• Son Ngoc Thanh (Cambodian leader)

    Cambodia: World War II and its aftermath: …the government was led by Son Ngoc Thanh, a former editor of Nagara Vatta, who had been forced into exile in Japan in 1942.

  • Son of a Preacher Man (song by Hurley and Wilkins)

    Dusty Springfield: …an international hit with “Son of a Preacher Man.”

  • Son of a Servant, The (work by Strindberg)

    August Strindberg: Early years: …remarkable autobiography Tjänstekvinnans son (1886–87; The Son of a Servant, 1913). He studied intermittently at the University of Uppsala, preparing in turn for the ministry and a career in medicine but never taking a degree. To earn his living, he worked as a free-lance journalist in Stockholm, as well as…

  • Son of a Witch (novel by Maguire)

    Gregory Maguire: … (2003), and the Wicked sequels Son of a Witch (2005), A Lion Among Men (2008), and Out of Oz (2011), the final book in the Wicked Years series. His later books included After Alice (2015), which was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Hiddensee: A Tale of the…

  • Son of David (religion)

    messiah: In some sects, the “son of David” messianism, with its political implications, was overshadowed by apocalyptic notions of a more mystical character. Thus some believed that a heavenly being called the “Son of Man” (the term is derived from the Book of Daniel) would descend to save his people.…

  • Son of Dracula (film by Siodmak [1943])

    Robert Siodmak: …directed the stylish horror film Son of Dracula, in which Lon Chaney, Jr., starred as Count Alucard (the name spelled backward is Dracula).

  • Son of Dracula (film [1974])

    Harry Nilsson: Later career and death: …soundtrack for Ringo Starr’s film Son of Dracula (1974). Nilsson also became a close companion of John Lennon (particularly during Lennon and Yoko Ono’s separation), with whom he recorded Pussy Cats (1974), an album of pop classics. Throughout the 1970s Nilsson continued to record, but he experienced only occasional hits.…

  • Son of Flubber (film by Stevenson [1963])

    Robert Stevenson: Films for Disney: …Stevenson also directed the sequel, Son of Flubber (1963). In Search of the Castaways, an adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, was one of 1962’s top-grossing films. Also successful was The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), with Tommy Kirk as a brilliant teenaged inventor; it spawned a sequel, The Monkey’s…

  • Son of Frankenstein (film by Lee [1939])

    Son of Frankenstein, American horror film, released in 1939, that featured Boris Karloff in his final role as the fabled monster. Following Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), it was the third film in Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein series, which was derived from Mary Shelley’s

  • Son of God (Christianity)

    Jesus: God’s only Son: …that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is one of the most universal in the New Testament, in which most of the books refer to him that way. The Gospels do not quote him as using the title for himself in so many words, although sayings like verse 27…

  • Son of Kong, The (film by Schoedsack [1933])

    Ernest B. Schoedsack: King Kong and other films of the early 1930s: …Cooper-Schoedsack expeditions; six months later The Son of Kong (1933) was completed. More modest in every way than the original, primarily because of its much smaller budget, The Son of Kong relied on some whimsical comedy to make up for its relative lack of sheer thrills.

  • Son of Man (Christianity)

    Kingdom of God: …endowed, intermediary (the Messiah or Son of Man), whose functions would include a judgment to decide who was worthy to “inherit the Kingdom,” an expression which emphasizes that the Kingdom was thought of as a divine gift, not a human achievement.

  • Son of Man (work by Roa Bastos)

    Augusto Roa Bastos: …novel Hijo de hombre (1960; Son of Man) was an overwhelming critical and popular success. It recreates Paraguay’s history from the dictatorship of José Gaspar de Francia early in the 19th century through the Chaco War. By carefully juxtaposing alternate narrative voices, Roa Bastos creates a tension that signals the…

  • Son of Man (work by Yi Munyŏl)

    Yi Munyŏl: In Saram-ŭi Adeŭl (1979; Son of Man), he explored numerous Western and East Asian theologies in the course of tracing a young man’s determined quest for transcendence. Chŏlmŭn nal ŭi ch’osang (1981; A Portrait of My Youth), a trilogy of novellas, recorded a young man’s Herculean efforts to overcome…

