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, 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)
• Dawood Hosni (1870–1937)

Second generation

• Mohamed Abdel Wahab (1902–1991)
• 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 (1921–2017)
• Aziz El-Shawan (1916–1993)
• Soliman Gamil (1924–1994)
• Rifaat Garrana (born 1924)
• Tarek Ali Hassan (born 1937)
• Ezz Eddin Hosni (1927–2013)

Third generation

• Baligh Hamdi (1932–1993)
• Muhammad Sultan
• 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 (1958–2017)
• Adel Kamel (1942–2003)

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.