text:
Rc (Unix shell)

rc (for "run commands") is the command line interpreter for Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating systems. It resembles the Bourne shell, but its syntax is somewhat simpler. It was created by Tom Duff, who is better known for an unusual C programming language construct ("Duff's device").

A port of the original rc to Unix is part of Plan 9 from User Space. A rewrite of rc for Unix-like operating systems by Byron Rakitzis is also available but includes some incompatible changes.

Rc uses C-like control structures instead of the original Bourne shell's ALGOL-like structures, except that it uses an  construct instead of , and has a Bourne-like   loop to iterate over lists. In rc, all variables are lists of strings, which eliminates the need for constructs like " ". Variables are not re-split when expanded. The language is described in Duff's paper.

es
es (for "extensible shell") is an open source, command line interpreter developed by Rakitzis and Paul Haahr that uses a scripting language syntax influenced by the rc shell. It was originally based on code from Byron Rakitzis's clone of rc for Unix.

Extensible shell is intended to provide a fully functional programming language as a Unix shell. It does so by introducing "program fragments" in braces as a new datatype, lexical scoping via let, and some more minor improvements. The bulk of es development occurred in the early 1990s, after the shell was introduced at the Winter 1993 USENIX conference in San Diego, Official releases appear to have ceased after 0.9-beta-1 in 1997, and es lacks features as compared to more popular shells, such as zsh and bash. A public domain fork of es is active as of 2019.

Examples
The Bourne shell script:

is expressed in rc as:

Rc also supports more dynamic piping:

a |[2] b   # pipe only standard error of a to b — equivalent to '3>&2 2>&1 >&3 | b' in Bourne shell a <>b      # opens file b as a's standard input and standard output a <{b} <{c} # becomes a {standard output of b} {standard output of c}, # better known as "process substitution"

title: Rc (Unix shell)


text:
Kirov, Russia

Kirov (Киров; masculine) or Kirova (Кирова; feminine or masculine genitive) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia.

Urban localities

 * Kirov, Kirov Oblast, a city and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast
 * Kirov, Kaluga Oblast, a town in Kaluga Oblast

Rural localities

 * Kirov, Republic of Adygea, a khutor in Shovgenovsky District of the Republic of Adygea
 * Kirov, Bryansk Oblast, a settlement in Klintsovsky District of Bryansk Oblast
 * Kirov, name of several other rural localities
 * Kirova, Republic of Bashkortostan, a khutor in Kugarchinsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan
 * Kirova, Volgograd Oblast, a settlement in Svetloyarsky District of Volgograd Oblast
 * Kirova, Yaroslavl Oblast, a settlement in Rybinsky District of Yaroslavl Oblast
 * Kirov, Sakha Republic, a selo in Nyurbinsky District of the Sakha Republic

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Kirov, Russia


text:
George Swede

George Swede (Juris Švēde), (born as Juris Puriņš, November 20, 1940 in Riga, Latvia) is a Latvian Canadian psychologist, poet and children's writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is a major figure in English-language haiku, known for his wry, poignant observations

Life
In 1947, Swede arrived with his mother and stepfather from post-WW II Europe to live with his maternal grandparents on a fruit farm in Oyama, British Columbia and, when his stepfather died in 1950, Swede moved with his mother to Vancouver where he finished junior high and high school. Then he studied at the University of British Columbia, where he graduated with a B.A. in Psychology in 1964. After that, he worked briefly as a psychologist at B.C. Penitentiary in New Westminster. In 1965, he got an M.A. at Dalhousie University with a published thesis From 1966 to 1967, Swede was a psychology instructor at Vancouver City College, after which he worked as a school psychologist at the Scarborough Board of Education in Toronto until 1968.

He resumed his academic career at Ryerson University, where he stayed as member of the psychology department from 1968 to 2006 (as chair from 1998 to 2003). From 1970 to 1975 he served as Director for Developmental Psychology at Ryerson Open College, a virtual university which broadcast lectures by radio (on CJRT-FM) and TV (CBC and CTV) from 1970 to 1975; and from 1993 to 2000 he was engaged in Ryerson University Now (RUN), an initiative to get bright but disadvantaged students interested in going to university. This was achieved by enrolling Vaughan Road Academy students in a university level introductory psychology course that Swede taught. Most graduated and many received scholarships to attend university.

Swede was named the Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives for the 2008-09 term in recognition of his contributions to haiku at the California State Library in Sacramento, California.

The George Swede Papers, thus far from 1968 to 2012, are at the Fisher Library, University of Toronto. See also his papers at the Archives & Special Collections, Toronto Metropolitan University

SWEDE BEGAN WRITING FREE VERSE in the late 1960s and published in such journals as
 * Antigonish Review
 * Canadian Forum;
 * Grain
 * New Quarterly
 * Open Letter
 * Piedmont Literary Review;
 * Quarry Magazine
 * Rampike
 * Tamarack Review
 * Toronto Life

SWEDE'S INTEREST IN THE HAIKU Japanese poetry began in 1976 when he was asked to review Makoto Ueda's Modern Japanese Haiku (University of Toronto Press, 1976).

Swede then began publishing in such journals as
 * Acorn
 * American Tanka
 * Cicada
 * Frogpond
 * Industrial Sabotage
 * Inkstone
 * Mainichi Shimbun, Haiku in English
 * Modern Haiku
 * Simply Haiku

In 1977, along with Betty Drevniok and Eric Amann, Swede co-founded Haiku Canada.

At its 30th anniversary held in Ottawa in May 2007, Haiku Canada awarded Swede an Honorary Life Membership. In an interview with Alok Mishra, Editor-in-Chief, Ashvamegh, Swede spoke about the poets who have influenced him—Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, Ezra Pound and others.

SWEDE COMBINED HIS INTERESTS IN POETRY AND PSYCHOLOGY when he published an article revealing the influences, starting in childhood, that motivate someone to become a poet:

REVIEWS OF SWEDE'S WORK have appeared in numerous literary magazines as well as publications that emphasize literary criticism:
 * Canadian Literature
 * Books in Canada
 * Canadian Children's Literature

IN-DEPTH ANALYSES of Swede's work have appeared in the following periodicals: SWEDE'S MAJOR EDITORIAL POSITION was from 2008 to 2012 as editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.
 * Ryerson Magazine
 * Poetry Toronto
 * Origin
 * CJRT-FM: Contemporary Poets
 * What;
 * Canadian Author & Bookman
 * TVOntario: In Conversation With . ..
 * Blithe Spirit
 * BBC Radio 3: Close To Silence
 * Amanda Hill on George Swede
 * haijinx
 * Simply Haiku
 * Hirschfield, R.″George Swede: Haiku Master & Secular Contemplative″ Beshara MagazineIssue 22, 2022, United Kingdom, 15 pars.
 * Hirschfield, R. ″Discovering George Swede: The Timeless World of Haiku.″ ″3rd Act Magazine″ Winter 2022/23, U.S.A., 21 pars.
 * Hirschfield, R. "The Haiku Journey of a Secular Contemplative."
 * Hirschfield, R. "The Death Haiku of George Swede."

Awards

 * Co-winner, High/Coo Press Mini-Chapbook Competition, 1982 for "All of Her Shadows"
 * Museum of Haiku Literature Award, "Frogpond", 5:4, 1983
 * Museum of Haiku Literature Award, "Frogpond", 8:2, 1985
 * "Our Choice", Canadian Children's Book Centre, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1992
 * Museum of Haiku Literature Award, "Frogpond", 15:2, 1992
 * First Prize, "Mainichi Daily News" Haiku Contest in English, 1994
 * Second Prize, "Mainichi Daily News" 125th Anniversary Haiku Contest, 1997
 * Third Prize, Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest, Haiku Society of America, 1997
 * First Prize, The Snapshot Press Tanka Collection Competition 2005 for "First Light, First Shadows"ISBN 978-1-903543-19-1
 * Associate, The Haiku Foundation, 2008
 * Honorary Curator, American Haiku Archives, 2008/09
 * Second Prize, "Mainichi Daily News" Haiku Contest in English, 2008
 * Scorpion Prize, "Roadrunner" 2010, 10:1 Judged by Marjorie Perloff
 * Second Prize (Tokusen), Foreign Language Category, Kusamakura International Haiku Competition, 2010
 * Honorable Mention, Touchstone Book Awards 2010 for "Joy In Me Still"
 * Grand Prize (Taisho), Foreign Language Category, Kusamakura International Haiku Competition, 2011
 * First Honorable Mention, Kanterman Book Awards 2011 for "Joy In Me Still"
 * Scorpion Prize, "Roadrunner" 2012, 12:2 Judged by Mark Wallace
 * Honorable Mention, Touchstone Book Awards 2014 for "micro haiku: three to nine syllables"
 * Honorable Mention, Mildred Kanterman Merit Book Award, Haiku Society of America, 2015, for "micro haiku: three to nine syllables"
 * First Prize, Mildred Kanterman Merit Book Award, Haiku Society of America, 2017, for ″Helices″
 * One of 4 Winners, e-Chapbook Awards, 2019 for "Arithmetic"
 * 3rd Place, The Marianne Bluger Book and Chapbook Awards 2024 for The Way A Poem Emerges: A Haiku Trinity & Beyond.

title: George Swede


text:
1896 in music

Events in the year 1896 in music.

Specific locations

 * 1896 in Norwegian music

Events

 * March 18 – Danish composer Carl Nielsen conducts a performance of his First Symphony in Dresden; the event marks the beginning of his international success.
 * March 19 – Leo Stern is soloist in the première of Dvořák's Cello Concerto, in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, at the Queen's Hall in London.
 * April 13 – Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Lemminkäinen Suite in Helsinki.
 * December 27 – Formal première of Ernest Chausson's Poème for violin and orchestra, Op. 25, with Eugène Ysaÿe as soloist, at Nancy, France.
 * Engelbert Humperdinck is created a professor of music by the Kaiser.
 * Gabriel Fauré takes over from Théodore Dubois as organist of the church of La Madeleine, Paris.
 * In Moscow, Mariya Kerzina and her husband Arkadiy Kerzin form the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, a performance society.