  • Son of My Father (recording by Chicory Tip)

    Europop: …Chicory Tip’s 1972 hit, “Son of My Father,” the English-language version of a German-Italian song originally recorded by one of its writers, Giorgio Moroder. Moroder went on to produce Donna Summer, a Europop star who, atypically, became equally successful in the United States. Her 1975 hit “Love to Love…

  • Son of Paleface (film by Tashlin [1952])

    Jane Russell: …Paleface (1948) and its sequel, Son of Paleface (1952). Both movies gave Russell an opportunity to show off her vocal skills; each garnered an Academy Award nomination for best song, with a win for “Buttons and Bows” from The Paleface. One of Russell’s best-known roles came when in 1953 she…

  • Son of Sam (American serial killer)

    David Berkowitz was an American serial killer who murdered six people in New York City in 1976–77. His crimes plunged the city into a panic and unleashed one of the largest manhunts in New York history. Berkowitz was a difficult and occasionally violent child. His erratic behaviour, which began

  • Son of Saul (film by Nemes [2015])

    László Nemes: Holocaust drama Saul fia (2015; Son of Saul), won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film.

  • Son of the Chosen People, A (work by Israëls)

    Jozef Israëls: , A Son of the Chosen People, 1889). His son Isaac (1865–1934), also a painter, adopted an Impressionist technique and subject matter and had some influence on his father’s later work.

  • Son of the Circus, A (novel by Irving)

    John Irving: A Son of the Circus (1994), an unevenly received amalgam of crime novel conceits and identity politics set in India, was followed by A Widow for One Year (1998; adapted as the film The Door in the Floor, 2008) and The Fourth Hand (2001).

  • Son of the Middle Border, A (work by Garland)

    Hamlin Garland: …a mellow autobiographical mood wrote A Son of the Middle Border, in which he described his family background and childhood as the son of pioneer farmers. This book won immediate and deserved acclaim. Its sequel, A Daughter of the Middle Border (1921), won a Pulitzer Prize. Less successful were Trail-Makers…

  • Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn (novel by Connell)

    Evan S. Connell: Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn (1984; television film 1991) examines the ill-fated last stand in Montana Territory of U.S. Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 263-member contingent against more than a thousand Cheyenne and Lakota warriors. It was a…

  • Son of the Pink Panther (film by Edwards [1993])

    Blake Edwards: Later films: Son of the Pink Panther (1993), Edwards’s final film, was yet another unsuccessful attempt to find a replacement for Sellers, with Roberto Benigni taking on the role of Clouseau’s son. Although Edwards was finished directing motion pictures, he was not done directing, and in 1995…

  • Son of the Sheik, The (film by Fitzmaurice [1926])

    The Son of the Sheik, American silent film, released in 1926, that was a sequel to the hit film The Sheik (1921), which gave actor Rudolph Valentino perhaps his most memorable role and ensured his status as a legendary heartthrob of Hollywood. In the deserts of Algeria, Ahmed (played by Valentino)

  • Son of the South (film by Brown [2020])

    Brian Dennehy: The posthumously released Son of the South (2020) was based on the memoir of a civil rights activist whose grandfather was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

  • Son Pyŏng-Hi (Korean independence activist and religious leader)

    Son Pyŏng-Hi was a Korean independence activist who was the third leader of the apocalyptic, antiforeign Tonghak (or Donghak; later, Ch’ondogyo) religious sect. Born the illegitimate son of a low-echelon government official, Son grew up in poverty, suffering much discrimination. In 1897 he was

  • Son Pyŏng-Hui (Korean independence activist and religious leader)

    Son Pyŏng-Hi was a Korean independence activist who was the third leader of the apocalyptic, antiforeign Tonghak (or Donghak; later, Ch’ondogyo) religious sect. Born the illegitimate son of a low-echelon government official, Son grew up in poverty, suffering much discrimination. In 1897 he was

  • Son River (river, India)

    Son River, principal southern tributary of the Ganges (Ganga) River, rising in Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It flows north past Manpur and then turns northeast. The river cuts through the Kaimur Range and joins the Ganges above Patna, after a 487-mile (784-km) course. The Son valley is

