Samha Amin El-Kholy ( ar, سمحة الخولي; July 27, 1925– January 25, 2006) was a noted Egyptian musicologist. She published widely about the traditional music and

contemporary music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included se ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, including several articles about contemporary Egyptian composers in ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and the ...

''. She received her doctorate from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

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, where she studied with

Henry George Farmer Henry George Farmer (17 January 1882 – 20 December 1965) was a British musicologist and Arabist. He studied under Thomas Hunter Weir, Professor of Oriental Languages at University of Glasgow. He wrote extensively about Arab musical influ ...

. In 1958, she became the first musicologist on the faculty of the newly opened

Cairo Conservatoire The Cairo Conservatoire ( ar, معهد الكونسرفتوار; transliteration: ''Ma'had el-Konservatwar''; full name: "المعهد العالي للموسيقى "الكونســرفاتوار) is the primary music conservatory in Egypt. It was ...

. She was married to the Egyptian composer Gamal Abdel-Rahim. From 1972 to 1981, she served as Dean of the Cairo Conservatoire, and from 1982 to 1985 she was President of the

Academy of Arts An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

University in Cairo. She also organized an orchestra for the blind and hosted a television program about music. She organized many concerts and recordings of the works of Egyptian composers. Her notable students include Mohamed Abdelwahab Abdelfattah.

Books

*El-Kholy, Samha. ''Al-qawmiyya fī mūsīqā al-qarn al-‘ishrīn’'' (Nationalism in 20th-century music) (1992). Kuwait: World of Knowledge. *El-Kholy, Samha. ''The Function of Music in Islamic Culture. In the Period Up to 1100 A.D. (1984). Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization. *El-Kholy, Samha. ''The Tradition of Improvisation in Arab Music''. *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.

External links

Samha El-Kholy obituary
from Music Research Institute site

from ''Al-Ahram'' 1925 births 2006 deaths Egyptian musicologists Women musicologists Writers from Cairo Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 20th-century musicologists 20th-century women musicians {{Egypt-bio-stub