Published popular music

 * "All Coons Look Alike to Me"    w.m. Ernest Hogan
 * "Årstiderna"    w.m. Alice Tegnér
 * "The Amorous Goldfish"    w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
 * "Chin, Chin, Chinaman"    w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones
 * "El Capitan March"    m. John Philip Sousa
 * "Eli Green's Cakewalk"    w.m. David Reed & Sadie Koninsky
 * "Elsie From Chelsea"    w.m. Harry Dacre
 * "Going For A Pardon"    w. James Thornton & Clara Havenschild m. James Thornton
 * "Happy Days In Dixie"    m. Kerry Mills
 * "Hot Tamale Alley" by George M. Cohan
 * "A Hot Time In The Old Town"    w. Joseph Hayden m. Theodore A. Metz
 * "I Love You In The Same Old Way – Darling Sue"    w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton
 * "In The Baggage Coach Ahead"    w.m. Gussie L. Davis
 * "A Jovial Monk Am I"    w. (Eng) Arthur Sturgess m. Edmond Audran
 * "Kentucky Babe"    w. Richard Henry Buck m. Adam Geibel
 * "Laugh And The World Laughs With You"    w. Ella Wheeler Wilcox m. Louis Gottschalk
 * "Love Makes The World Go 'Round"    w. Clyde Fitch m. arr. William Furst
 * "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose"    w.m. Ben Harney
 * "Mother Was A Lady"    w. Edward B. Marks m. Joseph W. Stern
 * "Musetta's Waltz Song"    m. Giacomo Puccini
 * "My Gal Is A High Born Lady"    w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders
 * "Remus Takes the Cake" by J. H. Ellis
 * "The Saint Louis Cyclone" by Ren Shields & George Evans
 * "Sambo at the Cakewalk" by Alfred E. Marks
 * "Stars & Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa
 * "Sweet Rosie O'Grady" w.m. Maude Nugent
 * "To A Wild Rose"    m. Edward MacDowell
 * "Warmest Baby in the Bunch" by George M. Cohan
 * "When the Saints Are Marching In"    w. Katharine E. Purvis m. James M. Black
 * "You've Been a Good Old Wagon but You Done Broke Down" w.m. Ben Harney

Recorded popular music

 * "All Coons Look Alike to Me" (w.m. Ernest Hogan) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
 * "The Amorous Goldfish" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison Records
 * "And Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back" (w. Monroe H. Rosenfeld m. Felix McGlennon) – Maud Foster on Berliner Records
 * "Annie Laurie" (w. William Douglas m. Lady John Douglas Scott) – George J. Gaskin on Edison –  Edison Male Quartette on Edison
 * "Auld Lang Syne" (w. adapted Robert Burns) – Edison Male Quartette on Edison
 * "The Band Played On" (w. John F. Palmer m. Charles B. Ward) – Dan W. Quinn on Columbia records and Berliner
 * "The Belle of Avenoo A" (w.m. Safford Waters) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Ben Bolt" (w. Thomas Dunn English m. Nelson Kneass) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "The Blue Danube" (m. Johann Strauss) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Chin, Chin, Chinaman" (w. Harry Greenbank m. Sidney Jones) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
 * "La Donna è Mobile" (w. Francesco Piave m. Giuseppe Verdi) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Don't You Hear Dem Bells?" (w.m. D. S. McCosh) – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
 * "Down in Poverty Row" (w. Gussie L. Davis m. Arthur Trevelyan) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner –  George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "Elsie from Chelsea" (w.m. Harry Dacre) – Dan W. Quinn on Edison
 * "Funiculì, Funiculà" (w. G. Turco m. Luigi Denza) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "The Future Mrs 'Awkins" (w.m. Albert Chevalier) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "The Gladiators" (m. John Philip Sousa) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Hallelujah Chorus" (w. Charles Jennes m. George Frideric Handel) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "The Holy City" (w. Frederick Edward Weatherly m. Stephen Adams) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Home Sweet Home" (w. John Howard Payne m. Sir Henry Rowley Bishop) – George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "The Honeymoon" (m. George Rosey) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" (w. Philip Wingate m. Henry W. Petrie) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner –  Maud Foster on Berliner
 * "In the Baggage Coach Ahead" (w.m. Gussie L. Davis) – George J. Gaskin on Edison – Dan W. Quinn
 * "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie" (w.m. C. A. White) – Brilliant Quartet on Berliner
 * "I've Been Hoodoed" – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (w.m. Paul Dresser) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner –  Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Kathleen" (w.m. Helene Mora) – George J. Gaskin on Edison
 * "Kathleen Mavourneen" (w. Annie Crawford (Barry) m. Frederick William Nichols Crouch) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "King Cotton March" (m. John Philip Sousa) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (w. Alice Hawthorne m. Richard Milburn) – whistling Billy Golden on Edison
 * "The Lost Chord" (w. Adelaide Anne Procter m. Sir Arthur Sullivan) – Edison Grand Concert Band on Edison
 * "Marching Through Georgia" (w.m. Henry Clay Work) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "La Marseillaise" (w.m. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "McKinley Is Our Man" – Dan W. Quinn on U.S. Phonograph Records
 * "My Angeline" (w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert) – Frank Daniels on Berliner
 * "My Best Girl's a New Yorker" (w.m. John Stromberg) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "My Gal Is a High Born Lady" (w.m. Barney Fagan arr. Gustave Luders) – George J. Gaskin on Edison –  Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "My Pearl Is A Bowery Girl" (w. William Jerome m. Andrew Mack) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Nearer, My God, To Thee" (w. Sarah F. Adams m. Lowell Mason) – J. W. Myers on Berliner –  Len Spencer & Roger Harding on Columbia
 * "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (w. Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould m. Sir Arthur Sullivan) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "The Palms" (Jean-Baptiste Faure) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "La Paloma" (w. anon m. Sebastian Yradier) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "Private Tommy Atkins" (w. Henry Hamilton m. S. Potter) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Put Me Off at Buffalo" (Dillon Brothers, w. Harry Dillon m. John Dillon) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "Rock of Ages" (w. Augustus Montague Toplady m. Thomas Hasting) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "'Round His Bed I'm Goin' to Creep" –  Len Spencer on Columbia
 * "Sally in Our Alley" (w. Henry Carey m. trad) – Edison Male Quartette on Edison –  George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured" (w.m. William B. Gray) – Steve Porter on Columbia
 * "She May Have Seen Better Days" (w.m. James Thornton) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "The Sidewalks of New York" (w.m. Charles B. Lawlor & James W. Blake) – George J. Gaskin on Edison and on Berliner
 * "The Streets of Cairo" (w.m. James Thornton) – Dan W. Quinn on Berliner
 * "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley" (w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" (w.m. Walter Kittredge) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Then You'll Remember Me" (w. Alfred Bunn m. Michael William Balfe) – Ferruccio Giannini on Berliner
 * "There's Only One Girl in the World for Me" (w.m. Dave Marion) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "They Are the Best Friends of All" – Helene Mora on US Phonograph Records
 * "Toreador Song" (w. Henri Meilhac, Ludovic Halévy m. Georges Bizet) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (w.m. George Frederick Root) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Trilby Song" – Maurice Farkoa with  piano Frank Lambert on Berliner
 * "Watchman Tell Us of the Night" (Bowring, Mason) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "'Way Down Yonder in the Cornfield" – Columbia Quartette on Columbia
 * "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (w.m. Louis Lambert) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner
 * "Where Is My Wandering Boy, Tonight?" (w.m. Rev. R. Lowry) – J. W. Myers on Berliner
 * "Wot Cher!" (w. Albert Chevalier m. Charles Ingle) – George J. Gaskin on Berliner

Classical music

 * Eyvind Alnæs – Symphony No. 1
 * Amy Beach
 * Symphony in E minor "Gaelic"
 * Violin Sonata
 * Johannes Brahms
 * Vier ernste Gesänge
 * Eleven Chorale Preludes for organ
 * Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 9 (finished three movements, sketches of finale)
 * Ernest Chausson – Poème for violin and orchestra
 * Cornelis Dopper – Symphony No. 1
 * Antonín Dvořák
 * The Water Goblin
 * The Noon-Day Witch (and two other "Erben tone-poems", given their premiere later in the year in London)
 * Quartet in A-flat major Op. 105
 * The Wild Dove, Op.110
 * Louis Ganne – Extase
 * Gustav Holst – Quintet for piano and winds
 * Vincent d'Indy – Istar
 * Charles Ives – String Quartet no. 1, From the Salvation Army
 * Edward MacDowell – Woodland Sketches
 * Albéric Magnard – Symphony No. 3 Opus 11 (1895–96)
 * Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 3 completed
 * Hans Pfitzner – Piano Trio in F Opus 8
 * Sergei Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 1 (1895–96)
 * Maurice Ravel
 * "D'Anne jouant de l'espinette"
 * La parade
 * "Sainte"
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Egyptian")
 * Violin Sonata No. 2
 * Alexander Scriabin
 * 24 Preludes for Piano, Op. 11
 * 5 Preludes for Piano, Op. 15
 * Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20
 * Jean Sibelius – Coronation Cantata
 * Richard Strauss – Also sprach Zarathustra
 * George Templeton Strong – 4 Poems, Op.36
 * Francisco Tárrega – Recuerdos de la Alhambra
 * Alexander von Zemlinsky
 * String Quartet No. 1
 * Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Opera

 * August Enna – Aucassin og Nicolette
 * Zdeněk Fibich – Hedy, premiered February 12 in Prague
 * Gialdino Gialdini – La Pupilla premiered October 23 at the Societá Filarmonica Drammatica, Trieste
 * Umberto Giordano – Andrea Chénier
 * Paul Juon – Aleko
 * Ruggiero Leoncavallo – Chatterton
 * Friedrich Lux – The Duchess of Athens
 * Giacomo Puccini – La Bohème, Teatro Regio in Turin.
 * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Sadko
 * Charles Villiers Stanford – Shamus O'Brien (revised 1907)
 * Hugo Wolf – Der Corregidor

Musical theater

 * The Art Of Maryland    Broadway production
 * El Capitan    Broadway production
 * The Circus Girl    London production
 * The Gay Parisienne    London production
 * The Geisha    London production
 * The Geisha    Broadway production
 * The Girl From Paris    London production
 * The Grand Duke    London production

