List of Egyptian composers

The following is a list of Egyptian composers of classical music. According to the work of the Egyptian musicologist Samha El-Kholy, the first generation of Egyptians to begin writing in this style were born around the turn of the 20th century.^[1]

Riad Al Sunbati sitting with Umm Kulthum

The Major Five

from left: Riad Al Sunbati, Umm Kulthum, Mohamed El Qasabgi, Farid al-Atrash, Zakariya Ahmad

The most celebrated five composers in Egyptian history who lived in the 20th century are Sayed Darwish, Mohamed El Qasabgi, Zakariya Ahmad, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Riad Al Sunbati. ^[2]

First generation

• Sayed Darwish (1892-1923)
• Mohamed El Qasabgi (1892-1966)
• Zakariya Ahmad (1896– 1961)
• Yusef Greiss (1899–1961)
• Abu Bakr Khairat (1910–1963)
• Hasan Rashid (1896–1969)
• Aziz El-Shawan (1916–1993)

Second generation

• Riad Al Sunbati (1906-1981)
• Farid al-Atrash (1910–1974)
• Kamel El-Remali (b. 1922),
• Awatef Abdel Karim (born 1931)
• Gamal Abdel-Rahim (1924–1988)
• Sayed Awad (1926–2000)
• Halim El-Dabh (born 1921)
• Aziz El-Shawan (1916–1993)
• Soliman Gamil (1924–1994)
• Rifaat Garrana (born 1924)
• Tarek Ali Hassan (born 1937)
• Attia Sharara (born 1922)

Third generation

• Baligh Hamdi (1932–1993)
• Ahmed Abdallah
• Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah (born 1962)
• Rageh Daoud (born 1954)
• Omar Khayrat (born 1949)
• Mona Ghoneim (born 1955)
• Sherif Mohie El Din (born 1964)
• Ali Osman (born 1958)
• Adel Kamel

See also

• Opera in Arabic

References

1. Malcolm Floyd Composing the music of Africa: composition, interpretation, and realisation – Al-Ahram review of this book: chapter by Adel Kamel chapter "Egyptian Composition in the Twentieth Century,"
2. https://sites.google.com/site/classicarabmusic/great_five_composers

• Castelo-Branco, Salwa El-Shawan (2001). "Egypt: Western Music." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed.
• El-Kholy, Samha (1992). Al-qawmiyya fī mūsīqā al-qarn al-‘ishrīn’ (Nationalism in 20th-century music). Kuwait: World of Knowledge.
• El-Kholy, Samha, and John O. Robison, eds. (1993). Festschrift for Gamal Abdel-Rahim. The Occasional Paper Series, v. 2, no. 2. Cairo: The Binational Fulbright Commission in Egypt.
• El-Kholy, Samha, ed. (1999). Al-ta'lif al-masri al mu'asir (Contemporary Egyptian Composition). Cairo.
• El-Shawan, Salwa (1985). "Western Music and Its Practitioners in Egypt (ca. 1825–1985): The Integration of a New Musical Tradition in a Changing Environment." Asian Music, v. 17, no. 1 (1985), pp. 145–153.
• Shehab, Yaz (1996). "Contemporary Egyptian Music." D.M.A. dissertation. Urbana: University of Illinois.

External links

• Article about contemporary Egyptian composers