Key

Key, David McKendree, 1824-1900, American politician and jurist, b. Greene co., Tenn. He practiced law in Chattanooga, Tenn., from 1853 to 1870, except during the Civil War, when he was an officer in the Confederate army. He served in the U.S. Senate (1875-77) to complete Andrew Johnson's term. In 1877, President Hayes chose Key to be his Postmaster General, an action that provoked sharp criticism from Republicans, who felt that the presence of an ex-Confederate in the cabinet violated party principles. From 1880 to 1894, Key served as U.S. judge for the eastern and middle districts of Tennessee.

Key, Ellen, 1849-1926, Swedish author, critic, and ideologue. Believing that women are primarily fitted for motherhood, she deplored feminist claims to equality on the labor market. Her ideas regarding state child support influenced social legislation in several countries. Among her best-known works published in English are Love and Marriage (1911, repr. with critical and biographical notes by Havelock Ellis, 1931), The Century of the Child (1909), The Woman Movement (1912), The Younger Generation (1914), and War, Peace, and the Future (1916).

Key, Francis Scott, 1779-1843, American poet, author of the Star-spangled Banner, b. present Carroll co., Md. A lawyer, he was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia (1833-41). His works include The Power of Literature and Its Connection with Religion (1834) and the posthumous collection Poems (1857), which contains several hymns.

Key, John, 1961-, New Zealand investment banker and politician, prime minister of New Zealand (2008-), b. Auckland, studied Univ. of Canterbury (B.Comm., 1982) and Harvard. Trained as an accountant, Key worked for a large American investment bank. Posted in Singapore, London, and Sydney, he became an extremely successful currency and bond trader. A member of the center-right National party, he returned home (2001) to begin a political career and was first elected to parliament in 2002. In 2004 he was named his party's financial spokesman and in 2006 party leader. A centrist who did much to reinvigorate his party, he became prime minister when the National party won a plurality in the 2008 elections.

key, in mechanics: see lock and key.

key. 1 In music, term used to indicate the scale from which the tonal material of a given composition is derived. To say, for example, that a composition is in the key of C major means that it uses as its basic tonal material the tones of that scale which is associated with C major, and that its harmony employs the chords built on the tones of that scale. C is then the keynote, and the C major triad, or the notes CEG, the tonic chord of the composition. In addition to the seven tones of the C major scale, however, the remaining five tones of the chromatic scale may appear as auxiliary tones, and chords may be borrowed from other keys. Modulation to another key may take place, but if there is a return to the original key the whole composition is said to be in the key of C. At the beginning of a composition, its key is usually indicated by a key signature (see musical notation). A term usually used synonymously with key is tonality. Absence of a feeling of key is called atonality. The concept of keynotes was developed gradually during the 16th and 17th cent. and its partial or total abandonment was a feature of the modernism of the early and mid-20th cent. Polytonality, the employment of two or more keys simultaneously, has been used by some 20th-century composers. 2 Also in music, in reference to musical instruments the term key refers to a lever depressed by the player's finger or, in the case of the pedal keyboard of the organ, the foot. In woodwind instruments the keys control covers on the holes that shorten the vibrating column of air. In brass winds they control the valves that lower the pitch of the instrument by lengthening the tube.

In music, the sharps or flats placed on the staff to indicate the key for a composition or a section. Placement of the symbols on lines and spaces indicates which notes are to be altered by the sharps or flats; for example, a sharp on the top line of the treble clef governs every F on the staff and indicates the key of G major or E minor. Each set of major and minor keys is designated with a particular grouping of sharps or flats.

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In music, system of pitches and harmonies generated from a scale of seven tones, one of which is predominantly important. Keys are a basic element of tonality and represent an outgrowth of modal music (see church mode). When a given piece is said to be “in C,” C is its “tonic,” or central tone. Most Western music from about 1700 until about 1900 is characterized by use of the 12 major and 12 minor keys of the tonal system.