Births

 * January 20 – Elmer Diktonius, poet and composer (d. 1961)
 * January 25 – Florence Mills, cabaret and jazz performer (d. 1927)
 * January 28 – Elsie Carlisle, English singer (d. 1977)
 * February 3 – Kid Thomas Valentine, jazz trumpeter (d. 1987)
 * February 9 – Steffy Goldner, harpist (d. 1962)
 * February 22 – Nacio Herb Brown, US songwriter (d. 1964)
 * March 1 – Dimitris Mitropoulos, pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1960)
 * April 10 – Edith Day, US actress, singer and dancer (d. 1971)
 * April 30 – Reverend Gary Davis, blues and gospel singer and instrumentalist (d. 1972)
 * June 20 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian conductor (d. 1982)
 * July 10
 * Stefan Askenase, Polish-Belgian classical pianist and pedagogue (d. 1985)
 * Maurice Zbriger, Ukrainian-born Canadian violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1981)
 * August 2 – Lorenzo Herrera, singer and composer (d. 1960)
 * August 15 – Léon Theremin, Russian inventor of the musical instrument named after him (d. 1993)
 * September 2 – Amanda Randolph, actress and singer (d. 1967)
 * September 8 – Howard Dietz, lyricist (d. 1983)
 * September 10 – Adele Astaire, US dancer and singer (d. 1981)
 * September 15 – Bert Ambrose, English bandleader and violinist (d. 1971)
 * September 25 – Roberto Gerhard, composer (d. 1970)
 * October 7 – Phil Ohman, US bandleader (d. 1954)
 * October 17 – Fernando Obradors, composer (d. 1945)
 * October 18 – Friedrich Hollaender, composer (d. 1976)
 * October 28 – Howard Hanson, composer (d. 1981)
 * October 31 – Ethel Waters, singer (d. 1977)
 * November 23 – Ruth Etting, US singer (d. 1978)
 * November 25 – Virgil Thomson, composer and critic (d. 1989)
 * December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (d. 1983)
 * December 12 – Jenö Ádám, conductor, composer and music teacher (d. 1982)
 * December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and music teacher (d. 1971)
 * December 28 – Roger Sessions, composer (d. 1985)

Deaths

 * January 28 – Sir Joseph Barnby, conductor and composer (b. 1838)
 * February 5 – Henry David Leslie, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
 * February 6 – Juliette Dorus-Gras, operatic soprano (born 1896)
 * February 12 – Ambroise Thomas, composer (b. 1811)
 * February 13 – Carl Martin Reinthaler, organist, conductor and composer (b. 1822)
 * March 5 – Hiromori Hayashi, composer (b. 1831)
 * April 12 – Alexander Ritter, composer and violinist (b. 1833)
 * May 12 – Juan Morel Campos, danza composer (b. 1857)
 * May 20 – Clara Schumann, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
 * June 7 – Pavlos Carrer, composer (b. 1829)
 * June 22 – Sir Augustus Harris, librettist and impresario (b. 1852)
 * June 28 – Jenny Hill, music hall performer (b. 1848; tuberculosis)
 * July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (b. 1818)
 * July 17 – Alfred Novello, music publisher (b. 1810)
 * July 26 – Théodore Salomé, organist and composer (b. 1834)
 * August 1 – Wilhelm Herman Barth, violinist, composer and music theorist (b. 1813)
 * August 18 – Frederick Crouch, cellist and composer (b. 1808)
 * September 16 – Antônio Carlos Gomes, composer (b. 1836)
 * September 22 – Katharina Klafsky, Wagnerian soprano (b. 1855)
 * September 23 – Gilbert Duprez, operatic tenor (b. 1806)
 * October 11 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
 * October 17 – Henry Eugene Abbey, theatre manager (b. 1846)
 * November 25 – Spyridon Xyndas, composer (b. 1812)
 * December 3 – László Erkel, Hungarian composer, son of Ferenc Erkel
 * December 13 – Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski, musicologist, conductor, and composer (b. 1822)
 * December 17 – Richard Pohl, writer, critic and composer (b. 1826)
 * December 24 – Anders Ljungqvist, fiddler (b. 1815)
 * date unknown
 * Luigia Abbadia, operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1821)
 * Gopalakrishna Bharati, poet and Carnatic music composer (b. 1810)

title: 1896 in music


text:
Almquist shell

Almquist shell (also known as A Shell, ash and sh) is a lightweight Unix shell originally written by Kenneth Almquist in the late 1980s. Initially a clone of the System V.4 variant of the Bourne shell, it replaced the original Bourne shell in the BSD versions of Unix released in the early 1990s.

History
ash was first released via a posting to the comp.sources.unix Usenet news group, approved and moderated by Rich Salz on 30 May 1989. It was described as "a reimplementation of the System V shell [with] most features of that shell, plus some additions".

Fast, small, and virtually compatible with the POSIX standard's specification of the Unix shell, ash did not provide line editing or command history mechanisms, because Almquist felt that such functionality should be moved into the terminal driver. However, current variants support it.

The following is extracted from the ash package information from Slackware v14:

"ash (Kenneth Almquist's ash shell) A lightweight (92K) Bourne compatible shell. Great for machines with low memory, but does not provide all the extras of shells like bash, tcsh, and zsh. Runs most shell scripts compatible with the Bourne shell. Note that under Linux, most scripts seem to use at least some bash-specific syntax. The Slackware setup scripts are a notable exception, since ash is the shell used on the install disks. NetBSD uses ash as its /bin/sh."

Myriad forks have been produced from the original ash release. These derivatives of ash are installed as the default shell on FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, MINIX, and in some Linux distributions. MINIX 3.2 used the original ash version, whose test feature differed from POSIX. That version of the shell was replaced in MINIX 3.3. Android used ash until Android 4.0, at which point it switched to mksh.

Dash
In 1997 Herbert Xu ported  from NetBSD to Debian Linux. In September 2002, with release 0.4.1, this port was renamed to Dash (Debian Almquist shell). Xu's main priorities are POSIX conformance and slim implementation.

Like its predecessor, Dash implements support for neither internationalization and localization nor multi-byte character encoding (both required in POSIX). Line editing and history support based on GNU Readline is optional (--with-libedit).

Adoption in Debian and Ubuntu
Because of its slimness, Ubuntu decided to adopt Dash as the default  in 2006. The reason for using Dash is faster shell script execution, especially during startup of the operating system, compared to previous versions of Debian and Ubuntu that used Bash for this purpose, although Bash is still the default login shell for interactive use. Dash became the default  in Ubuntu starting with the 6.10 release in October 2006. Dash replaced Bash and became the default  in Debian 6 (Squeeze), released in February 2011.

A result of the shift is that many shell scripts were found making use of Bash-specific functionalities ("bashisms") without properly declaring it in the shebang line. The problem was first spotted in Ubuntu and the Ubuntu maintainers decided to make all the scripts comply with the POSIX standard. The changes were later upstreamed to Debian, which eventually adopted Dash as its default /bin/sh too. As a result, Debian policy was amended to allow script developers to assume a largely POSIX-compliant shell, save for the extensions merged into Dash for convenience (local, echo -n, test -a / -o). A similar transition has happened in Slackware Linux, although their version of ash is only partially based on Dash.

Embedded Linux
Ash (mainly the Dash fork) is also fairly popular in embedded Linux systems. Dash version 0.3.8-5 was incorporated into BusyBox, the catch-all executable often employed in this area, and is used in distributions like DSLinux, Alpine Linux, Tiny Core Linux and Linux-based router firmware such as OpenWrt, Tomato and DD-WRT.

title: Almquist shell


text:
Mercury Phoenix Trust

The Mercury Phoenix Trust is a charity organisation that fights HIV/AIDS worldwide.

After the death of Queen singer Freddie Mercury from AIDS-related causes in London in 1991, the remaining members of the band and Jim Beach, their manager, organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, the proceeds of which were used to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust. The organisation has been active ever since.

The trustees are: Brian May, Roger Taylor, Jim Beach, and Mercury's former fiance Mary Austin.

title: Mercury Phoenix Trust


text:
Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blues, leading to what is considered "classic" rock and roll. Some have also described it as a blend of bluegrass with rock and roll. The term "rockabilly" itself is a portmanteau of "rock" (from "rock 'n' roll") and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music (often called "hillbilly music" in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie-woogie, jump blues, and electric blues.

Defining features of the rockabilly sound included strong rhythms, boogie woogie piano riffs, vocal twangs, doo-wop acapella singing, and common use of the tape echo; and eventually came to incorporate different instruments and vocal harmonies. Initially popularized by artists such as Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Johnny Burnette, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and others, the rockabilly style waned in the late 1950s; nonetheless, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, rockabilly enjoyed a revival. An interest in the genre endures even in the 21st century, often within musical subcultures. Rockabilly has spawned a variety of sub-styles and has influenced the development of other genres such as punk rock.

History
There was a close relationship between blues and country music from the very earliest country recordings in the 1920s. The first nationwide country hit was "Wreck of the Old 97", backed with "The Prisoner's Song", which also became quite popular. Jimmie Rodgers, the "first true country star", was known as the "Blue Yodeler", and most of his songs used blues-based chord progressions, although with very different instrumentation and sound from the recordings of his black contemporaries like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bessie Smith.

During the 1930s and 1940s, two new sounds emerged. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were the leading proponents of Western Swing, which combined country singing and steel guitar with big band jazz influences and horn sections; Wills's music found massive popularity. Recordings of Wills's from the mid 1940s to the early 1950s include "two beat jazz" rhythms, "jazz choruses", and guitar work that preceded early rockabilly recordings. Wills is quoted as saying "Rock and Roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!... But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important."

After blues artists like Meade Lux Lewis and Pete Johnson launched a nationwide boogie craze starting in 1938, country artists like Moon Mullican, the Delmore Brothers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Speedy West, Jimmy Bryant, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose began recording what was then known as "hillbilly boogie", which consisted of "hillbilly" vocals and instrumentation with a boogie bass line.

After World War II, The Maddox Brothers and Rose were at "the leading edge of rockabilly with the slapped bass that Fred Maddox had developed". They had shifted into higher gear leaning toward a whimsical honky-tonk feel, with a heavy, manic bottom end and high volume. The Maddoxes were known for their lively, antic-filled shows, which were an influential novelty for white listeners and musicians alike.

