song of the nineteenth century. It was used to build enthusiasm for South during the Civil War and still is treated this way in the southern states. It was written for use in the theater by a northerner, Daniel Decatur Emmett. As usually sung today, "Dixie" begins: I wish I was in the land of cotton; Old times there are not forgotten: Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

George M. Cohan

An American songwriter and entertainer of the early twentieth century, known for such rousing songs as "Over There," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag."

"Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho"

An American spiritual, based on the story of Joshua, the successor of Moses in the Old Testament, who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. It begins: Joshua fit [fought] the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho; Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, And the walls came tumbling down.

"When the Saints Go Marching In"

An American spiritual, one of the best known songs played by Dixieland bands. The first verse is: Oh, when the saints go marching in, Oh, when the saints go marching in, Oh, Lord, I want to be in that number, When the Saints go marching in.

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

An American spiritual. It begins, "Swing low, sweet chariot, / Coming for to carry me home . . ."

"Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"

An American spiritual. It includes the lines: Nobody knows the trouble I've seen; Nobody knows but Jesus.

Monty Python

An Anglo-American comedy troupe that became widely known in the late 1960s and 1970s for its irreverent, fast-paced television series. The show featured skits, such as the "Ministry of Silly Walks," and highly original graphics, The members of the group included Graham Chapin, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

Gustav Mahler (MAH-luhr)

An Austrian composer and conductor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He wrote long, intensely emotional works for large orchestras, including nine symphonies and part of a tenth.

Johann Strauss, the Younger

An Austrian composer of the nineteenth century. Strauss, sometimes called the "Waltz King," is the most famous composer of Viennese waltzes, such as "The Blue Danube" and "Tales of the Vienna Woods". He also composed the music for the popular light opera "Die Fledermaus" (The Bat)

Laurence Olivier

An English actor, widely considered one of the best actors of the twentieth-century. He is best known for his deep, subtle interpretations of the characters of William Shakespeare. Several of his Shakespeare performances have been filmed. He won an Academy Award in the 1940s for his portrayal of the title character in a film version of Hamlet.

Christopher Wren

An English architect of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He designed many buildings in London for the large rebuilding effort that followed the city's "Great Fire" of 1666. Saint Paul's Cathedral is his best-known work.

John Constable

An English landscape painter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, known for his pastoral scenes.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

An English romantic painter of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, known especially for his dramatic, lavishly colored landscapes and seascapes.

Leonardo da Vinci

An Italian artist, scientist, and inventor of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His wide range of interests and abilities makes him a grand example of a "Renaissance Man." Leonardo painted the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper". His drawings include brilliant studies of the human body and of natural objects. Some of his sketches anticipate modern inventions such as the airplane and the tank.

Giacomo Puccini

An Italian composer of operas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is best known for Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, and Tosca.

Antonio Vivaldi

An Italian composer of the early eighteenth century, known particuarly for his concertoes. His style affected those of several other baroque composers, notably Johann Sebastian Bach.

Giotto

An Italian painter and architect of the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Art in Italy before the time of Giotto was heavily influenced by the art of the Byzantine Empire and was highly stylized; it resembled the icons in Byzantine churches. Giotto was the first painter to abandon Byzantine ways and being to depict more lifelike expressions and figures.

Sandro Botticelli

An Italian painter of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. His best-known work is "The Birth of Venus"

Michelangelo

An Italian painter, sculptor, and architect of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Among many achievements in a life of nearly ninety years, Michelangelo sculpted the David and several versions of the Pietà, painted the ceiling and rear wall of the Sistine Chapel, and served as one of the architects of Saint Peter's Basilica, designing its famous dome. He is considered one of the greatest artists of all time.

Enrico Caruso

An Italian tenor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, generally considered one of the greatest tenors in the history of opera.

Venus de Milo

An ancient Greek statue of Venus, famous for its beauty, though its arms were broken off centuries ago. The statue is now in the Louvre.

functionalism

An approach to architecture that adapts the design of a building or other structure to its future use. Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe were notable advocates of functionalism in the 20th century.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

An art museum in New York City. One of the leading art museums in the world, it is known for its extensive collections, ranging from Egyptian temples to 20th centuries.

