8. Fine Arts. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

Fine Arts

The term fine arts is equivalent to the older French term beaux arts, meaning “beautiful arts.” In ancient Greece, the fine arts were presided over by the Muses, whence the word museum—a place where fine arts are displayed. Because museums of fine arts have tended to display mainly painting and sculpture, these are the arts we first think of as belonging to the fine arts. But in fact they comprise all artistic works, including literature, architecture, drama, music, dance, opera, and even up-to-date forms such as television and movies. In fact, any work that is exceptionally well crafted may be so described, as in the oft-heard statement that somebody has raised furniture making or penmanship or bookbinding “to the level of a fine art.” Thomas de Quincey, an English writer of the early nineteenth century, entitled an essay “On Murder as One of the Fine Arts.”

When people hear the term cultural literacy, they sometimes associate it with artistic culture—with opera, ballet, painting, poetry, sculpture, architecture, and classical music. These fine arts are, of course, only part of cultural literacy, but they do make up an important domain of experience that people must be aware of to communicate with other literate people in our society. For many people, the appreciation of the fine arts helps bring satisfaction, joy, and meaning to life; and every person deserves to be exposed to good art, whether popular or classical. But an old and true proverb tells us there is no disputing about taste. People who dislike ballet or Bach are not therefore unworthy or insensitive people. Nor is the art of our tradition inherently superior to that of other traditions. Yet every citizen does need an acquaintance with the enduring artistic works and artists of our tradition, if only because they are indispensable reference points for our shared lives.

Not all of these enduring works of our tradition are permanent reference points—unchanging monuments that will never be replaced by new works of art. New classics sometimes displace older ones, just as new buildings rise upon old ruins. But our cities wisely discriminate among the buildings that they permit to be torn down. Some buildings, such as the White House, the Empire State Building, and the Taj Mahal, deserve to be preserved both because of their artistic excellence and because of their symbolic and communal associations.

This section of our dictionary contains both the old and the new in the fine arts. Our principle for inclusion is not personal opinion about the merits of particular art or artists but our judgment of their established status as enduring points of reference in our culture. Everything that is included here is a classic—not because it is old or new, but because it has achieved broad currency. People refer to these works and artists without explanation, assuming that we will understand their reference. The arts are not just occasions for private appreciation and enrichment. Many of the images and songs and poems in our shared life are not only fine art but also indispensable symbols of our national existence. Indeed, much fine art of the past was not just something to be admired for its beauty but also something to be understood as part of public life. Bach’s religious music, the Egyptian pyramids, the Washington Monument, the American flag, and patriotic songs were and are living parts of communal life. The image of the cross and of the Star of David are more than formal designs. At their most reverberant, the fine arts are not just objects for private pleasure and contemplation but essential symbols that have helped define what we collectively are.

—E.D.H.