Along with country, swing and boogie influences, jump blues artists such as Wynonie Harris and Roy Brown, and electric blues acts such as Howlin' Wolf, Junior Parker, and Arthur Crudup, influenced the development of rockabilly. The Memphis blues musician Junior Parker and his electric blues band, Little Junior's Blue Flames, featuring Pat Hare on the guitar, were a major influence on the rockabilly style, particularly with their songs "Love My Baby" and "Mystery Train" in 1953.

Zeb Turner's February 1953 recording of "Jersey Rock" with its mix of musical styles, lyrics about music and dancing, and guitar solo, is another example of the mixing of musical genres in the first half of the 1950s.

Bill Monroe is known as the Father of Bluegrass, a specific style of country music. Many of his songs were in blues form, while others took the form of folk ballads, parlor songs, or waltzes. Bluegrass was a staple of country music in the early 1950s and is often mentioned as an influence in the development of rockabilly, in part owing to its favoring of fast tempos.

The Honky Tonk sound, which "tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity", also included songs of energetic, uptempo Hillbilly Boogie. Some of the better known musicians who recorded and performed these songs are: the Delmore Brothers, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Merle Travis, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Tennessee
Sharecroppers' sons Carl Perkins and his brothers Jay and Clayton, along with drummer W. S. Holland, had established themselves as one of the hottest bands on the honky-tonk circuit around Jackson, Tennessee. Most of the songs they played were country standards with a faster rhythm. It was here that Carl started composing his first songs. While playing, he would watch the dance floor to see what the audience preferred and adjust his compositions to suit, writing them down only when he was sure they were finished. Carl sent numerous demos to New York record companies with no success; the producers believed the Perkins' style of rhythmically-driven country was not commercially viable. That would change in 1955 after recording the song "Blue Suede Shoes" (recorded December 19, 1955) on Sam Phillips' Memphis-based Sun Records. Later made more famous by Elvis Presley, Perkins' original version was an early rock 'n' roll standard.

In the early 1950s, there was heavy competition among Memphis area bands playing an audience-savvy mix of covers, original songs, and hillbilly flavored blues. One source mentions both local disc jockey Dewey Phillips and producer Sam Phillips as being influential. An early radio show on KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas quickly became a mix of blues, country and early rockabilly. The Saturday Night Jamboree was a Memphis stage show held every Saturday night at the Goodwyn Institute Auditorium in downtown Memphis, Tennessee from 1953–1954. The Jamboree shows were sometimes broadcast live on KWEM. A number of future notables performed there, including Elvis Presley. The performers often experimented with new sounds in their dressing rooms, incorporating the best ones into their shows.

In 1951 and 1952, brothers Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, as well as Paul Burlison, played a blend of blues, country, and rockabilly at live shows in and around the Memphis area. in 1953, they played with Doc McQueen's swing band at the Hideaway Club for a time. While there, they wrote a song called "Rock Billy Boogie", named after the Burnette brothers' sons Rocky and Billy (Rocky Burnette later became a rock and roll star in his own right), although they did not record the song until 1957. The Burnettes disliked the popular music McQueen played, so they began playing smaller shows on their own, focusing on their budding rockabilly sound. The trio released "Train Kept A-Rollin'" in 1956, listed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 500 rock songs of all time. Many consider this 1956 recording to be the first intentional use of a distortion effect on a rock song, which was played by lead guitarist Paul Burlison.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley's first recordings took place at Sun Records, a small independent label run by record producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee. For several years, Phillips had been recording and releasing performances by blues and country musicians in the area. He also ran a service allowing anyone to come in off the street and for a modest fee, record themselves on a two-song vanity record. One young man who came to record himself as a surprise for his mother, he claimed, was Elvis Presley.

Presley made enough of an impression that Phillips deputized guitarist Scotty Moore, who then enlisted bassist Bill Black, both from the Starlight Wranglers, a local western swing band, to work with the young man. The trio rehearsed dozens of songs, from traditional country to gospel. During a break on July 5, 1954, Elvis started playing "That's All Right Mama", a 1946 blues song by Arthur Crudup, and Moore and Black joined in. After several takes, Phillips had a satisfactory recording. "That's All Right" was released on July 19, 1954.

Presley's version of "That's All Right Mama" melded country, a genre associated with European-American culture, and rhythm & blues, a genre associated with African-American culture. The resulting track was denied airplay on both country radio stations and R&B stations for being "too black" and "too white", respectively. Country deejays told Phillips they would be "run out of town" for playing it. When the song was finally played by one rogue deejay, Dewey Phillips, Presley's recording created so much excitement it was described as having waged war on segregated radio stations.

All of Presley's early singles featured a blues song on one side and a country song on the other, both sung in the same genre-blending style. Presley's Sun recordings feature his vocals and rhythm guitar, Bill Black's percussive slapped bass, and Scotty Moore on an amplified guitar. Slap bass had been a staple of both western swing and hillbilly boogie since the 1940s. Scotty Moore described his playing style as an amalgamation of techniques he had picked up from other guitarists over the years. Presley's unique musical style rocketed him into the spotlight, and drew masses of followers.

Nobody was sure what to call Presley's music, so Elvis was described as "The Hillbilly Cat" and "King of Western Bop". Over the next year, Elvis would record four more singles for Sun. Rockabilly recorded by artists prior to Presley can be described as being in the long-standing country style of Rockabilly. Presley's recordings are described by some as quintessential rockabilly for their true union of country and R&B, which can be described as the true realization of the Rockabilly genre. In addition to the fusion of distinct genres, Presley's recordings contain some traditional as well as new traits: "nervously up tempo" (as Peter Guralnick describes it), with slap bass, fancy guitar picking, much echo, shouts of encouragement, and vocals full of histrionics such as hiccups, stutters, and swoops from falsetto to bass and back again.

In 1955, Elvis asked D.J. Fontana, the drummer for the Louisiana Hayride, to join him for future dates. By that time, many rockabilly bands were incorporating drums, which distinguished the sound from country music, where they were then uncommon. In the 1956 sessions shortly after Presley's move from Sun Records to RCA Victor, Presley was backed by a band that included Moore, Black, Fontana, and pianist Floyd Cramer. In 1956, Elvis also acquired vocal backup via the Jordanaires.

North of the Mason-Dixon Line

In 1951 a western swing bandleader named Bill Haley recorded a version of "Rocket 88" with his group, the Saddlemen. It is considered one of the earliest recognized rockabilly recordings. It was followed by versions of "Rock the Joint" in 1952, and original works such as "Real Rock Drive" and "Crazy Man, Crazy", the latter of which reached number 12 on the American Billboard chart in 1953. On April 12, 1954, Haley, performing with his band as Bill Haley and His Comets, recorded "Rock Around the Clock" for Decca Records of New York City. When first released in May 1954, "Rock Around the Clock" made the charts for one week at number 23, and sold 75,000 copies. In 1955, it was featured in the film Blackboard Jungle, resulting in a resurgence of sales. The song hit No. 1, held that position for eight weeks, and was the number two song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 1955. The recording was, until the late 1990s, recognized by Guinness World Records as having the highest sales claim for a pop vinyl recording, with an "unaudited" claim of 25 million copies sold.

Maine native and Connecticut resident Bill Flagg began using the term rockabilly for his combination of rock 'n' roll and hillbilly music as early as 1953. He cut several songs for Tetra Records in 1956 and 1957. "Go Cat Go" went into the National Billboard charts in 1956, and his "Guitar Rock" is cited as classic rockabilly.

In 1953, 13-year-old Janis Martin was performing at the Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRVA out of Richmond, Virginia. Martin performed a mix of country songs for the show peppered with rhythm and blues hits in a style that has been described as "proto-rockabilly". She later stated, "the audience didn't know what to make of it. They didn't hardly allow electric instruments, and I was doing some songs by black artists."

Cash, Perkins and Presley
In 1954, both Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins auditioned for Sam Phillips. Cash hoped to record gospel music, but Phillips was not interested. In October 1954, Carl Perkins recorded Perkins's original song "Movie Magg", which was released in March 1955 on Phillips's all-country label Flip. Cash returned to Sun in 1955 with his song "Hey, Porter", and his group the Tennessee Two, consisting of Marshall Grant on bass, and Luther Perkins (no relation to Carl Perkins) on lead guitar. This song and another Cash original, Cry! Cry! Cry! were released in July. ''Cry! Cry! Cry!'' managed to crack Billboard's Top 20, peaking at No. 14.

Presley's second and third singles were not as successful as his first. His fourth release, "Baby, Let's Play House", was released in May 1955, and peaked at number five on the national Billboard Country Chart. In August, Sun released Elvis's versions of "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" and "Mystery Train". "Remember to Forget" spent a total of 39 weeks on the Billboard Country Chart, five at the number one spot. "Mystery Train", peaked at number 11.

Through most of 1955, Cash, Perkins, Presley, and other Louisiana Hayride performers toured through Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi. Sun released two more Perkins songs in October: "Gone, Gone, Gone" and "Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing". Perkins and Presley in particular competed as the premier rockabilly artists.

1955 was also the year in which Chuck Berry's hillbilly-influenced single "Maybellene" reached high in the charts as a crossover hit, and Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" was not only number one for eight weeks, but was the number two record for the year. Rock and roll in general, and rockabilly in particular, was at critical mass and the next year, Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel and Don't Be Cruel would top the Billboard Charts as well.

Rockabilly goes national: 1956
In January 1956, three now-classic rockabilly songs were released: "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, and "Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins, both on Sun; and "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley on RCA Victor. Perkins's "Blue Suede Shoes" sold 20,000 records a day at one point, and it was the first million-selling country song to cross over to both rhythm and blues and pop charts. Perkins first performed "Blue Suede Shoes" on television March 17 on Ozark Jubilee, a weekly ABC-TV program. From 1955 to 1960, the live national radio and TV show from Springfield, Missouri featured Brenda Lee and Wanda Jackson and guests included Gene Vincent and other rockabilly artists. On February 11, Presley appeared on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show for the third time, singing "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Heartbreak Hotel". Both songs topped the Billboard charts.