  • Son smeshnogo cheloveka (short story by Dostoyevsky)

    The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in Russian in 1877 as “Son smeshnogo cheloveka.” It addresses questions about original sin, human perfectibility, and the striving toward an ideal society. The inability of the rationalist to provide answers to all of

  • Son Valley (valley, India)

    Son River: The Son valley is geologically almost a continuation of that of the Narmada River to the southwest. It is largely forested and sparsely populated. The valley is bordered by the Kaimur Range to the north and the Chota Nagpur plateau to the south. The river’s flow…

  • Son Volt (American rock band)

    the Jayhawks: …Tupelo (forerunner of Wilco and Son Volt). Blue Earth caught the attention of producer George Drakoulias when he heard it playing in the background during a phone call with the Twin/Tone offices, which led to the band’s signing with major label Def American Recordings and to Drakoulias’s producing the band’s…

  • Son, The (film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne [2002])

    Dardenne brothers: …2002 by Le Fils (The Son). In 2005, with L’Enfant (The Child), the brothers for the second time in six years won the Palme d’Or. Only filmmakers Emir Kusturica and Imamura Shohei had previously won twice. L’Enfant explores life in a poverty-stricken, gritty, industrial region of French-speaking southern Belgium.…

  • Sonam Gyatso (Dalai Lama)

    Dalai Lama: His successor, Bsod-nams-rgya-mtsho (1543–88), while on a visit to the Mongol chief Altan Khan, received from that ruler the honorific title ta-le (Anglicized as “dalai”), the Mongolian equivalent of the Tibetan rgya-mtsho, meaning “ocean” and presumably suggesting breadth and depth of wisdom. The title was subsequently applied…

  • sonar

    sonar, (from “sound navigation ranging”), technique for detecting and determining the distance and direction of underwater objects by acoustic means. Sound waves emitted by or reflected from the object are detected by sonar apparatus and analyzed for the information they contain. Sonar systems may

  • sonata (music)

    sonata, type of musical composition, usually for a solo instrument or a small instrumental ensemble, that typically consists of two to four movements, or sections, each in a related key but with a unique musical character. Deriving from the past participle of the Italian verb sonare, “to sound,”

  • sonata da camera (musical form)

    sonata da camera, a type of solo or trio sonata intended for secular performance; the designation is usually found in the late 17th century, especially in the works of Arcangelo Corelli. In that model, an opening prelude is followed by a succession of dance movements. Compare sonata da

  • sonata da chiesa (musical form)

    sonata da chiesa, a type of sonata, most commonly a Baroque instrumental work with several (often four) movements, originally thought appropriate for church. The designation was not universal; such works were often labeled simply sonata. Compare sonata da

  • Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in G Major (work by Saint-Saëns)

    Woodwind Sonatas: 167, and the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in G Major, Op. 168. Saint-Saëns used these works to showcase instruments until then rarely featured. The oboe and bassoon, for example, had been heard often in the Baroque era but had received little attention thereafter. The clarinet too had…

  • Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major (work by Saint-Saëns)

    Woodwind Sonatas: 166, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 167, and the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in G Major, Op. 168. Saint-Saëns used these works to showcase instruments until then rarely featured. The oboe and bassoon, for example, had been heard often in the…

  • Sonata for Oboe and Piano in D Major (work by Saint-Saëns)

    Woodwind Sonatas: …three complementary works are the Sonata for Oboe and Piano in D Major, Op. 166, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 167, and the Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in G Major, Op. 168. Saint-Saëns used these works to showcase instruments until then rarely featured. The…

  • Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (work by Bartók)

    Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, musical composition by Hungarian pianist and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók in which the composer combined the folk rhythms of Hungary and his mastery of classical structures with an unusual scoring for two pianos and percussion. This sonata, one of many by

  • Sonata for Violin and Piano (work by Corigliano)

    John Corigliano: …1964 Corigliano’s first major work, Sonata for Violin and Piano, won the chamber music competition at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. It received its premiere two years later at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Among his other compositions are Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra (1977); Pied Piper…

  • sonata form (musical form)

    sonata form, musical structure that is most strongly associated with the first movement of various Western instrumental genres, notably, sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets. Maturing in the second half of the 18th century, it provided the instrumental vehicle for much of the most profound

