Schelde Vskel-do\ River or Scheldt Vskelt\ River French Escaut \es-'ko\ River, western Europe. The Schelde rises in northern France, flows through western Belgium to the city of Antwerp, turns northwest, and empties into the North Sea in Dutch territory after a course of 270 mi (435 km). Along with the lower Rhine and the Meuse rivers, it drains one of the world’s most densely populated areas. A channel in the west¬ ern Schelde allows oceangoing vessels to reach Antwerp at full tide.
Scheler \'sha-lor. Max (b. Aug. 22, 1874, Munich, Ger.—d. May 19, 1928, Frankfurt am Main) German philosopher. He is remembered pri¬ marily for his contributions to phenomenology. His Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values (1913-16) contains a detailed critique of the ethics of Immanuel Kant. In Man’s Place in the Universe (1928), he advanced a rather grandiose metaphysical doctrine with affinities to American pragmatism: humanity, God, and world are one cosmic process, with two “poles,” spirit and “life-urge”; the ideas of spirit become real through human life and history.
Schelling Vshel-iqV Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von (b. Jan. 27, 1775, Leonberg, Wurttemberg—d. Aug. 20, 1854, Bad Ragaz, Switz.) German philosopher and educator. Inspired by Immanuel Kant, in his Sys¬ tem of Transcendental Idealism (1800) he attempted to unite his concept of nature with the philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He held that art mediates between the natural and physical spheres when the natural (or unconscious) and spiritual (or conscious) productions are united in artis¬ tic creation. His view that the Absolute expresses itself in all beings as the unity of the subjective and the objective was criticized by G.W.F. Hegel. In Of Human Freedom (1809), he declared that mankind’s freedom is real only if it is freedom for both good and evil, a position that forms the basis of his later philosophy. A major figure of post-Kantian idealism, Schelling had an important influence on Romanticism. See also Immanuel Kant; Kantianism.
Schenker Vsheq-korX, Heinrich (b. June 19, 1868, Wisniowczyk, Galicia, Russia—d. Jan. 14, 1935, Vienna, Austria) Austrian music theo¬ rist. Schenker studied law and composition in Vienna before settling there as a private teacher and occasional performer. He proposed that Jean- Philippe Rameau’s harmonic theory had erred in making harmony funda¬ mental at the expense of counterpoint. His own study of C.P.E. Bach led him to posit counterpoint as equally fundamental and to recognize the subtle integration of the two. Schenker’s most influential perception was that tonal music consists of layers of ornamentation of simpler musical statements. His controversial theories and graphic notation—presented in texts such as Harmony (1906), Counterpoint (1910-22), and Free Com¬ position (1935)—were widely disseminated in the 1970s and by the end of the 20th century had become the basis of the most widely employed analytical techniques for tonal music.
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scherzo ► schistosomiasis I 1697
scherzo \'skert-,so\ Italian "joke" Musical movement in rapid triple time; it replaced the minuet in genres such as the symphony, sonata, and string quartet in the 19th century. The name was first used for light vocal and instrumental pieces of the Baroque era. It formally often resembles the minuet, being in rounded binary form and having a contrasting trio section between two statements of the scherzo proper, but its tempo is often much faster and its style may range from playful to vehement or grotesque.
Schiaparelli V.skya-pa-'rel-leV Elsa (b. Sept. 10, 1890, Rome, Italy—d. Nov. 13, 1973, Paris, Fr.) Italian-born French fashion designer. After working in the U.S. as a film scriptwriter and translator, she settled in Paris and opened her first shop in the 1920s. By 1935 she was a leader in haute couture and was expanding into perfume, cosmetics, lingerie, jewelry, and swimsuits. Her designs combined eccentricity with simplic¬ ity and a trim neatness with flamboyant colour. She introduced the pad¬ ded shoulder in 1932; designed fur bed jackets and rhinestone-trimmed lingerie in the 1940s; and in the 1950s popularized “shortie” coats in vivid reds, golds, and chartreuses. Her use of “shocking pink,” the sensation of the 1947 season, is still regularly revived. With Christian Dior, she was instrumental in the worldwide commercialization of Parisian fashion.
Schickard Vshi- I kard\ / Wilhelm (b. April 22, 1592, Herrenberg, Wiirttemberg—d. Oct. 24, 1635, Tubingen) German astronomer, math¬ ematician, and cartographer. In 1623 he invented one of the first calcu¬ lating machines. He proposed to Johannes Kepler the development of a mechanical means of calculating ephemerides (predicted positions of celestial bodies at regular intervals of time), and he contributed to the improvement of accuracy in mapmaking.
Schiele Vshe-loV Egon (b. June 12, 1890, Tulin, Austria—d. Oct. 31, 1918, Vienna) Austrian painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He was strongly influenced by the Jugendstil movement, and the linearity and subtlety of his work owe much to Gustav Klimt’s decorative elegance. Still, he always emphasized expression over decoration, heightening the emo¬ tive power of line with a feverish intensity. His candid, agitated, erotic images—often portraits of women— caused a sensation, and in 1912 he was briefly imprisoned for indecency. His landscapes exhibit the same febrile quality of colour and line. A special room was reserved for his work at a Viennese exhibition in 1918, just before he died in the influ¬ enza epidemic of that year. He has since been recognized as one of the great artists of Expressionism.
Schiff VshifX, Dorothy (b. March 11, 1903, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Aug. 30, 1989, New York City) U.S. newspaper publisher. Schiff was a wealthy socialite who in 1939 used family money to buy majority con¬ trol of the New York Post. In 1943 she took the title of owner and presi¬ dent, and in 1962 she became editor in chief. Under her direction the Post became a crusading liberal paper, staunchly supporting unions and social- welfare legislation. She converted it to a tabloid format and included popular features and columnists, with the result that in the 1960s it became the city’s only surviving afternoon daily. In 1976 she sold the Post to Rupert Murdoch.
Schiff, Jacob H(enry) (b. Jan. 10, 1847, Frankfurt am Main—d. Sept. 25, 1920, New York, N.Y., U.S.) German-born U.S. financier and philan¬ thropist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1865 and in 1875 joined the investment-banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. He succeeded his father- in-law as head of the firm in 1885 and became one of the leading rail¬ road bankers in the U.S. He played a pivotal role in the reorganization of several transcontinental lines, notably the Union Pacific Railroad and the Northern Pacific Railway. During the Russo-Japanese War he sold Japa¬ nese bonds in the U.S., for which he was decorated by the emperor of Japan. His extensive philanthropies included large contributions to Bar¬ nard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Schiller \'shil-3r\, (Johann Christoph) Friedrich (von) (b. Nov. 10, 1759, Marbach, Wiirttemberg—d. May 9, 1805, Weimar, Saxe- Weimar) German dramatist, poet, and literary theorist, one of the great¬ est figures in German literature. Schiller was educated at the direction of a domineering duke, whose tyranny he eventually fled to write. With his successful first play. The Robbers (1781), he took up the exploration of freedom, a central theme throughout his works. Don Carlos (1787), his first major poetic drama, helped establish blank verse as the recognized medium of German poetic drama. His jubilant “Ode to Joy” was later used in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Appointed professor of his¬ tory at the University of Jena in 1789, he developed his epic masterpiece,