Definitions

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was an Italian composer best known for operas such as Rigoletto, La traviata, and Aida. Verdi is noted for his powerful scores and strong characters where anti-heroes lead the dramatic action through...

Britannicus (41-55 CE) was the second child and only son born to the Roman emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) and Valeria Messalina (c. 20-48 CE). Seen as a threat by Claudius' fourth wife, Agrippina the Younger (15-59 CE), and her son...

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer known for his songs, piano music, and the Peer Gynt suites. The composer was famous in his own lifetime, touring extensively to play and conduct his own works across Europe. Grieg's...

The Coup of 18 Brumaire (9-10 November 1799) was a bloodless coup d'état in France that overthrew the government of the French Directory and replaced it with the French Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power...

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was a German composer of Romantic music best known for his symphonies, songs, and orchestral, chamber, and piano music. A great student of the history of music, Brahms was convinced that only by working...

Diana was the goddess of childbirth, the fertility goddess, the goddess of the moon as well as the patron goddess of wild beasts in Roman mythology. However, she is best known as the goddess of the hunt, with her sacred animal being the...

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was an Austrian-Bohemian composer best known for his song-cycles and his grand, sweeping symphonies, which often require expanded orchestras for their full performance. Mahler, a composer of Late-Romantic...

Khamsa (also known as Quintet or Panj Ganj) is the best-known work of Nizami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209 CE) and without a doubt one of the most prominent works of Persian literature. Written during the last decades of the 12th century...

The War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802), part of the broader French Revolutionary Wars, was the second attempt by an alliance of major European powers to defeat Revolutionary France. The Second Coalition, which included...

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso noted for his solo piano music. Chopin's work helped make the piano the most popular musical instrument of the 19th century. One of the great composers of Romantic...