Sun and RCA were not the only record labels releasing rockabilly music in 1956. In March Columbia released "Honky Tonk Man" by Johnny Horton, King put out "Seven Nights to Rock" by Moon Mullican, Mercury issued "Rockin' Daddy" by Eddie Bond, and Starday released Bill Mack's "Fat Woman". Two young men from Texas made their record debuts in April 1956: Buddy Holly on the Decca label, and, as a member of the Teen Kings, Roy Orbison with "Ooby Dooby" on the New Mexico/Texas based Je-wel label. Holly's big hits would not be released until 1957. Janis Martin was only fifteen years old when RCA issued a record with "Will You, Willyum" and the Martin-composed "Drugstore Rock 'n' Roll", which sold over 750,000 copies. King records issued a new disk by forty-seven-year-old Moon Mullican: "Seven Nights to Rock" and "Rock 'N' Roll Mr. Bullfrog". Twenty more sides were issued by various labels including 4 Star, Blue Hen, Dot, Cold Bond, Mercury, Reject, Republic, Rodeo, and Starday.

In April and May 1956, The Rock and Roll Trio played on Ted Mack's TV talent show in New York City. They won all three times and guaranteed them a finalist position in the September supershow. Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps' recording of "Be-Bop-A-Lula" was released on June 2, 1956, backed by "Woman Love". Within twenty-one days it sold over two hundred thousand records, stayed at the top of national pop and country charts for twenty weeks, and sold more than a million copies. These same musicians would have two more releases in 1956, followed by another in January 1957. "Queen of Rockabilly" Wanda Jackson's first record came out in July, "I Gotta Know" on the Capitol label; followed by "Hot Dog That Made Him Mad" in November. Capitol would release nine more records by Jackson, some with songs she had written herself, before the 1950s were over. The first record by Jerry Lee Lewis, who would later be known as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll, came out on December 22, 1956, and featured his version of "Crazy Arms" and "End of the Road". Lewis would have big hits in 1957 with his version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", issued in May, and "Great Balls Of Fire" on Sun.

Late 1950s and decline
There were thousands of musicians who recorded songs in the rockabilly style, and many record companies released rockabilly records. Some enjoyed major chart success and were important influences on future rock musicians.

Sun also hosted performers, such as Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, Charlie Feathers, and Warren Smith. There were also several female performers like Wanda Jackson who recorded rockabilly music long after the other ladies, Janis Martin, the female Elvis Jo Ann Campbell, and Alis Lesley, who also sang in the rockabilly style. Mel Kimbrough -"Slim", recorded "I Get Lonesome Too" and "Ha Ha, Hey Hey" for Glenn Records along with "Love in West Virginia" and "Country Rock Sound" for Checkmate a division of Caprice Records.

Gene Summers, a Dallas native and Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee, released his classic Jan/Jane 45s in 1958–59. He continued to record rockabilly music well into 1964 with the release of "Alabama Shake". In 2005, Summers's most popular recording, School of Rock 'n Roll, was selected by Bob Solly and Record Collector Magazine as one of the "100 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Records".

Tommy "Sleepy LaBeef" LaBeff recorded rockabilly tunes on a number of labels from 1957 through 1963. Rockabilly pioneers the Maddox Brothers and Rose continued to record for decades. However, none of these artists had any major hits and their influence would not be felt until decades later.

In the summer of 1958 Eddie Cochran had a chart-topping hit with "Summertime Blues". Cochran's brief career included only a few more hits, such as "Sitting in the Balcony" released in early 1957, "C'mon Everybody" released in October 1958, and "Somethin' Else" released in July 1959. Then in April 1960, while touring with Gene Vincent in the UK, their taxi crashed into a concrete lamp post, killing Eddie at the young age of 21. The grim coincidence in this all was that his posthumous UK number-one hit was called "Three Steps to Heaven".

Rockabilly music enjoyed great popularity in the United States during 1956 and 1957, but radio play declined after 1960. Factors contributing to this decline are usually cited as the 1959 death of Buddy Holly in an airplane crash (along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper), the induction of Elvis Presley into the army in 1958, and a general change in American musical tastes. The style remained popular longer in England, where it attracted a fanatical following right up through the mid-1960s.

Rockabilly music cultivated an attitude that assured its enduring appeal to teenagers. This was a combination of rebellion, sexuality, and freedom—a sneering expression of disdain for the workaday world of parents and authority figures. It was the first rock 'n' roll style to be performed primarily by white musicians, thus setting off a cultural revolution that is still reverberating today. "Rockabilly" deviance from social norms, however, was more symbolic than real; and eventual public professions of faith by aging rockabillies were not uncommon.

Influence on the Beatles and the British Invasion
The first wave of rockabilly fans in the United Kingdom were called Teddy Boys because they wore long, Edwardian-style frock coats, along with tight black drainpipe trousers and brothel creeper shoes. Another group in the 1950s that were followers of rockabilly were the Ton-Up boys, who rode British motorcycles and would later be known as rockers in the early 1960s. The rockers had adopted the classic greaser look of T-shirts, jeans, and leather jackets to go with their heavily slicked pompadour haircuts. The rockers loved 1950s rock and roll artists such as Gene Vincent, and some British rockabilly fans formed bands and played their own version of the music.

The most notable of these bands was The Beatles. When John Lennon first met Paul McCartney, he was impressed that McCartney knew all the chords and the words to Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock". As the band became more professional and began playing in Hamburg, they took on the "Beatle" name (inspired by Buddy Holly's band The Crickets ) and they adopted the black leather look of Gene Vincent. Musically, they combined Holly's melodic songwriting sensibility with the rough rock and roll sound of Vincent and Carl Perkins. When The Beatles became worldwide stars, they released versions of three different Carl Perkins songs, more than any other songwriter outside the band, except Larry Williams, who also added three songs to their discography. (Curiously, none of these three were sung by the Beatles' regular lead vocalists—"Honey Don't" (sung by Ringo) and "Everybody's Trying to be my Baby" (sung by George) from Beatles for Sale (1964) and "Matchbox" (sung by Ringo) on the Long Tall Sally EP (1964)).

Long after the band broke up, the members continued to show their interest in rockabilly. In 1975, Lennon recorded an album called Rock 'n' Roll, featuring versions of rockabilly hits and a cover photo showing him in full Gene Vincent leather. About the same time, Ringo Starr had a hit with a version of Johnny Burnette's "You're Sixteen". In the 1980s, McCartney recorded a duet with Carl Perkins, and George Harrison collaborated with Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys. In 1999, McCartney released Run Devil Run, his own record of rockabilly covers.

The Beatles were not the only British Invasion artists influenced by rockabilly. The Rolling Stones recorded Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" on an early single and later a rockabilly-style song, "Rip This Joint", on Exile on Main St. The Who, despite being mod favorites, covered Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and Johnny Kidd and The Pirates' Shakin' All Over on their Live at Leeds album. Even heavy guitar heroes such as Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page were influenced by rockabilly musicians. Beck recorded his own tribute album to Gene Vincent's guitarist Cliff Gallup—Crazy Legs—and Page's band, Led Zeppelin, offered to work as Elvis Presley's backing band in the 1970s. However, Presley never took them up on that offer. Years later, Led Zeppelin's Page and Robert Plant recorded a tribute to the music of the 1950s called The Honeydrippers: Volume One.

Rockabilly revival: 1970–1990
The 1968 Elvis "comeback" and acts such as Sha Na Na, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Don McLean, Linda Ronstadt and the Everly Brothers, the film American Graffiti, the television show Happy Days and the Teddy Boy revival created curiosity about the real music of the 1950s, particularly in England, where a rockabilly revival scene began to develop from the 1970s in record collecting and clubs. The most successful early product of the scene was Dave Edmunds, who joined up with songwriter Nick Lowe to form a band called Rockpile in 1975. They had a string of minor rockabilly-style hits like "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)". The group became a popular touring act in the UK and the US, leading to respectable album sales. Edmunds also nurtured and produced many younger artists who shared his love of rockabilly, most notably the Stray Cats.

Robert Gordon emerged from late 1970s CBGB punk act Tuff Darts to reinvent himself as a rockabilly revival solo artist. He recorded first with 1950s guitar legend Link Wray and later with UK studio guitar veteran Chris Spedding and found borderline mainstream success. Also festering at CBGB's punk environs were The Cramps, who combined primitive and wild rockabilly sounds with lyrics inspired by old drive-in horror movies in songs like "Human Fly" and "I Was a Teenage Werewolf". Lead singer Lux Interior's energetic and unpredictable live shows attracted a fervent cult audience. Their "psychobilly" music influenced The Meteors and Reverend Horton Heat. In the early '80s, the Latin genre was born in Colombia by Marco T (Marco Tulio Sanchez), with The Gatos Montañeros. The Polecats, from North London, were originally called The Cult Heroes; they could not get any gigs at rockabilly clubs with a name that sounded "punk", so the original drummer Chris Hawkes came up with the name "Polecats". Tim Polecat and Boz Boorer started playing together in 1976, then hooked up with Phil Bloomberg and Chris Hawkes at the end of 1977. The Polecats played rockabilly with a punk sense of anarchy and helped revive the genre for a new generation in the early 1980s. The Blasters, who emerged from the Los Angeles punk scene, included rockabilly among their roots rock influences. The song "Marie Marie", first appearing on their 1980 debut album American Music, would later become a breakthrough hit for Shakin' Stevens.

Also in 1980, Queen scored a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the rockabilly-inspired single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".

The Stray Cats were the most commercially successful of the new rockabilly artists. The band formed on Long Island in 1979 when Brian Setzer teamed up with two school chums calling themselves Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom. Attracting little attention in New York, they flew to London in 1980, where they had heard that there was an active rockabilly scene. Early shows were attended by the Rolling Stones and Dave Edmunds, who quickly ushered the boys into a recording studio. The Stray Cats had three UK Top Ten singles to their credit and two bestselling albums. They returned to the US, performing on the TV show Fridays with a message flashing across the screen that they had no record deal in the States.

