Dabke (String Orchestra Score)

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.