E.C. Schirmer Rental Request Form.
Dabke is a folk dance and a type line dance from Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, 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 the rhythms that accompany it. This movement is based on a six beat dabke rhythm called sudaasi. Dabke is an arrangement of the third movement of Kareem Roustom’s A Voice Exclaiming; a work for triple string quartet that was originally commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and Providence R.I. based Community MusicWorks.
Dabke has been performed by a wide number of ensembles ranging from professional orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Staatstheater Kassel Orchestra (Germany), the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra as well as college and youth ensembles in the US and as far away as Malaysia, Morocco, Chile and elsewhere. Dabke was also recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra in London’s famed Abbey Road Studio One. It gives me great pleasure to see a work of mine continue to be performed almost ten years after it was written and reaching across both geographical and generational boundaries.