Dabke String Orchestra - Sheet Music

SKU: EC.LMP025

Dabke is the string orchestra setting of the third movement of composer Kareem Roustom's A Voice Exclaiming, originally scored for triple string quartet in a 2013 commission for the Kronos Quartet and Community MusicWorks players. Dabke is an Arab communal folkloric line dance typically performed at joyous occasions. Highly rhythmic and coloristic, the movement is based on a six beat dabke rhythm called sudaasi. Also transcribed by the composer for wind ensemble, the score is dedicated to the memory of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Program Notes:
Dabke (2015) for string orchestra is an arrangement of the third movement of Kareem Roustom's A Voice Exclaiming. Scored for triple string quartet A Voice Exclaiming was commissioned for and premiered by the Kronos Quartet and Community MusicWorks Players on November 8th, 2013 in Providence Rhode Island. The world premiere of the string orchestra version of Dabke took place on June 1st 2014 at Dartington Hall in Devon U.K. under the direction of Oliver Butterworth and the Dartington Reunion Chamber Orchestra.

Dabke is an Arab folkloric line dance that is typically performed at joyous occasions. The leader of the dance line, called a hawaash, directs the movements of the dancers behind him. There are many variants of this dance that involve men and women and I felt that this ideal of a communal, inclusive dance best supports the inspiration behind this project with the ideals of Community Music Works and the Kronos Quartet. This movement is based on a six beat dabke rhythm called sudaasi. -Kareem Roustom