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Halim El-Dabh

Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (Arabic: حليم عبد المسيح الضبع, 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.[1] In 1944 he composed one of the earliest known works of tape music,[2] or musique concrète. From the late 1950s to early 1960s he produced influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.[3]

Halim El-Dabh

Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh

(1921-03-04)4 March 1921

2 September 2017(2017-09-02) (aged 96)

Composer, musician, musicologist, educator

  • Marybelle Hyde
    (divorced)
  • Deborah Jaken
    (m. 1978)

3

Ancestry and identity[edit]

A 2003 biography by Denise A. Seachrist describes the multilayered ethnic and racial identity of El-Dabh. As a young student in Egypt, he was inspired by the secularism and pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser, but became disenchanted with Arab identity when Nasser failed to act against the institutionalized discrimination against Egypt's Copts. After he immigrated to the United States, El-Dabh encountered racism. Because he was of Upper (southern) Egyptian descent, he notes that he was darker-skinned than most Egyptian immigrants to the United States.[19]


El-Dabh was noted for his support for the African American community, and his activism on behalf of civil rights, which he says were motivated by his own experiences of racism. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, he donated or marched with various civil rights organizations. His ties to African American culture were deepened when he taught music and African American studies at Howard University.[20]

Personal life and death[edit]

Halim El-Dabh was married twice. His first marriage to Marybelle Hyde ended in divorce. His second marriage to Deborah Jaken lasted from 1978 to his death. He had two children with Hyde, his daughters Shadia and Amira, and one child with Jaken, his son Habeeb.[21]


Halim El-Dabh died at his home in Kent, Ohio on 2 September 2017, at the age of 96.[21]

1944 – The Expression of Zaar

1957 – Sounds of New Music. New York: .

Folkways

1959 – Leiyla and the Poet

1961 – . New York: Columbia Masterworks.

Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

1989 – The Self in Transformation: A Panel Discussion. Cassette tape: Features , Jeff Rosenbaum, Joseph Rothenberg, and Robert Anton Wilson. ACE.

Donald Michael Kraig

2000 – Gilbertson, Nancy. Mediterranean Magic. Moravia, New York: . Includes Mekta' in the Art of Kita', Book 3.

Nancy Cody Gilbertson

2000 – Olatunji Live at Starwood – & Drums of Passion (guest Halim El-Dabh). CD: Recorded at the 17th Starwood Festival in July 1997. ACE

Babatunde Olatunji

2001 – El-Dabh, Halim. Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic. Lakewood, Ohio: Without Fear.

2002 – Halim El-Dabh Live at Starwood – Halim El-Dabh (With: Seeds of Time) CD: Recorded at the 22nd in July 2002. ACE

Starwood Festival

2002 – El-Dabh, Halim Blue Sky Transmission: A Tibetan Book of the Dead (original cast recording) Cleveland Public Theatre, Halim El-Dabh, and Raymond Bobgan

2006 – . World Keys. San Francisco, California: Reference Recordings. Includes "Sayera" from Mekta' in the Art of Kita', Book 3.

Fan, Joel

2016 – El-Dabh, Halim; Ron Slabe. Sanza Time.

Bibliographic Guide to Dance by the New York Public Library Dance Collection.

Freedman, Russell. : A Dancer's Life.

Martha Graham

Gilbert, Chase. America's Music, From the Pilgrims to the Present.

Gill, Michael. Archived 16 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine. 7 July 2005. Free Times article referencing Starwood Festival appearance.

Circle of Ash

Hartsock, Ralph and Carl John Rahkonen. : A Bio-Bibliography.

Vladimir Ussachevsky

Holmes, Thomas B. Electronic and Experimental Music: Pioneers in Technology and Composition.

Horne, Aaron. Brass Music of Black Composers: A Bibliography.

_____. Woodwind Music of Black Composers.

Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music: A Comprehensive History from 1620 to the Present.

Landis, Beth and Eunice Boardman. Exploring Music.

Seachrist, Denise A. The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh. Includes compact disc. Kent OH, USA: Kent State University Press, 2003.

Shelemay, Kay Kaufman and Peter Jeffery. Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant.

Smith, Gordon Ernest. : Pathways and Memory. 1950.

Istvan Anhalt

South, Aloha P. Guide to Non-Federal Archives and Manuscripts in the United States Relating to Africa.

Gluck, Bob. "." eContact! 15.2 — TES 2012: Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium / Symposium électroacoustique de Toronto (April 2013). Montréal: CEC.

… ‘like a sculptor, taking chunks of sound and chiselling them into something beautiful’: Interview with Egyptian composer Halim El Dabh

Soundcheck. "." Interview on WNYC's Soundcheck program, 13 June 2003.

The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh

from CBC Radio Two. (dead link as of 9 February 2014)

Premiere performance of The Dog Done Gone Deaf (2007)

Official website

El-Dabh’s works on the American Music Center’s New Music Jukebox

at the Internet Broadway Database

Halim El-Dabh