Accommodation of the Eye

Function or property of the eye by which near and distant objects can be seen clearly. This is accomplished by the contraction or relaxation of a circular muscle (celiary muscle), which lies behind the crystalline lens, thus increasing or decreasing its convexity and accommodating it to near or remote vision. The natural changes which occur as the age increases render the lens le elastic, and its convexity cannot be increased sufficiently to allow of near vision. Accompaniment, In Music, Speaking generally, all the elements in a composition are subsidiary to the principal part. In primitive music the accompaniment is chiefly rhythmical, hand-clapping or drumming; with the development of the melodic capacity of instruments it becomes melodic and, later, harmonic. In a sense all harmony is an accompaniment to melody. In the European music of to-day, the accompaniment is gener a subsidiary instrumental part, added either to support the principal ne or color to a composition. Additional accompaniments are the parts, generally orchestral, contributed by modern musicians to pieces composed at a time when it was customary to leave to the accompanist at the organ or harpsichord the task of filling in harmonic parts contemplated and suggested by the composer but not written down; also to compositions, the original effect of which can no longer be reproduced because of the disuse of certain instruments.