  • Sonata in A Major for Piano and Violin (work by Beethoven)

    Ludwig van Beethoven: Approaching deafness: … or the andante of the Kreutzer Sonata can be seen emerging from trivial and characterless beginnings into their final forms. It seems, too, that Beethoven worked on more than one composition at a time and that he was rarely in a hurry to finish anything that he had on hand.…

  • Sonata pian’ e forte (music by Gabrieli)

    sonata: Early development in Italy: …“sonata,” such as Giovanni Gabrieli’s Sonata pian’ e forte (Soft and Loud Sonata) of 1597, which was one of the first works to specify instrumentation in detail; the instrumental fantasia and the canzona, an instrumental form derived from the chanson or secular French part-song, display a similar

  • Sonata Tragica (music by Macdowell)

    Doris Humphrey: …major work, to Edward MacDowell’s Sonata Tragica, was presented in 1925. The piece possessed such strong choreographic rhythms that Humphrey’s mentor, Ruth St. Denis, later presented it as the first American modern dance performed without music. After a two-year tour of Asia, Humphrey and another Denishawn dancer, Charles Weidman, directed…

  • sonata-allegro form (musical form)

    sonata form, musical structure that is most strongly associated with the first movement of various Western instrumental genres, notably, sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets. Maturing in the second half of the 18th century, it provided the instrumental vehicle for much of the most profound

  • Sonatas (work by Valle-Inclán)

    Ramón María del Valle-Inclán: …four novelettes known as the Sonatas (1902–05), feature a beautifully evocative prose and a tone of refined and elegant decadence. They narrate the seductions and other doings of a Galician womanizer who is partly an autobiographical figure. In his subsequent works Valle-Inclán developed a style that is rich in both…

  • Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (work by Cage)

    Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, a cycle of 20 short pieces for prepared piano (a piano modified by inserting nuts and bolts and other objects between the piano strings in order to produce percussive and otherworldly sound effects) by American composer John Cage. Created in 1946–48 after

  • Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (musical compositions by Bach)

    Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, six compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach that date from the early 18th century. They are unusual in being totally solo with no accompaniment of any kind; the most famous movement from the Bach sonatas and partitas is the Chaconne that concludes the Partita No.

  • Sonatas of III Parts (work by Purcell)

    Henry Purcell: Posthumous publications: The principal works were the Sonatas of III Parts (1683); “Welcome to all the pleasures,” an ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, written in 1683 (published in 1684); and Dioclesian, composed in 1690 (1691). After his death his widow published a collection of his harpsichord pieces (1696), instrumental music for the…

  • Sonate (work by Dukas)

    Paul Dukas: His Sonate (1901) is one of the last great works for piano that prolong the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt; his Variations, interlude et final pour piano sur un thème de Rameau (1903) represent an elegant translation into French musical idiom…

  • Sonate concertate in stilo moderno (work by Castello)

    chamber music: Sources and instruments: …Venice, published a set of Sonate da camera cioè Sinfonie… (Chamber Sonatas, that is, Symphonies…), each consisting of four to six dance movements with an introductory movement (sinfonia) not in dance style. The development of chamber music for the remainder of the century centred upon these two types, sonata da…

  • Sonatina (work by Berkeley)

    Sir Lennox Berkeley: …of his later works, including Sonatina (1962) and his Symphony No. 4 (1978), use atonality.

  • sonatina (music)

    sonatina, in music, a shorter and often lighter form of the sonata, usually in three short movements (i.e., independent sections). The first movement normally follows the sonata form with respect to the exposition and recapitulation of the musical materials but not necessarily the development

  • Sonatine (work by Boulez)

    Pierre Boulez: In his Sonatine for flute and piano (1946), the 12-tone imitations and canons progress so quickly as to leave an impression merely of movement and texture. In Structures, Book I for two pianos (1952), the actual 12-tone series is simply taken from a work of Messiaen’s; but…

  • Sonatorrek (poem by Egill Skallagrímsson)

    Egill Skallagrímsson: 961) the deeply personal lament Sonatorrek (“Loss of Sons,” or “Revenge Denied”). The poem is also a family portrait in which he recalls the deaths of his parents as well; in it the desire for revenge and hatred of Odin overwhelms him, but gradually he bows his head in resignation…