Louvre

An art museum in Paris, formerly a royal palace. The "Mona Lisa", "Venus de Milo", "Whistler Mother," and thousands of other works of art are exhibited there.

engraving

An artistic print made from a metal plate on which an artist has cut a design with a graver or a small chisel.

etching

An artistic print made from a plate on which the artist has etched a design with acid.

expressionism

An artistic style that departs from the conventions of realism and naturalism and seeks to convey inner experience by distorting rather than directly representing natural images. The highly personal visions communicated in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh are early examples of expressionism. Edvard Munch and Georges Rouault are considered expressionist painters.

"Sesame Street"

An educational television program for preschool children, particularly aimed at disadvantaged children, that began in the late 1960s. It teaches awareness of letters and numbers and combines live actors, animation, and puppets in a great number of small segments, many of them musical.

Gilbert Stuart

An eighteenth century American painter. He was especially known for his portraits, including those of George Washington.

Franz Josef Haydn

An eighteenth-century Austrian composer, one of the great composers of the classic era. He is credited with establishing the symphony as a musical form. Of his more than one hundred symphonies, Surprise Symphony and Clock Symphony are especially well known. He also composed many string quartets.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

An eighteenth-century Austrian composer; one of the great figures in the history of music. A child prodigy, he began composing music before he was five. He, Franz Josef Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven are the leading composers of the classic era. He wrote chamber music, symphonies, operas, and masses. Three of his best-known compositions are A Little Night Music and the operas Don Giovanni and the Marriage of Figaro.

George Frederick Handel

An eighteenth-century German-born composer, who spent most of his career in England. He was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era and is known for Messiah and other oratorios, for his concertos, and for his Water Music.

coda

An ending to a piece of music, standing outside the formal structure of the piece. "Coda" is the Italian word for "tail."

symphony

An extended musical composition for orchestra in several movements, typically four. Among the composers especially known for their symphonies are Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Josef Haydn, Gustav Mahler, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

flying buttress

An external, arched support for the wall of a church or other building. Flying buttresses were used in many Gothic cathedrals; they enabled builders to put up very tall but comparatively thin stone walls, so that much of the wall space could be filled with stained glass windows. The cathedrals of Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris were built with flying buttresses.

icon

An image used in worship in the Eastern Orthodox Church and among other Christians of similar traditions. Icons depict Jesus, Mary, and the Saints, usually in a severe, symbolic, nonrealistic way.

D.W. Griffith

An innovative American filmmaker of the early twentieth century. He is famous for his epic silent films, such as The Birth of a Nation, which required huge casts and enormous sets.

harp

An instrument in the string section of the orchestra. The orchestral harp is several feet tall and has pedals that allow the harpist to change the key of the instrument as necessary.

cello

An instrument in the violin family, known for its rich tone. Among the strings, it has the second-lowest range, higher only than the bass viol, and it has the lowest part in string quartets. Players hold the instrument between their knees to play it. "Cello" is short for "violoncello."

octave

An interval between musical notes in which the higher note is six whole tones, or twelve half tones, above the lower. From the standpoint of physics, the higher note has twice the frequency of the lower. Notes that are an octave apart, or a whole number of octaves apart, sound in some ways like the same note and have the same letter for their names.

whole tone

An interval between musical notes. Do and re are an entire one apart, as are re and mi, fa and sol, sol and la, and la and ti.

Eiffel Tower

An iron structure that dominates the skyline of Paris. When it was built in the nineteenth century, it was the tallest freestanding structure in the world. *The Eiffel Tower, because of its distinctive shape, has become a symbol of Paris

Empire State Building

An office building in New York City, over one thousand feet high. Opened in the 1930s, it was for many years the tallest skyscraper in the world. *The movie monster King Kong climbed this building

piazza

An open square, especially in a city or town in Italy.

Madame Butterfly

An opera by Giacomo Puccini. The title character, a Japanese woman, is betrothed to an American naval officer stationed in Japan. He leaves for the United States, promising to return, but comes back three years late married to an American woman. Butterfly, disgraced, stabs herself; the officer begs her forgiveness, and she dies in his arms.

The Barber of Seville

An opera by Gioacchino Rossini. The title character is Figaro, a master schemer. By his trickery, he helps his former master, a nobleman, win the hand of a beautiful woman.