Soon EMI picked them up, their first videos appeared on MTV, and they stormed up the charts stateside. Their third LP, Rant 'N' Rave with the Stray Cats, topped charts across the US and Europe as they sold-out shows everywhere during 1983. However, personal conflicts led the band to break up at the height of their popularity. Brian Setzer went on to solo success working in both rockabilly and swing styles, while Rocker and Phantom continued to record in bands both together and singly. The group has reconvened several times to make new records or tours and continue to attract large audiences live, although record sales have never again approached their early '80s success.

The Jime entered the rockabilly scene in 1983, when Vince Gordon formed his band. The Jime was a Danish Band. The Jime was the band of Vince Gordon, rockabilly guitarist. Not only was he the nerve of the band, Vince Gordon was the band. He composed nearly all its songs and hits. Vince Gordon also left his mark on the rockabilly scene in many ways. Expert Fred Sokolow talks about the Vince Gordon style in Rockabilly due to his composing. Vince Gordon had many different musicians in his band. The lifetime of the Jime ended with the death of Vince Gordon in 2016.

Shakin' Stevens was a Welsh singer who gained fame in the UK portraying Elvis in a stage play. In 1980, he took a cover of The Blasters' "Marie Marie" into the UK Top 20. His hopped-up versions of songs like "This Ole House" and "Green Door" were giant sellers across Europe. Shakin' Stevens was the biggest selling singles artist of the 1980s in the UK (with four number ones in the singles chart) and number two across Europe, outstripping Michael Jackson, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen. Unlike The Stray Cats, who became successful due in part to MTV, Shakin' Stevens' success was initially due to him appearing on various children's television shows in Britain. Despite his popularity in Europe, he never became a big success in the US. In 2005, his greatest hits album The Collection reached number four in the British albums chart, and was released as a tie-in to his appearance on ITV entertainment show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, going on to become the winner of the series. Other notable British rockabilly bands of the 1980s included The Jets, Crazy Cavan, Matchbox, and the Rockats.

Jason & the Scorchers combined heavy metal, Chuck Berry and Hank Williams to create a punk-influenced style of rockabilly, often labeled as alt-country or cowpunk. They achieved critical acclaim and a following in America but never managed a major hit.

The revival was related to the "roots rock" movement, which continued through the 1980s, led by artists like James Intveld, who later toured as lead guitar for The Blasters, High Noon, the Beat Farmers, The Paladins, Forbidden Pigs, Del-Lords, Long Ryders, The Last Wild Sons, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Los Lobos, The Fleshtones, Del Fuegos, Reverend Horton Heat and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages. These bands, like the Blasters, were inspired by a full range of historic American styles: blues, country, rockabilly, R&B and New Orleans jazz. They held a strong appeal for listeners who were tired of the commercially oriented MTV-style synthpop and glam metal bands that dominated radio play during this time period, but none of these musicians became major stars.

In 1983, Neil Young recorded a rockabilly album titled Everybody's Rockin'. The album was not a commercial success and Young was involved in a widely publicized legal fight with Geffen Records who sued him for making a record that did not sound "like a Neil Young record". Young made no further albums in the rockabilly style. During the 1980s, a number of country music stars scored hits recording in a rockabilly style. Marty Stuart's "Hillbilly Rock" and Hank Williams, Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" were the most noteworthy examples of this trend, but they and other artists like Steve Earle and the Kentucky Headhunters charted many records with this approach.

Neo-rockabilly (1990–present)

While not true rockabilly, many contemporary indie pop, blues rock, and country rock groups from the US, like Kings of Leon, Black Keys, Blackfoot, and the White Stripes, were heavily influenced by rockabilly.

The Smiths incorporated rockabilly influences in songs such as "Nowhere Fast", "Shakespeare's Sister" and "Vicar in a Tutu". The style also influenced their look towards the end of their 5 year existence in the 1980s. Morrissey also adopted a rockabilly style during the early 1990s, being largely influenced by his guitarists Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte and working with former Fairground Attraction bass-guitarist and songwriter Mark E. Nevin. His rockabilly style was emphasised in the singles "Pregnant for the Last Time" and "Sing Your Life", as well as his second solo album and tour Kill Uncle.

Irish rockabilly artist Imelda May has been partly responsible for a resurgence of European interest in the genre, scoring three successive number one albums in Ireland, with two of those also reaching the top ten in the UK charts.

UK artist Jimmy Ray incorporated themes and aesthetics of rockabilly music into his image as well as his 1998 hit, Are You Jimmy Ray?, which Ray described as "popabilly hip hop".

Singer-songwriter and actor Drake Bell recorded an album of rockabilly covers, Ready Steady Go!, in 2014. The album was produced by Brian Setzer, frontman of the rockabilly revival band The Stray Cats. The album sold over 2,000 copies in its first week of release, peaking at #182 on the Billboard 200, and received positive reviews from critics.

Neo-rockabilly UK band Restless, have played neo-rockabilly since the early 1980s. The style was to mix any popular music to a rockabilly set up, drums, slap bass and guitar. This was followed by many other artists at the time in London. Today, bands like Lower The Tone are more aligned to neo-rockabilly that suits popular music venues instead of the dedicated rockabilly clubs that expect only original rockabilly.

Use of the term "rockabilly"
Early rockabilly singer Barbara Pittman told Experience Music Project that "Rockabilly was actually an insult to the southern rockers at that time. Over the years it has picked up a little dignity. It was their way of calling us 'hillbillies'."

One of the first written uses of the term rockabilly was in a press release describing Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula". Three weeks later, it was also used in a June 23, 1956, Billboard review of Ruckus Tyler's "Rock Town Rock".

The first record to contain the word rockabilly in a song title was "Rock a Billy Gal", issued in November 1956. The Burnette brothers had been playing a song called "Rock Billy Boogie" since 1953, but did not record or release it until 1956 and 1957, respectively.

Characteristic sound and techniques
Some effects and techniques strongly associated with rockabilly as a style include slapback, slapback echo, flutter echo, tape delay echo, echo, and reverb.

The distinctive reverberation on the early hit records such as "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets was created by recording the band under the domed ceiling of Decca's studio in New York, located in an echoing former ballroom called The Pythian Temple. This same studio would also be used to record other rockabilly musicians such as Buddy Holly and The Rock and Roll Trio. Memphis Recording Services Studio, where Sam Phillips recorded, had a sloped ceiling covered with corrugated tiles. This created some of the desired resonance, but Phillips used technical methods to create additional echo: the original signal from one tape machine was fed through a second machine with a split-second delay. The echo effect was noticeable on Wilf Carter records from the 1930s and in Eddy Arnold's "Cattle Call" (1945). When Elvis Presley left Phillips' Sun Records and recorded "Heartbreak Hotel" for RCA, the RCA producers placed microphones at the end of a hallway to achieve a similar effect. The echoing sound created the impression of a live show.

In comparison to country songs, rockabilly songs generally have simplified form, lyrics, chord progressions and arrangements, faster tempos, and amplified percussion. There is greater variability in lyrics and melodies, and the singing style is more flamboyant. Compared to rhythm and blues, fewer instruments are used, but percussion is amplified to fill in the sound. The singing style is less smooth and mannered.

Rockabilly Hall of Fame
The original Rockabilly Hall of Fame was established by Bob Timmers on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relative to the original artists and personalities involved in this pioneering American music genre. It was headquartered in Nashville.

In 2000, an International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame and Museum was established in Jackson, Tennessee. In recent years, the works of both Halls of Fame have been absorbed by Jeffrey L. Cole, son of Bluegrass Pioneer and Rockabilly artist, Lee Cole. Cole’s mission to carry forward the legacy of this Rock and Roll roots genre, with the newly established, Rockabilly Hall of Fame Museum.

title: Rockabilly


text:
1895 in music

Events in the year 1895 in music.

Specific locations

 * 1895 in Norwegian music

Events

 * March 4 – Gustav Mahler conducts the première of his Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection" in [Berlin] – the first three movements only.
 * May 18 – Australian contralto Ada Crossley makes her London début at the Queen's Hall.
 * August 10 – The first ever indoor promenade concert, origin of The Proms, is held at the Queen's Hall in London, opening a series promoted by impresario Robert Newman with 26-year-old Henry Wood as sole conductor. The first concert opens with the overture to Wagner's Rienzi. The orchestra tunes to the "French A" or diapason normal concert pitch.
 * December 13 – The first complete performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, in Berlin with the composer conducting the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra (first three movements premièred on March 4).
 * unknown dates
 * Composer Sidney Homer marries contralto Louise Dilworth Beatty.
 * Composer Zdeněk Fibich separates from his wife, the contralto Betty Fibichová, and goes to live with his former student and lover Anežka Schulzová.
 * Venezuelan pianist, singer and composer Teresa Carreño divorces her husband, pianist Eugen d'Albert. It marks the end of her third marriage and his second.

Published popular music

 * "America the Beautiful"    w. Katherine Lee Bates m. Samuel A. Ward
 * "The Band Played On"    w. John F. Palmer m. Charles B. Ward
 * "The Belle of Avenoo A"    w.m. Safford Waters
 * "Down In Poverty Row"    w. Gussie L. Davis m. Arthur Trevelyan
 * "A Dream"    w. Charles B. Cory m. J. C. Bartlett
 * "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"    w. Charles W. Berkeley m. William H. Holmes
 * "He's Not Dead Yet!"    w. T. W. Connor
 * "It's a Great Big Shame"    w. Edgar Bateman m. George Le Brunn
 * "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me"    w.m. Paul Dresser
 * "King Cotton (march)"    m. John Philip Sousa
 * "La Pas Ma La" w.m. Ernest Hogan
 * "My Angeline"    w. Harry B. Smith m. Victor Herbert
 * "My Best Girl's a New Yorker"    w.m. John Stromberg
 * "Put Me Off at Buffalo"    w. Harry Dillon m. John Dillon (Dillon Brothers)
 * "Rastus on Parade"    w. George Marion m. Kerry Mills
 * "She Was One of the Early Birds"    w.m. T. W. Connor
 * "Sleep Little Rosebud" w. Alfred Bryant, m. Louis Campbell Tipton
 * "The Soldiers of the Queen"    w.m. Leslie Stuart
 * "The Streets of Cairo"    w.m. James Thornton
 * "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley"    w. Walter H. Ford m. John Walter Bratton