  • Sonatrach (Algerian organization)

    Algeria: Hydrocarbons: …de Commercialisation des Hydrocarbures (Sonatrach), which had been set up in 1963–64. Sonatrach undertook its own exploitation and production activities, with some success, although much of this was made possible by Soviet assistance and, more recently, by the establishment of joint service companies with help from American specialists. State…

  • Sonbhander (cave, Rajgir Hills, India)

    Rajgir Hills: The Sonbhandar cave is now believed to have been excavated by the Jains in the 3rd or 4th century ce. In the valley’s centre, excavations at the Maniyar Math site have revealed a circular shrine associated with the worship of Mani-naga, a serpent deity of the…

  • Sonchus (plant)

    thistle: …more than 10 species of sow thistle (Sonchus) are widespread throughout Europe. Some species of globe thistle (Echinops) are cultivated as ornamentals. The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland.

  • Sonck, Lars (Finnish architect)

    Finland: Art, architecture, and design: …the Helsinki railway station, and Lars Sonck, whose churches in Helsinki and Tampere are particularly notable. Finnish women were also early innovators as architects, including Wiwi Lönn and Signe Hornborg, the latter one of the first formally trained female architects in the world.

  • sondage (archaeology)

    excavation: …by sampling cuts known as sondages. Large sites are not usually dug out entirely, although a moderate-sized round barrow may be completely moved by excavation. Whatever the site and the extent of the excavation, discovery or location is typically followed by surveying and mapping, site sampling, and the development of…

  • Sønderborg (Denmark)

    Sønderborg, port and seaside resort, Denmark, lying on both sides of the narrow Als Sound. It was founded in the mid-13th century around Sønderborg Castle and chartered in 1461. King Christian II was a prisoner at the castle 1532–49. The city was razed in 1864 during a Prussian assault on Danish

  • Sonderbund (Swiss political organization)

    Sonderbund, league formed on Dec. 11, 1845, by the seven Catholic Swiss cantons (Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais) to oppose anti-Catholic measures by Protestant liberal cantons. The term Sonderbund also refers to the civil war that resulted from this conflict. In 1841

  • Sondergaard, Edith Holm (American actress)
  • Sondergaard, Gale (American actress)
  • Sonderkommando (prison unit)

    Holocaust: Jewish resistance to the Nazis: …true at Auschwitz, where the Sonderkommando (“Special Commando”), the prisoner unit that worked in the vicinity of the gas chambers, destroyed a crematorium just as the killing was coming to an end in 1944.

  • Sondes of Lees Court, Viscount (British military officer)

    Louis de Durfort, 2nd earl of Feversham was a French-born soldier who played a notable role in military and diplomatic affairs in England under Charles II and James II. Durfort (known as the marquis de Blanquefort in France) met James, then duke of York, in 1650 and went to England in 1665, where

  • Sondheim on Sondheim (revue theater by Sondheim)

    Stephen Sondheim: …Putting It Together (1992), and Sondheim on Sondheim (2010). In 2000 he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for theater/film, and in 2008 he was honored with a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theater. The book Finishing the Hat (2010) is a collection of Sondheim’s…

  • Sondheim, Stephen (American composer and lyricist)

    Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist whose brilliance in matching words and music in dramatic situations broke new ground for Broadway musical theater. Precocious as a child, Sondheim showed an early musical aptitude among other wide-ranging interests. He studied piano and organ,

  • Sondheim, Stephen Joshua (American composer and lyricist)

    Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist whose brilliance in matching words and music in dramatic situations broke new ground for Broadway musical theater. Precocious as a child, Sondheim showed an early musical aptitude among other wide-ranging interests. He studied piano and organ,

  • Sondheimer, Franz (German-born scientist)

    Franz Sondheimer was a German-born scientist who, with Robert Burns Woodward, was the first to completely synthesize a nonaromatic steroid. His procedure was later used in the preparation of cholesterol and cortisone. Sondheimer obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1948 from Imperial College London,