Aida (eye-EE-duh)

An opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The title character is an Ethiopian princess who loves an Egyptian warrior, Remades. He accidentally reveals Egyptian military secrets to her and is condemned to death by live burial in a tomb. The princess flees but rejoins Ramades to die with him. *Aida is a particularly spectacular opera, with lavish sets, costumes, and extras - actors who have no singing parts

The Marriage of Figaro

An opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in which the servant outwits his noble master, who is trying to seduce his fiancée.

"Don Giovanni"

An opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, recounting the dissolute life of Don Juan ("Don Giovanni" is the Italian form of "Don Juan"). At the end, a statue of a man Don Giovanni has killed comes to life and drags the unscrupulous seducer into the burning pit of hell.

The Magic Flute

An opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A prince receives the title object from the Queen of the Night and sets out to rescue the queen's daughter from an Egyptian priest. He succeeds and the two are married. Both Mozart and the author of the lyrics were Freemasons; their opera sets forth the ideals of this group.

Porgy and Bess

An opera with music by George Gershwin. It depicts life in the African-American community of Charleston, South Carolina. One of the title characters is a handicapped beggar who protects the other title character, only to have her leave town with a rival. The songs "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" are from "Porgy and Bess"

"Messiah"

An oratorio by George Frederick Handel on the life of Jesus. Written for solo singers, chorus, and orchestra, it contains the "Hallelujah Chorus." In the United States, it is often sung during the Christmas season.

frieze

An ornamental band that runs around a building. Friezes are usually on the exterior of a building and are often sculpted in bas-relief.

hip-hop

Another name for rap music. *The term "hip-hop" also refers to the speech, fashions, and personal style adopted by many youths, particularly in urban areas.

double bass

Another name for the bass viol.

fiddle

Another name for the violin; "fiddle" is the more common term for the instrument as played in folk music and bluegrass.

fine arts

Art that is produced more for beauty or spiritual significance than for physical utility. Painting, sculpture, and music are examples.

pop art

Art that uses elements of popular culture, such as magazines, movies, popular music, and even bottles and cans

a cappella

Choral singing performed without instruments. The expression means "in chapel style" in Italian. Centuries ago, religious music composed for use in chapels - which, unlike large churches, had no organs - was usually for voices only.

Gothic

In European architecture, the dominant style during the late Middle Ages, characterized by slender towers, pointed arches, soaring ceilings, and flying buttresses. Many great cathedrals, including Chartres and Notre Dame de Paris, were built in this style.

arch

In architecture, a curved or pointed opening that spans a doorway, window, or other space. *The form of arch used in building often serves to distinguish styles of architecture from one another. For example, Romanesque architecture usually employs a round arch, and Gothic architecture, a pointed arch.

capital

In architecture, the top portion of a column *the form of the capital often serves to distinguish one style of architecture from another. For example, the Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic styles of Greek architecture all have different capitals.

caricature

In art or literature, portrayal of an individual or thing that exaggerates and distorts prominent characteristics so as to make them appear ridiculous. Caricature is commonly a medium for satire.

montage

In art, making one composition by combining parts or the whole of other pictures, objects, or designs. In film, a stylized form of editing that provides a great deal of information in a short time. For example, the passing of years may be rendered by mixing shots of different seasons with shots of calendar pages turning.

ballerina

In ballet, a female dancer.

perspective

In drawing or painting, a way of portraying three dimensions on a flat, two dimensional surface by suggesting depth or distance.

Requiem

In music, a mass for one or more dead persons, containing biblical passages and prayers for the admission of the dead to heaven. The term has been loosely applied to other musical compositions in honor of the dead. "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms, for example, uses texts from the Bible but is not a mass.

