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]
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]