  • sondo (wind)

    zonda, winter foehn (that is, a warm dry wind blowing down the side of a mountain) in Argentina, where it blows from the west across the Andes Mountains. The name zonda in Argentina also refers to a hot humid wind that blows from the north over the plains and precedes a low-pressure

  • Søndre Strømfjord (fjord, Greenland)

    Kangerlussuaq, fjord in southwestern Greenland, located just north of the Arctic Circle and 60 miles (95 km) southeast of Sisimiut (Holsteinsborg). About 120 miles (190 km) long and 1–5 miles (1.5–8 km) wide, the fjord extends northeastward from Davis Strait to the edge of the inland ice cap, where

  • Sondrio (Italy)

    Sondrio, city, Lombardia (Lombardy) regione, northern Italy; it is the chief town of the Valtellina (the upper Adda River valley), near the mouth of the Mallero River, and lies at an elevation of 1,017 feet (310 m), north of Bergamo. It has an archaeological museum, and its old castle, Castello

  • sone (unit of measurement)

    sone, unit of loudness. Loudness is a subjective characteristic of a sound (as opposed to the sound-pressure level in decibels, which is objective and directly measurable). Consequently, the sone scale of loudness is based on data obtained from subjects who were asked to judge the loudness of pure

  • Sone River (river, India)

    Son River, principal southern tributary of the Ganges (Ganga) River, rising in Madhya Pradesh state, central India. It flows north past Manpur and then turns northeast. The river cuts through the Kaimur Range and joins the Ganges above Patna, after a 487-mile (784-km) course. The Son valley is

  • sonecitos del país (dance)

    Latin American dance: Folk and popular dances: … (“dances of the land”) or sonecitos del país (“little country dances”).

  • Sonepat (India)

    Sonipat, city, east-central Haryana state, northern India. It is situated about 25 miles (40 km) north of Delhi. The city was probably founded by early Aryan settlers about 1500 bce and flourished on the banks of the Yamuna River, which now has receded 9 miles (14 km) to the east. Mentioned in the

  • SONET

    telephone: Optical-fibre cable: …transmission rates known as the synchronous optical network (SONET) or optical carrier (OC) in the United States and as the synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) elsewhere, as shown in the table.

  • Sonetni venec (work by Prešeren)

    France Prešeren: In 1834 he published Sonetni venec (“A Wreath of Sonnets”), an artistic and technical tour de force that nonetheless scandalized the prudish readers of his day because he had dared to spell out in an acrostic the name of a well-to-do young woman whom he hoped, quite unrealistically, to…

  • Sonette an Orpheus, Die (work by Rilke)

    Sonnets to Orpheus, series of 55 poems in two linked cycles by Rainer Maria Rilke, published in German in 1923 as Die Sonette an Orpheus. The Sonnets to Orpheus brought Rilke international fame. The Sonnets to Orpheus are concerned with the relationship of art and poetry to life. In them Rilke

  • Sonetti lussuriosi (work by Aretino)

    Pietro Aretino: …and his 1524 collection of Sonetti lussuriosi (“Lewd Sonnets”). From Rome he went to Venice (1527), where he became the object of great adulation and lived in a grand and dissolute style for the rest of his life. One of Aretino’s closest friends in Venice was the painter Titian, for…

  • Sonezaki shinjū (work by Chikamatsu)

    Chikamatsu Monzaemon: Sonezaki shinjū (1703; The Love Suicides at Sonezaki), for example, was written within a fortnight of the actual double suicide on which it is based. The haste of composition is not at all apparent even in this first example of Chikamatsu’s double-suicide plays, the archetype of his other…

  • song (vocal music)

    song, piece of music performed by a single voice, with or without instrumental accompaniment. Works for several voices are called duets, trios, and so on; larger ensembles sing choral music. Speech and music have been combined from earliest times; music heightens the effect of words, allowing them

  • Song at the Year’s Turning: Poems 1942–1954 (work by Thomas)

    R.S. Thomas: …of the Field (1946) and Song at the Year’s Turning: Poems 1942–1954 (1955), contained a harshly critical but increasingly compassionate view of the Welsh people and their stark homeland. In Thomas’s later volumes, starting with Poetry for Supper (1958), the subjects of his poetry remained the same, yet his questions…