Mass

In music, a musical setting for the texts used in the Christian Church at the celebration of the Mass, or sacrament of communion. Most Masses have been written for use in the Roman Catholic Church. *Many composers have written Masses; among them are Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Leonard Bernstein, and Duke Ellington.

movement

In music, a self-contained division of a long work; each movement usually has its own tempo. A long, undivided composition is said to be in one movement.

scale

In music, the sequence of tones that a piece of music principally uses. A composition in the key of C-major uses the C-major scale, made up of the white keys on a piano

chord

In music, the sound of three or more notes played at the same time. The history of Western music is marked by an increase in complexity of the chords composers use.

tempo

In music, the speed at which a piece is performed. It is the Italian word for "time"

naturalism

In the visual arts, an attempt to depict the natural world as accurately and objectively as possible.

gospel music

Intense, joyful music that is associated with evangelists in the South, especially among African-Americans. Gospel had a strong influence on many rock n' roll singers. Well known gospel artists include Mahalia Jackson and the Dixie Hummingbirds.

timpani

Italian for kettledrums; the term "timpani" is often preferred by composers and performers.

Tiffany glass

Lamps and other glass objects created by Louis Tiffany, an American artisan of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These objects are greatly prized and have been much imitated.

vaudeville

Light theatrical entertainment, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, consisting of a succession of short acts. A vaudeville show usually included comedians, singers, dancers, jugglers, trained animals, magicians, and the like

operetta

Comic or lighthearted operas of the kind written by Gilbert and Sullivan. They generally have a substantial amount of spoken (not sung) dialogue.

flute

High pitched woodwind instrument, played by blowing across the mouthpiece.

chamber music

Music for two or more instruments in which only one musician plays each part. Chamber music is distinguished from music for orchestra, which, for example, more than a dozen violinists may be playing the same notes. The most familiar kind of chamber music is the string quartet.

wind instruments

Musical instruments in which sound is produced by the musician's blowing into them.

brass

Musical instruments traditionally made of brass and played by blowing directly into a small, cup-shaped mouthpiece. They include the French horn, trumpet, trombone, and tuba.

"Summertime"

One of the best-known songs of George Gershwin; it comes from the opera Porgy and Bess and begins, "Summertime, and the living is easy . . ."

Ninth Symphony

One of the great achievements of European music, it was Ludwig van Beethoven's last symphony; known as the "Choral" Symphony. Its finale is a musical setting of Friedrich von Schiller's "Ode to Joy," a hymn to the unity and freedom of humanity.

King Kong

One of the most famous of movie monsters, a giant ape who terrorizes New York City and makes his last stand atop the Empire State Building. It was first filmed in the 1930s.

"The Stars and Stripes Forever"

One of the most popular marches by John Philip Sousa. The piccolo part is especially elaborate.

Carmen

One of the most popular of Operas, composed by Georges Bizet, and first produced in the late 19th century. The title character is known for manipulating men. One of her victims, a Spanish soldier, arranges for her to escape from jail, but she later abandons him for a bullfighter, and he stabs her. The pieces "Habanera" and "Toreador Song" are well known excerpts from "Carmen".

Ionic

One of the three main styles of Greek architecture (the others are Corinthian and Doric). The column is slender and finely fluted; its capital is in the shape of a scroll.

Doric

One of the three main styles of Greek architecture (the others are Corinthian and Ionic). The Doric column is heavy and fluted; its capital is plain.

Corinthian

One of the three main styles of Greek architecture (the others being Doric and Ionic). It is slender and fluted; the capital incorporates sculpted leaves.

unison

Playing or singing the same musical notes, or notes separated from each other by one or several octaves. Musicians who perform in unison are not playing or singing chords.

rock n' roll

Popular music combining elements of blues (or rhythm and blues), gospel music, and country and western music, and known for its strong beat and urgent lyrics. Well known early, pioneering rock n' roll artists or groups include Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Supremes, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Elvis Presley.

country and western music

Popular music originating in the southeastern and southwestern United States. Its lyrics depict the trials and successes of everyday life. The Grand Ole Opry, located in Nashville, Tennessee, helped to broaden its audience through radio.

Academy Awards

Prizes given annually in Hollywood by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for excellence in film performance and production. The symbol of the award is a small statue called an Oscar. The academy's top awards are for best picture, best director, best actor and actress, and best supporting actor and actress.

dilettante

Someone who is interested in the fine arts as a spectator, not as a serious practitioner. "Dilenttante" is most often used to mean a dabbler, someone with a broad but shallow attachment to any field.