Entries

a cappella	abstract art	abstract expressionism
Academy Awards	Acropolis	adagio
Adams, Ansel	“Adeste Fideles”	Aïda
Albee, Edward	allegro	Allen, Woody
alto	“Amazing Grace”	“America”
“America the Beautiful”	American Gothic	Anderson, Marian
arch	aria	Armstrong, Louis
art for art’s sake	Astaire, Fred	Audubon, John James
“Auld Lang Syne”	Bach, Johann Sebastian	Baker, Josephine
ballad	ballerina	ballet
banjo	The Barber of Seville	barbershop singing
baritone	Barnum, Phineas T.	baroque
Barrymore family	Basie, Count	basilica
bas-relief	bass	bass drum
bass viol	bassoon	baton
“Battle Hymn of the Republic”	Bauhaus	Beale Street
Beatles	Beethoven, Ludwig van	Benny, Jack
Bergman, Ingmar	Berlin, Irving	Bernhardt, Sarah
Bernstein, Leonard	Berry, Chuck	Big Ben
The Birth of a Nation	The Birth of Venus	Bizet, Georges
bluegrass	blues	“Blue-Tail Fly”
Bogart, Humphrey	bohemian	Bolshoi Theater
Bosch, Hieronymus	Botticelli, Sandro	Brahms, Johannes
Brando, Marlon	brass	brass band
Broadway	Brooklyn Bridge	Brueghel, Pieter, the Elder
Buffalo Bill	Bunker, Archie	Calder, Alexander
“Camptown Races”	cantata	capital
Capitol, United States	caricature	Carmen
Carnegie Hall	Caruso, Enrico	Casablanca
Casals, Pablo	“Casey Jones”	Cassatt, Mary
cathedral	cello	Cézanne, Paul
Chagall, Marc	chamber music	Chaplin, Charlie
Charleston	Chartres, Cathedral of	Chopin, Frédéric
chord	choreography	clarinet
classic	classical music	“Clementine”
coda	Cohan, George M.	coloratura
Colosseum	“Coming Through the Rye”	concerto
Constable, John	contralto	Copland, Aaron
Corbusier, Le	Corinthian	Cosby, Bill
counterpoint	country and western music	crescendo
Crosby, Bing	Crystal Palace	cubism
cupola	Currier and Ives	cymbal
Dali, Salvador	David	de Kooning, Willem
Debussy, Claude	“Deck the Halls”	Degas, Edgar
dilettante	Disney, Walt	“Dixie”
Dixieland	Don Giovanni	Doric
double bass	“Down in the Valley”	“The Drunken Sailor”
Duncan, Isadora	Dürer, Albrecht	Dylan, Bob
Eiffel Tower	Ellington, Duke	Empire State Building
engraving	Escher, M. C.	etching
expressionism	fiddle	Fields, W. C.
fife	fine arts	Fitzgerald, Ella
flute	flying buttress	folk music
forte	fortissimo	Foster, Stephen
French horn	fresco	frieze
functionalism	Garbo, Greta	gargoyle
Gauguin, Paul	Gershwin, George	Gilbert and Sullivan
Giotto	“God Bless America”	Goldberg, Rube
Golden Gate Bridge	Goodman, Benny	gospel music
Gothic	Goya, Francisco	Graham, Martha
Great Wall of China	Greco, El	Gregorian chant
Griffith, D. W.	Gropius, Walter	guitar
Guthrie, Woody	Hagia Sophia, Cathedral of	“Hail to the Chief”
“Hallelujah Chorus”	Hammerstein, Oscar, II	Handel, George Frederick
harmony	harp	harpsichord
Haydn, Franz Josef	Hendrix, Jimi	Hepburn, Katharine
hip-hop	Hitchcock, Alfred	“Home on the Range”
“Home, Sweet Home”	Homer, Winslow	Hope, Bob
Hopper, Edward	Houdini, Harry	I never met a man I didn’t like
icon	impresario	impressionism
Ionic	“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”	jazz
“John Brown’s Body”	“John Henry”	Jolly Roger
Joplin, Scott	“Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho”	Justice
Kandinsky, Wassily	kettledrum	key
Key, Francis Scott	King Kong	kitsch
Klee, Paul	The Last Supper	Laurel and Hardy
Leaning Tower of Pisa	leitmotif	Leonardo da Vinci
liberal arts	Liberty Bell	lieder
Lincoln Memorial	Liszt, Franz	“Loch Lomond”
Louvre	Madame Butterfly	Madonna
Madonna	maestro	The Magic Flute
Mahler, Gustav	Manet, Edouard	The Marriage of Figaro
“The Marseillaise”	Marx brothers	MASH*
Mass	Matisse, Henri	mausoleum