  • Song Binbin (Chinese revolutionary)

    Song Binbin is a former member of the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution in China. Song’s prominent involvement in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution made her a controversial figure, and she later apologized for her actions during that time. Song is the daughter of Song Renqiong,

  • song box (bird anatomy)

    syrinx, vocal organ of birds, located at the base of the windpipe (trachea), where the trachea divides into the bronchi (tubes that connect the trachea with the lungs). The syrinx is lacking in the New World vultures (Cathartidae), which can only hiss and grunt, but reaches great complexity in the

  • Song Cuu Long (river, Southeast Asia)

    Mekong River, river that is the longest river in Southeast Asia, the 7th longest in Asia, and the 12th longest in the world. It has a length of about 2,700 miles (4,350 km). Rising in southeastern Qinghai province, China, it flows through the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan

  • song cycle

    Australian literature: Aboriginal narrative: the oral tradition: A sequence of stories or songs—a story track or song line—identifies the precise route taken by an Ancestor figure. Knowledge and recitation of the journey of each totemic figure are the responsibility of that figure’s totemic clan. (Members of an immediate biological family belong to different totems, or Dreamings. Totem…

  • Song Dong Nai (river, Vietnam)

    Dong Nai River, river rising in the central highlands (Annamese Cordillera) of southern Vietnam, northwest of Da Lat. Near its source the river has rapids and is known as the Da Dung River. It flows west and southwest for about 300 miles (480 km), joining the Saigon River southwest of Bien Hoa. At

  • Song dynasty (Chinese history)

    Song dynasty, (960–1279), Chinese dynasty that ruled the country during one of its most brilliant cultural epochs. It is commonly divided into Bei (Northern) and Nan (Southern) Song periods, as the dynasty ruled only in South China after 1127. The Bei Song was founded by Zhao Kuangyin, the military

  • Song family (Chinese family)

    Soong family, influential Chinese family that was heavily involved in the political fortunes of China during the 20th century. Among its best-known members were Charlie, the founder of the family, and his children T.V. Soong, financier and politician; Soong Mei-ling, who became Madame Chiang

  • Song for the Dark Times, A (novel by Rankin)

    Ian Rankin: …House of Lies (2018), and A Song for the Dark Times (2020); the latter was the 23rd installment in the series. The Rebus books gave Rankin an opportunity to depict Scotland, in particular Edinburgh, in high, often bloody colour. Through the authority-flouting inspector’s investigations, which played out in classic police-procedure…

  • Song for the Harvest Season (work by Ives)

    Charles Ives: …or 1894 he composed “Song for the Harvest Season,” in which the four parts—for voice, trumpet, violin, and organ—were in different keys. That year he began studying at Yale University under Horatio Parker, then the foremost academic composer in the United States. His unconventionality disconcerted Parker, for whom Ives…

  • song form (music)

    ternary form, in music, a form consisting of three sections, the third section normally either a literal or a varied repeat of the first. The symmetrical construction of this scheme (aba) provides one of the familiar shapes in Western music; ternary form can be found in music from the Middle Ages

  • Song Huizong (emperor of Song dynasty)

    Huizong was the temple name (miaohao) of the eighth and penultimate emperor (reigned 1100–1125/26) of the Bei (Northern) Song dynasty (960–1127). He is best remembered both as a patron of the arts and as a painter and calligrapher. The Huizong emperor sought escape from affairs of state through the

  • Song Is Born, A (film by Hawks [1948])

    Howard Hawks: Films of the 1940s: A Song Is Born (1948) was Hawks’s musical remake of his own Ball of Fire, with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo substituting for Cooper and Stanwyck. It was followed by the riotously funny I Was a Male War Bride (1949), set in the aftermath of…

  • Song Jiaoren (Chinese politician)

    Song Jiaoren was the founder of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), whose assassination blighted hopes for democratic government in China in the early 20th century. Expelled from middle school in China for revolutionary activities, in 1904, Song began studies in Japan. In Tokyo the following year,

  • Song Joong-Ki (South Korean actor)

    Song Joong-Ki is a South Korean actor who established himself in the so-called K-drama genre with his performance in Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010), a television series set during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), and went on to play a variety of other roles in film and television. He gained