Laurel and Hardy

Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy, two 20th century film comedians who almost always played their movie roles under their own names. Wearing derby hats and neckties, Laurel appeared as a thin, dim-witted Englishman and Hardy as an overweight American, often irritable and pompous. In their films, they constantly get in each other's way and are usually involved in hopeless business undertakings or doomed personal adventures.

rhythm

The "beat" of music; the regular pattern of long and short notes. Certain kinds of music, such as blues or marches, have a very characteristic rhythm. Rhythm, harmony, and melody are elements of music.

"Adeste Fideles" (ah-DES-tay fi-DAY-lis)

The Latin version of "O Come All Ye Faithful"

"The Star-Spangled Banner"

The National Anthem of the United States. Francis Scott Key wrote the words during the War of 1812, when he saw the flag of the United States still flying over Fort McHenry, Maryland, after a night of attack by British troops. The tune is from a British popular song of the day. The first stanza is: Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and home of the brave?

liberal arts

The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. "Liberal arts" is often used as a synonym for humanities, because literature, languages, history, and philosophy are often considered the primary subjects of the liberal arts. The term "liberal arts" originally meant arts suitable for free people ("libri" in Latin) but not for slaves.

choreography

The art of arranging dance movements for performance

Parthenon

The central building on the acropolis in Athens, now partly in ruins. Built in ancient times as a temple, it served as a model for much of Greek and Roman architecture.

Archie Bunker

The central character in the 1970s television comedy series "All in the Family." His family appreciated and loved him, even though he was bad tempered, ill informed, and highly prejudiced against virtually all minority groups. *The creators of the show intended his character to be a parody of close-mindedness in Americans. To their surprise, many people adopted him as their hero.

Broadway

The central group of theaters presenting live drama in New York City. Many of them are located on or adjacent to the street called Broadway in Manhattan.

I never met a man I didn't like

The common version of a remark by the 20th century American humorist Will Rogers

O beautiful for spacious skies

The first line from the popular patriotic song, "America the Beautiful". See full lyrics above.

My country, 'tis of thee

The first line of the patriotic hymn "America"

Acropolis

The fortified high point of ancient Athens. Once the center of Athenian life, the Acropolis is now the site of famous ruins, including the Parthenon. In Greek, the word means "high" (acro) "city" (polis)

pianoforte

The full name of the piano, the common musical instrument with a board of black and white keys, eighty-eight in all. The keys operate hammers that strike wires. It is Italian for "soft-loud"; it received this name because the level of loudness depends on how hard the player strikes the keys.

soprano

The highest range of the female singing voice.

tenor

The highest range of the male singing voice.

Monticello

The home of Thomas Jefferson, in central Virginia. The mansion, designed by JEfferson himself, is a notable example of the use of ancient forms, such as the dome, in the architecture of his time. *It appears on the "tails" side of the nickel. Jefferson's head is on the front.

United States capital

The large domed building in Washington D.C., in which the United States Congress meets.

bass drum

The large drum with a cylindrical shape that gives the strong beat in brass bands.

Saint Peter's Basilica

The largest Christian church building in the world, located in the Vatican. The residence of the pope adjoins itm and many ceremonies and speeches connected with the pop's administration take place there. Raphael and Michelangelo contributed to its design and decoration.

bass viol

The largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the strings, also called a bass fiddle or double bass. The player must stand or sit on a tall stool to play it.

prima ballerina

The leading female ballet dancer in a ballet company

alto

The lowest range of the female singing voice, also called contralto.

contralto

The lowest range of the female singing voice; alto

bass

The lowest range of the male singing voice

tuba

The lowest-pitched of the brass instruments. In orchestras, it is usually held across the player's lap. In marching bands, the sousaphone is generally used as a low brass instrument because it was designed to be carried.

key

The main or central note of a piece of music (or part of a piece of music). Each key has its own scale, beginning and ending on the note that defines the octave of the next scale. The key of C major uses a scale that starts on C and uses only the white keys of the piano. In a piece composed in the key of C, the music is likely to end on the note C, and certain combinations of notes based on C will predominate.

White House

The mansion of the president of the United States in Washington, D.C. The White House contains reception and dining rooms, living quarters for the president and the president's family, the president's Oval Office, and offices for the presidential staff.

violin

The most familiar and highest pitched instrument of the strings. A typical symphony orchestra has more than two dozen violinists.