Mendelssohn, Felix	Messiah	Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Opera	mezzo soprano	Michelangelo
The Mikado	Miller, Glenn	Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
mobile	Mona Lisa	Mondrian, Piet
Monet, Claude	Monroe, Marilyn	montage
Monticello	Monty Python	Moonlight Sonata
Moore, Henry	mosaic	Moses, Grandma
movement	Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus	mural
musical	musical comedy	My country, ’tis of thee
My Fair Lady	National Anthem of the United States	National Gallery of Art
naturalism	Nijinsky, Vaslav	Ninth Symphony
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”	Notre Dame de Paris, Cathedral of	Now I lay me down to sleep
The Nutcracker	O beautiful for spacious skies	“O Come, All Ye Faithful”
oboe	octave	off-Broadway
“Oh! Susanna”	O’Keeffe, Georgia	Oklahoma!
“Ol’ Man River”	Olivier, Laurence	“On Top of Old Smoky”
“Onward Christian Soldiers”	opera	operetta
oratorio	orchestra	Oscar
“Over There”	overture	pagoda
Palladio, Andrea	Parthenon	Pavarotti, Luciano
“Peanuts”	percussion	perspective
Peter and the Wolf	pianissimo	piano
pianoforte	piazza	Picasso, Pablo
piccolo	Pietà	Pinafore, H.M.S.
polka	Pollock, Jackson	pop art
Porgy and Bess	Porter, Cole	postmodernism
Prado, Museo del	Presley, Elvis	prima ballerina
primitivism	Puccini, Giacomo	punk
pyramids	quartet	quintet
ragtime	rap	Raphael
recitative	recorder	reed
reggae	Rembrandt	Renoir, Pierre-Auguste
Requiem	Rhapsody in Blue	rhythm
Ring of the Nibelung	Rivera, Diego	Robeson, Paul
rock ’n’ roll	Rockwell, Norman	rococo
Rodgers, Richard	Rodin, Auguste	Rogers, Ginger
Rogers, Will	Romanesque	romanticism
Rothko, Mark	round	“Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
Rubens, Peter Paul	Rubinstein, Arthur	“Saint Louis Blues”
Saint Paul’s Cathedral	Saint Peter’s Basilica	saxophone
Scala, La	scale	Schubert, Franz
Schulz, Charles M.	Schumann, Robert	Sears Tower
“Sesame Street”	“Silent Night”	Sistine Chapel
skull and crossbones	snare drum	sonata
soprano	Sousa, John Philip	sousaphone
Sphinx	Spielberg, Steven	The Spirit of ’76
spirituals	Springsteen, Bruce	staccato
“The Star-Spangled Banner”	Star Trek	Star Wars
Stars and Stripes	“The Stars and Stripes Forever”	Statue of Liberty
Stern, Isaac	Stewart, James	Stoppard, Tom
Stradivarius	Strauss, Johann, the Younger	Strauss, Richard
Stravinsky, Igor	string quartet	strings
Stuart, Gilbert	suite	“Summertime”
surrealism	Swan Lake	swing
“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”	symphony	Taj Mahal
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game”	tango	Taylor, Elizabeth
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich	“Te Deum”	tempo
tenor	The Thinker	“This Land Is Your Land”
Tiffany glass	timpani	Tin Pan Alley
Titian	Toscanini, Arturo	Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
trombone	trumpet	tuba
Turner, Joseph Mallord William	Uffizi Gallery	ukulele
unison	van Gogh, Vincent	vaudeville
Velázquez, Diego de	Venus de Milo	Verdi, Giuseppe
Vermeer, Jan	Versailles, Palace of	Vietnam Memorial
viola	violin	Vivaldi, Antonio
Wagner, Richard	Warhol, Andy	Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington Mall	Washington Monument	Water Music
Wayne, John	Welles, Orson	West, Mae
“When Johnny Comes Marching Home”	“When the Saints Go Marching In”	Whistler, James
Whistler’s Mother	“White Christmas”	White House
whole tone	wind instruments	woodwinds
Wren, Christopher	Wright, Frank Lloyd	Wyeth, Andrew
“Yankee Doodle”	“Yankee Doodle Dandy”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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