Recorded popular music

 * "Girl Wanted" – Dan W. Quinn, Berliner Records
 * "The Band Played On" – Dan W. Quinn, Columbia Records
 * "The Sidewalks of New York" – Dan W. Quinn, Berliner Records

Classical music

 * Béla Bartók
 * Capriccio in B minor, for piano, Op. 4
 * Fantasia in A minor, for piano, Op. 2
 * Fantasia, for violin, Op. 9
 * Pieces, for violin, Op. 7
 * Sonata No. 2 in F major, for piano, Op. 3
 * Sonata in C minor, for violin and piano, Op. 5
 * Sonata No. 3 in C major, for piano, Op. 6
 * Léon Boëllmann – Suite Gothique for Organ
 * Antonín Dvořák – Cello Concerto in B minor, thirteenth and fourteenth string quartets
 * Edward Elgar – From the Bavarian Highlands, for chorus and orchestra, Op. 27
 * George Enescu – "Study" Symphony No. 1 in D minor
 * Gabriel Fauré
 * Allegro symphonique, for piano four-hands, Op. 68
 * Barcarolle No. 6 in E-flat major, for piano, Op. 70
 * Theme and Variations, for piano, Op. 73
 * Anatoly Lyadov
 * Etude in F major, for piano, Op. 37
 * Mazurka in F major, for piano, Op. 38
 * Preludes (3), for piano, Op. 36
 * Preludes (4), for piano, Op. 39
 * Henrique Oswald – Piano Quintet in C major, Op. 18
 * Camille Saint-Saëns
 * Fantasy No. 2 in D♭ major, for organ, Op. 101
 * La Mort de Thaïs, Paraphrase de concert sur l'opéra de J. Massenet, for piano
 * Souvenir d'Ismaïlia, for piano, Op. 100
 * Richard Strauss
 * Songs (3), for high voice and piano, Op. 29
 * Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, for orchestra, Op. 28
 * Alexander von Zemlinsky – Serenade (Suite), for violin and piano

Opera

 * Isaac Albéniz – Henry Clifford
 * Enrique Fernández Arbós – El Centro de la Tierra
 * Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Christmas Eve, 10 December, in St. Petersburg.

Musical theater

 * An Artist's Model    London production opened at Daly's Theatre on February 2 and ran for 392 performances
 * Dandy Dick Whittington    London production
 * The Shop Girl    Broadway production opened at Palmer's Theatre on October 28 and ran for 72 performances
 * The Tyrolean    London production

Births

 * January 7 – Clara Haskil, pianist (died 1960)
 * January 27 – Buddy De Sylva, songwriter (died 1950)
 * February 7 – Irving Aaronson, jazz pianist and big band leader (died 1963)
 * February 28 – Guiomar Novaes, Brazilian pianist (died 1979)
 * March 4 – Bjarne Brustad, Norwegian composer and violinist (died 1978)
 * March 23 – Dane Rudhyar, composer (died 1985)
 * March 31 – Lizzie Miles, singer (died 1963)
 * April 1 – Alberta Hunter, singer (died 1984)
 * April 3
 * Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, composer (died 1968)
 * Zez Confrey, pianist and composer (died 1971)
 * April 9 – Mance Lipscomb, popular singer (died 1976)
 * April 23 – Jimmie Noone, jazz musician
 * April 29 – Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor (died 1967)
 * May 1 – Leo Sowerby, composer (died 1968)
 * May 2 – Lorenz Hart, US lyricist (died 1943)
 * May 6 – Rudolph Valentino, dancer and actor (died 1926)
 * May 11 – William Grant Still, composer (died 1978)
 * June 16 – Lew Pollack, US composer (died 1946)
 * June 21 – Mark Reizen, Soviet opera singer (died 1992)
 * June 28 – Kazimierz Sikorski, Polish composer (died 1986)
 * July 4 – Irving Caesar, US lyricist and librettist (died 1996)
 * July 5 – Gordon Jacob, English composer (died 1984)
 * July 10 – Carl Orff, German composer (died 1982)
 * July 12
 * Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (died 1982)
 * Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist (died 1960)
 * July 13 – Bradley Kincaid, folk singer (died 1989)
 * July 25 – Yvonne Printemps, singer and actress (died 1977)
 * August 6 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban composer (died 1963)
 * August 10 – Harry Richman, US singer, actor and composer (died 1972)
 * August 13 – Bert Lahr, vaudeville performer (died 1967)
 * September 9 – Harry Tobias, US lyric writer (died 1994)
 * September 16 – Karol Rathaus, Austrian (Ukrainian) composer (died 1954)
 * September 22 – Herbert Janssen, German baritone (died 1965)
 * October 11 – Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer and conductor (died 1982)
 * October 12 – Tubby Hall, jazz drummer (died 1945)
 * October 17 – Doris Humphrey, dancer (died 1958)
 * October 29 – Harry Ruby, songwriter (died 1974)
 * November 5 – Walter Gieseking, German pianist and composer
 * November 16 – Paul Hindemith, German composer (died 1963)
 * November 28
 * José Iturbi, pianist (died 1980)
 * Jacobo Rubalcaba, Cuban musician and bandleader (died 1960)
 * November 29 – Busby Berkeley, film director, choreographer (died 1976)
 * November 30 – Johann Nepomuk David, composer (died 1977)
 * December 2 – Harriet Cohen, pianist (died 1967)
 * December 16 – Andy Razaf, composer, poet and lyricist (died 1973)

Deaths

 * January 10 – Benjamin Godard, composer (born 1849)
 * January 22 – Edward Solomon, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1855) (typhoid)
 * February 6 – Otto Mahler, composer (born 1873) (suicide)
 * February 16 – Fredrik August Dahlgren, songwriter (born 1816)
 * February 24 – Ignaz Lachner, conductor and composer (born 1807)
 * March 16 – Richard Corney Grain, entertainer and songwriter (born 1844) (influenza)
 * March 18 – Priscilla Horton, singer and actress (born 1818)
 * April 28 – Jean Joseph Bott, violinist and composer (born 1826)
 * May 21 – Franz von Suppé, composer (born 1819)
 * June 15 – Richard Genée, librettist and composer (born 1823)
 * June 28 – Ján Koehler, operatic baritone
 * July 13 – John Tiplady Carrodus, violinist (born 1836)
 * August 2 – Ernest Appy, US cellist and composer (born 1834)
 * August 6 – George Frederick Root, US composer (born 1820)
 * August 13 – Ludwig Abel, violinist, composer and conductor (born 1834)
 * October 12 – Cecil Frances Alexander, hymn-writer (born 1818)
 * October 25 – Charles Hallé, pianist and conductor (born 1819)
 * November – Raffaele Mirate, operatic tenor (born 1815)
 * November 1 – Aleksander Zarzycki, pianist, conductor and composer (born 1834)
 * date unknown
 * Charles Albrecht, composer of the national anthem of Monaco (born 1817)
 * Basilio Basili, operatic tenor and composer (born 1804)
 * Angelique Magito, opera and concert singer (born 1809)
 * Nipper, the dog on the HMV record label (born 1884)

title: 1895 in music


text:
Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau León (February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.

Life
Arrau was born in Chillán, Chile to Carlos Arrau, an ophthalmologist who died when Claudio was only a year old, and Lucrecia León Bravo de Villalba, a piano teacher. He belonged to an old, prominent family of Southern Chile. His ancestor Lorenzo de Arrau was a Spanish engineer who was sent to Chile by King Carlos III of Spain. Through his great-grandmother, María del Carmen Daroch del Solar, Arrau was a descendant of the Campbells of Glenorchy, a Scottish noble family. Arrau was raised as a Catholic, but gave it up in his late teens.

Arrau was a child prodigy and he could read music before he could read words, but unlike many virtuosos, there had never been a professional musician in his family. His mother was an amateur pianist and introduced him to the instrument. At the age of 4 he was reading Beethoven sonatas, and he gave his first concert a year later. When Arrau was 6 he auditioned in front of several congressmen and President Pedro Montt, who was so impressed that he began arrangements for Arrau's future education. At age 8, Arrau was sent on a ten-year-long grant from the Chilean government to study in Germany, travelling with his mother and sister Lucrecia. He was admitted to the Stern Conservatory of Berlin where he eventually became a pupil of Martin Krause, who had studied under Franz Liszt. At the age of 11 Arrau could play Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, one of the most difficult works for piano, as well as Brahms's Paganini Variations. Arrau's first recordings were made on Aeolian Duo-Art player piano music rolls. Krause died in his fifth year of teaching Arrau, leaving the 15-year-old student devastated by the loss of his mentor; Arrau did not continue formal study after that point.

In 1935, Arrau gave a celebrated rendition of the entire keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach over 12 recitals. In 1936, Arrau gave a complete Mozart keyboard works over 5 recitals, and followed with the complete Schubert and Weber cycles. In 1938, for the first time, Arrau gave the complete Beethoven piano sonatas and concertos in Mexico City. Arrau repeated this several times in his lifetime, including in New York and London. He became one of the leading authorities on Beethoven in the 20th century.

In 1937, Arrau married mezzo-soprano Ruth Schneider (1908–1989), a German national. They had three children: Carmen (1938–2006), Mario (1940–1988) -- who fathered three sons: Shawn (1968), Paycer (1969), and Kip (1970) -- and Christopher (1959). In 1941 the Arrau family emigrated from Germany to the United States, eventually settling in Douglaston, Queens, New York, where Arrau spent his remaining years. He became a dual U.S.-Chilean citizen in 1979. On August 17, 1982, the first CD of classical music in history was released by the PolyGram record company; its content consisted of waltzes by Chopin performed by Claudio Arrau.

Arrau died on June 9, 1991, at the age of 88, in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, from complications of emergency surgery performed on June 8 to correct an intestinal blockage. His remains were interred in his native city of Chillán, Chile.

Tone and approach to music
Arrau was an intellectual and a deeply reflective interpreter. He read widely while travelling, and he learned English, Italian, German, and French in addition to his native Spanish. He became familiar with Jung's psychology in his twenties.

Arrau's attitude toward music was very serious. He preached fidelity to the score, but also the use of imagination. Although he often played with slower and more deliberate tempi from his middle age onward, he had a reputation as a fabulous virtuoso earlier in his career, a reputation supported by recordings he made at this time, such as Balakirev's Islamey and Liszt's Paganini études. However, even late in his career, he often tended to play with less restraint in live concerts than in studio recordings.