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(born Aug. 1, 1779, Frederick county, Md., U.S.—died Jan. 11, 1843, Baltimore, Md.) U.S. lawyer, author of “The Star Spangled Banner.” After the burning of Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812 he was sent to secure the release of a friend from a British ship in Chesapeake Bay. He watched the British shelling of Fort McHenry during the night of Sept. 13–14, 1814; when he saw the U.S. flag still flying the next morning, he wrote the poem “Defense of Fort M'Henry.” Published in the Baltimore Patriot, it was later set to the tune of an English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The song was adopted as the U.S. national anthem in 1931.

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(born Jan. 27, 1824, Greene county, Tenn., U.S.—died Feb. 3, 1900, Chattanooga, Tenn.) U.S. politician. Admitted to the bar in 1850, he practiced law in Chattanooga and became active in Democratic Party politics. He opposed secession by the South but served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he worked to heal sectional grievances and restore the Union. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate (1875), succeeding former president Andrew Johnson, but two years later was defeated in a bid to retain the seat. When the disputed 1876 presidential election was turned over to a special Electoral Commission, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, secured the support of Southern Democrats by promising, among other things, to appoint a Southerner to his cabinet. Key was thus appointed postmaster general in 1877. From 1880 to 1894 Key was a U.S. district judge in Tennessee.

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City (pop., 2000: 25,478), southwestern Florida, U.S. The southernmost city of the continental U.S., it lies on an island about 4 mi (6.5 km) long and 1.5 mi (2.4 km) wide in the western Florida Keys. The name is an English corruption of Cayo Hueso (“Bone Islet”), as it was called by Spanish explorers who found human bones there. In 1822 a U.S. naval depot was set up on Key West as a base of operations against pirates. Now a winter resort, Key West is also a tourist destination. Many writers and artists have lived there, and the homes of Ernest Hemingway and John James Audubon have been preserved.

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(born Sept. 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.—died Dec. 21, 1940, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Fitzgerald attended Princeton University but dropped out with bad grades. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre (1900–48), daughter of a respected Alabama judge. His works, including the early novels This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922) and the story collections Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) and All the Sad Young Men (1926), capture the Jazz Age's vulgarity and dazzling promise. His brilliant The Great Gatsby (1925; film, 1926, 1949, 1974; TV movie 2001), a story of American wealth and corruption, was eventually acclaimed one of the century's greatest novels. In 1924 Scott and Zelda became part of the expatriate community on the French Riviera, the setting of Tender Is the Night (1934; film, 1962). His fame and prosperity proved disorienting to them both, and he became seriously alcoholic. Zelda never fully recovered from a mental breakdown in 1932 and spent most of her remaining years in a sanitarium. In 1937 Scott moved to Hollywood to write film scripts; the experience inspired the unfinished The Last Tycoon (1941; film, 1976). He died of a heart attack at age 44.

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(born Aug. 1, 1779, Frederick county, Md., U.S.—died Jan. 11, 1843, Baltimore, Md.) U.S. lawyer, author of “The Star Spangled Banner.” After the burning of Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812 he was sent to secure the release of a friend from a British ship in Chesapeake Bay. He watched the British shelling of Fort McHenry during the night of Sept. 13–14, 1814; when he saw the U.S. flag still flying the next morning, he wrote the poem “Defense of Fort M'Henry.” Published in the Baltimore Patriot, it was later set to the tune of an English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The song was adopted as the U.S. national anthem in 1931.

Learn more about Key, Francis Scott with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 24, 1896, St. Paul, Minn., U.S.—died Dec. 21, 1940, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Fitzgerald attended Princeton University but dropped out with bad grades. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre (1900–48), daughter of a respected Alabama judge. His works, including the early novels This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922) and the story collections Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) and All the Sad Young Men (1926), capture the Jazz Age's vulgarity and dazzling promise. His brilliant The Great Gatsby (1925; film, 1926, 1949, 1974; TV movie 2001), a story of American wealth and corruption, was eventually acclaimed one of the century's greatest novels. In 1924 Scott and Zelda became part of the expatriate community on the French Riviera, the setting of Tender Is the Night (1934; film, 1962). His fame and prosperity proved disorienting to them both, and he became seriously alcoholic. Zelda never fully recovered from a mental breakdown in 1932 and spent most of her remaining years in a sanitarium. In 1937 Scott moved to Hollywood to write film scripts; the experience inspired the unfinished The Last Tycoon (1941; film, 1976). He died of a heart attack at age 44.