"Hallelujah Chorus"

The most famous movement of the oratorio "Messiah", by George Frederick Handel, often sung at Christmas.

Metropolitan Opera

The most prominent opera company in the United States, often called "the Met." It is based in New York City.

"The Marseillaise" (mahr-se-YEZ)

The national anthem of France, written during the French Revolution.

National Anthem of the United States

The official national song of the United States: "The Star-Spangled Banner"

"Hail to the Chief"

The official song or anthem of the president of the United States, played as part of welcoming ceremonies and receptions when the president first appears.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

The opening words of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

lieder

The plural of "lied", the German word for "song". It refers to art songs in German mainly from the 19th century. The most notable composer of lieder was Franz Schubert.

Big Ben

The popular name for the huge clock mounted in a tower near the meeting place of the British Parliament in London. It strikes the quarter-hour with the familiar Westminster Chimes.

"Whistler's Mother"

The popular title of a painting, "Arrangement in Grey and Black Number 1", by James Whistler, which depicts his mother in profile, dressed in black, and seated on a straight chair.

bassoon

The second largest and second lowest pitched of the woodwinds. (The less common contrabassoon is larger and has a lower pitch.) It is played with a double reed.

harmony

The sounding of two or more musical notes at the same time in a way that is pleasant or desired. Harmony, melody, and rhythm are elements of music.

Gregorian chant

The traditional music for Latin texts in the worship of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant is marked by performance in unison and by free-flowing rhythms that follow the phrasing of the text. The chants often call for one syllable to be sung across several notes.

counterpoint

The use of two or more melodies at the same time in a piece of music; it was an important part of Baroque music. Certain composers, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, have been especially skillful at counterpoint

ballet

Theatrical entertainment in which dancers, usually accompanied by music, tell a story or express a mood through their movements. The technique of ballet is elaborate and requires many years of training. Two classical ballets are "Swan Lake" and "The Nutcracker", composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Two great modern ballets are "The Rite of Spring", composed by Igor Stravinsky, and "Fancy Free", by Leonard Bernstein.

Gilbert and Sullivan

Two Englishmen of the nineteenth century who wrote many witty operettas satirizing society of the Victorian period. Gilbert wrote the song lyrics and spoken dialogue, and Sullivan wrote the music. Their works include H.M.S Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Pirates of Penzance.

Currier and Ives

Two business partners, the technician Nathaniel Currier and the artist J. Merritt Ives, who produced colored prints of everyday American life in the nineteenth century.

Buffalo Bill

William F. Cody. American adventurer, soldier, and showman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His popular "Wild West Show," begun in the 1880s, featured acts such as the marksmanship of Annie Oakley, mock battles between Native Americans and army troops, and breathtaking displays of cowboy skills and horsemanship. It toured the United States, Canada, and Europe. *Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show" was a major influence in the creation of the popular image of the romantic and exciting old West.

Now I lay me down to sleep

Words of a children's prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

kitsch

Works of art and other objects (such as furniture) that are meant to look costly but actually are in poor taste. *Kitsch in literature and music in associated with sentimentalism as well as bad taste.

"Loch Lomond"

a Scottish folksong with this refrain: And Oh, you'll take the high road, I'll take the low road, And I'll be in Scotland before you; But me and my true love will never meet again, On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Cathedral of Hagia Sophia

a magnificent cathedral, sometimes called Santa Sophia or Saint Sophia, in Istanbul, Turkey. Once the central church building of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Hagia Sophia is now a museum. It has an enormous, magnificent dome, and the inside walls are decorated with mosaics. *Hagia Sophia means "Holy Wisdom," an Eastern Orthodox title for Jesus.

John Wayne

a twentieth-century American film actor who often played "tough guys," particularly soldiers and cowboys. His nickname was "Duke."

Scott Joplin

an African-American ragtime pianist and composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer" are tow of his best-known works.

coloratura

elaborate ornamentation in a piece of vocal music. A coloratura soprano is one who can sing such highly ornamented parts.

Stars and Stripes

the national flag of the United States of America. Its fifty stars represent the fifty states; its thirteen stripes represent the thirteen colonies that became the original states.