abstract:Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh ( (Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍabʻ); born March 4, 1921) is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades. He is particularly known as an early pioneer of electronic music, for having composed in 1944 the first piece of electronic tape music, specifically an electroacoustic musique concrète piece, and later for his influential work at the Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center from the late 1950s to early 1960s.