Arrau was a man of remarkable fortitude; even towards the end of his life he invariably programmed very large, demanding concerts, including works such as Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1.

Contributions
Arrau was a frequent recital performer: from age 40 to 60 he averaged 120 concerts a season, with a very large repertoire. At one time or another, he performed the complete keyboard works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin; but also programmed such off-the-beaten-path composers as Alkan and Busoni and illuminated obscure corners of the Liszt repertoire. It has been estimated that Arrau's total repertoire would carry him through 76 recital evenings, not counting the 60-odd works with orchestra which he also knew.

Arrau recorded a considerable part of the piano music of Schumann, Chopin and Liszt. He edited the complete Beethoven piano sonatas for the Peters Urtext edition and recorded all of them on the Philips label in 1962–1966. He recorded almost all of them once again in 1984-1990 along with Mozart's complete piano sonatas. He is also famous for his recordings of Schubert, Brahms and Debussy. At the time of his death at age 88 in the midst of a European concert tour, Arrau was working on a recording of the complete works of Bach for keyboard, and was also preparing some pieces of Haydn, Mendelssohn, Reger and Busoni, and Boulez's third piano sonata.

Numerous pianists studied with Arrau, including Karlrobert Kreiten, Garrick Ohlsson, Roberto Szidon, Stephen Drury, Roberto Eyzaguirre, Arturo Nicolayevsky, among others.

On March 26, 2021, Pristine Classical released what it called "a sonic overhaul" of Arrau's "stunningly brilliant" 1942 RCA studio recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, remastered from an issue in 1988, which had "sat in the vaults [of RCA] for 46 years."

Critics

 * Olin Downes, reviewing a recital of Mozart, Schumann, Ravel and Debussy works in The New York Times, described Claudio Arrau as "a pianist of most exceptional equipment, imagination and unfailing taste."
 * In 1963, according to various critics, he was a man with "no equal at the present time in point of technical stature and depth of musical imagination," "the No. 1 pianist of our time," a "pianistic titan," a "lion of the piano," or, if you like, a "neo-Liszt from the Tropic of Capricorn".
 * Daniel Barenboim said that Claudio Arrau had a particular sound with two aspects: first a thickness, full-bodied and orchestral, and second an utterly disembodied timbre, quite spellbinding.
 * Joachim Kaiser: "Arrau is the noblest, the most conscientious, most respectable pianist of our time."
 * Sir Colin Davis said: "His sound is amazing, and it is entirely his own... no one else has it exactly that way. His devotion to Liszt is extraordinary. He ennobles that music in a way no one else in the world can."
 * According to American critic Harold C. Schonberg, Arrau always put "a decidedly romantic piano tone in his interpretations".
 * Karl Schumann, Germany's leading music critic, said in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on June 2, 1986: "Is it not Claudio Arrau who is the most musical and deeply serious piano phenomenon of our time?".
 * According to Joseph Horowitz: "His earliest recordings, extending into the forties, are his most mercurial, and are buffed with the glistening tonal refinements mentioned in his early New York reviews. His recorded performances of the following decade or so are more majestically placed; given room to maneuver, he is more likely to linger than to bolt. (...) Then, sometimes around 1960, the recordings document a different change. An emerging undercurrent of raw feeling not only dictates yet slower tempos and grander rubatos, but adds to the dignified architecture of Arrau's sound a steady projection of human frailty. (...) How did this change come about? (...) At the risk of resorting to cut-rate psychology, I am tempted to cite, as well, the event Arrau recalls as 'the greatest shock in my life": his mother's death in 1959. Perhaps mourning opened new emotional pathways. Perhaps the disappearance of a pervasive authority figure freed or emboldened him to make a more vulnerable statement in his art."
 * John von Rhein wrote in 1991 in the Chicago Tribune: "He was among the least flamboyant of pianists, avoiding virtuosic display as rigorously as some pianists seek it out; yet there was never any doubt of his virtuoso technique. He commanded a rich sonority, each chord superbly weighted, the fingerwork a model of finely chiseled clarity, the shape of each phrase deeply considered. Sometimes Mr. Arrau's penchant for slow tempos and emphasis on inner detail could seem fussy, depriving his performances of spontaneity and momentum. At his considerable best, however, he was among the most deeply satisfying interpreters of Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and particularly Beethoven, whose works held a position in his repertoire comparable to that of his great colleague, pianist Rudolf Serkin.

Honours
List of awards, recognitions and medals awarded to Claudio Arrau.
 * 1915-1918:
 * 1915: Prize Rudolph Ibach
 * Gustav Holländer Medal
 * Sachsen-Gothaische Medal

 * 1918: Stern Conservatory's Exceptional Honours Diploma in Piano
 * 1919-1920: Liszt Prize in Germany
 * 1924: Permanent Active Member of the Bach Society in Santiago de Chile)
 * 1927: Grand Prix of the Concours International des Pianistes (International Pianist Competition) from Geneva, Suiza. The jury was composed by Arthur Rubinstein, Joseph Pembauer, Ernest Schelling, Alfred Cortot and José Vianna da Motta.
 * 1941: Illustrious Son of Chillán
 * 1944: Gold Medal in Appreciation from the Chilean government
 * 1949: Favorite Son of Mexico
 * 1949: Honorary degree from the University of Chile
 * 1954: Honorary Member of the University of Chile's Faculty of Music
 * 1954: Illustrious Son of Santiago
 * 1958: Royal Philharmonic Society medal
 * 1959: Honorary Citizen from Santiago
 * 1959: Worthy Son of Chillán
 * 1959: Gold Medal and Honorary Citizen of Concepción
 * 1959: Honorary Member of the University of Concepción
 * 1965: Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France
 * 1970: The Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * 1973: Citation by United Jewish Appeal for support and contribution in solidarity with the Jewish people
 * 1980: Hans von Bülow Medal by Berlin Philharmonic, Germany
 * 1982: Doctor of Humane Letters by University of Vermont, United States
 * 1983: La Orden del Águila Azteca (The Order of the Aztec Eagle) in Mexico
 * 1983: Honorary Member of the Pan American Society
 * 1983: The Philadelphia's bowl, United States
 * 1983: First Honorary Member of the Düsseldorf, Germany Robert Schumann Society
 * 1983: Commander of the Legion of Honor in France
 * 1983: The International Music Award by UNESCO
 * 1983: Commander of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
 * 1983: Beethoven's medal in New York City
 * 1983: Honorary degree from the University of Oxford, England
 * 1983: National Prize of Musical Arts of Chile
 * 1984: Honorary degree from the University of Concepción
 * 1984: Honorary degree from the University of Biobío
 * 1984: Honorary Member from Academy of Fine Arts of Chile
 * 1984: Highest Distinction Award from the Inter-American Music Council and the Organization of American States
 * 1986: Freedom Award from the Mayor of the New York City
 * 1988: The Teresa Carreño Medal in Venezuela
 * 1988: Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society of London
 * 1990: Gold Medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society of London (posthumously delivered to his daughter Carmen)
 * 1991: Unfinished Arrau performance with his Robert Schumann Medal at a recital scheduled for June 1991 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
 * 1991: The Robert Schumann Society established the Arrau Medal in 1991. The medal is awarded to a pianist who is especially committed to the spirit and tradition of Claudio Arrau's keyboard art. Examples include András Schiff, Martha Argerich and Murray Perahia.
 * 1991: Cultural Medal known as Citizen of the World, awarded by the Palacio de la Moneda de Chile.
 * 2012: Entry into the Gramophone Hall of Fame

Partial discography

 * Beethoven, Conc. pf. n. 4, 5 - Arrau/Haitink/CGO, 1964 Philips
 * Beethoven, Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5 - Claudio Arrau/Sir Colin Davis/Staatskapelle Dresden, Philips
 * Beethoven, The 5 Piano Concertos - Claudio Arrau/Sir Colin Davis/Staatskapelle Dresden, 1988 Philips
 * Beethoven, Sonatas. pf. n. 1-32 - Arrau, 1964 Decca
 * Beethoven, Sonatas. pf. n. 8, 14, 23 - Arrau, 1962/1967 Decca
 * Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas, Op. 101, 106, 109, 110, & 111 - Claudio Arrau, Philips
 * Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas - Claudio Arrau, Decca
 * Chopin, Ballate n. 1-4/Scherzi n. 1-4 - Arrau, 1977/1984 Decca
 * Chopin, Claudio Arrau Plays Chopin - Arrau/Inbal/LPO, Decca
 * Chopin, Conc. pf. n. 1-2/Krakowiak - Arrau/Inbal/LPO, 1970/1980 Philips
 * Chopin, Nocturnes n. 1-21 - Arrau, 1978/1980 Philips
 * Chopin, Valzer n. 1-19 - Arrau, 1980 Decca
 * Chopin, 26 Preludes & 4 Impromptus - Claudio Arrau, Philips
 * Chopin: Études Op. 10 and Op. 25 - Claudio Arrau, 1957 EMI Great Recordings of the Century
 * Debussy: Preludes & Images & Estampes - Claudio Arrau, 1991 Philips
 * Liszt, 12 Etudes d'exécution transcendante - Claudio Arrau, 1977 Philips
 * Liszt: Sonata in B Minor, 2 Études de concert - Claudio Arrau, Philips
 * Mozart, Son. pf. n. 1-18/Fant./Rondò - Arrau, 1973/1987 Decca
 * Schubert: Late Piano Sonatas - Claudio Arrau, Decca
 * Schumann: Carnaval; Kinderszenen; Waldszenen - Claudio Arrau, 1987 Philips
 * Arrau, Beethoven/Chopin/Liszt - Davis/LSO, 1976/1985 Decca
 * Arrau, The legacy - Bach/Beethoven/Schubert/Debussy, 1988/1991 Decca

Books

 * 1984: Leben mit der Musik (with Joseph Horowitz)
 * 1985: Arrau parle: conversations avec Joseph Horowitz (with Joseph Horowitz)
 * 2009: Liszt: A Listener's Guide to His Piano Works (with John Bell Young)

title: Claudio Arrau