Learn more about Fitzgerald, F(rancis) Scott (Key) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 27, 1824, Greene county, Tenn., U.S.—died Feb. 3, 1900, Chattanooga, Tenn.) U.S. politician. Admitted to the bar in 1850, he practiced law in Chattanooga and became active in Democratic Party politics. He opposed secession by the South but served in the Confederate army during the American Civil War, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he worked to heal sectional grievances and restore the Union. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate (1875), succeeding former president Andrew Johnson, but two years later was defeated in a bid to retain the seat. When the disputed 1876 presidential election was turned over to a special Electoral Commission, the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, secured the support of Southern Democrats by promising, among other things, to appoint a Southerner to his cabinet. Key was thus appointed postmaster general in 1877. From 1880 to 1894 Key was a U.S. district judge in Tennessee.

Learn more about Key, David M(cKendree) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Key may refer to:

Building

• Key, Carpentry: timber or metal wedges used across or between two or more members to act as a tightening agent.
• Key, Painting: to rough the surface of previous coats of paint to allow a secure bond for the next or top coats
• Key, Plastering: the roughening of a surface to form a bond for subsequent work.
• Key(stone) The stone at the apex of an arch that holds the arch in place.

Technology

• Key (lock), device used to open a lock
• Churchkey, various kinds of bottle and can openers
• Keychain, small chain that connects a small item to a keyring
• Telegraph key, the button used by a telegraph operator
• Unique key, a value which is used to specify a unique row in a database table
• Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptogaphy algorithm
• Computer keyboard keys
• Key (orthodontics), a key used on a Palatal expander
• Skeleton key

Music

• Key (instrument)—musical instruments have keys for tuning and keys for playing
• Key (music), a set of notes
• Key signature, in musical notation
• Clef, the symbol that assigns note names to the lines and spaces of the musical staff

Map Key, invented to interpret cartography by Dr. Freymann in the 8th century

Geography

• Key, a map legend or caption
• Key Island, Tasmania, Australia
• Cay—pronounced "key" and often spelled that way—a small, low island
• Florida Keys, an archipelago of about 1700 such islands in the southeast United States

Artistry

• Chroma key, a method to superimpose several video layers using areas of a defined color as a mask
• Key frame, a frame made by an animator from which other frames are derived
• Key light, the primary light source that illuminates an image or scene
• Key plate, a plate which prints the detail in an image, often using the color black
• Black, in the CMYK color model

Fiction

• Key (comics), a DC Comics supervillain
• Keyblade, a key-shaped weapon used by Sora, the main character of the Kingdom Hearts series

Literature

• Keyword (linguistics), word which occurs in a text more often than we would expect to occur by chance alone
• Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, book written by the Welsh Marxist academic Raymond Williams
• The Keys to the Kingdom, a fantasy-adventure book series
• The Key (novel) is the third and final novel in Marianne Curley's Guardians of Time trilogy

Surnames

Miscellanea

• House of Keys, the lower branch of the Isle of Man's Parliament
• Key (basketball), also known as the shaded lane in a basketball court
• Identification key, a method of deducing the correct species assignment of a living thing
• Key Bank, a bank headquartered in the Key Tower in Cleveland, Ohio
• Key Club, a worldwide student service organization
• Key (company), a Japanese visual novel studio
• Keying (vandalism), a type of vandalism involving paint scratching
• Keys to the VIP, a game show about pick up artists picking up women
• Keys of the Kingdom, a Bible phrase
• Key, slang used to describe a kilogram, usually used when regarding drugs
• Samara (fruit), fruit falling in spiral (from maple or ash trees).
• Keying (graphics), best known as Chroma keying, AKA Green-screen/Blue-screen.
• KeY, a software verification tool.
• Key the Metal Idol, an anime OVA series produced by Studio Pierrot.

See also

• Cay
• Quay