Halim El-Dabh

Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍabʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particularly known as an early pioneer of electronic music. In 1944 he composed one of the earliest known works of tape music, or musique concrète. From the late 1950s to early 1960s he produced influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Early life El-Dabh was born and grew up in Sakakini, Cairo, Egypt, a member of a large and affluent Coptic Christian family that had earlier emigrated from Abutig in the Upper Egyptian province of Asyut. The family name means “the hyena” and is not uncommon in Egypt. In 1932 the family relocated to the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. Following his father’s profession of agriculture, he graduated from Fuad I University in 1945 with a degree in agricultural engineering, while also informally studying, performing, and composing music. Although his main income was derived from his job as an agricultural consultant, he achieved recognition in Egypt from the mid- to late 1940s for his innovative compositions and piano tec