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HALIM EL-DABH
Halim El-Dabh and Friends
© 2011 Halim El-Dabh

Halim El-Dabh and Friends brings together an array of music covering the composing life span of Halim El-Dabh. It is an eclectic compilation of past and present. Traditional sounds blend with avant-gard note bending. Monorhythms and solo drum calls juxtapose with polyrhythms. Dramatic interweaving of sound interplays with traditional representations in a truly innovative presentation. Come dance, wonder and dream.

HALIM EL-DABH
Piano Music of Halim El-Dabh
© 2009 Halim El-Dabh

Piano Music of Halim El-Dabh is a collection of piano compositions written by Halim El-Dabh between the years 1932 and 2007. They are inspired by the life forces of the Egyptian villages and the energy of the people he interacted with. Represented are his two earliest pieces Misri-yaat and Arabi-yaat written when he was eleven and thirteen years old. The Legend which El-Dabh wrote in 1952, soon after his arrival in New York City, speaks of his journey from Egypt to the USA. The five Egyptian Folk Style Pieces were also written early in El-Dabh's life and are based on folk tunes he had experienced since his childhood. These Egyptian Folk Style Pieces were performed by Myrna Capp. Finally, represented on this CD are five recently composed pieces (2005) which El-Dabh created spontaneously while at the ivory keys of the piano.

Halim El-Dabh speaks:

"You might describe my piano music as classical contemporary boardering on the avant garde. My piano music is exhuberently sparkling, flourishingly bouncy and alive, sometimes bending towards the dramatic with a deep poetic tenderness.

"My chordal and melodic styles are based on a structure that I coined and named as "heteroharmony". It is an approach based on the friction of tones in a desire to achieve unison. Sometimes I can achieve the feelings of the quarter tone by executing tonal friction in tetrachords of augmented seconds.

"Occasionally these augmented seconds could be juxtaposed over an Egyptian Arabic hijaz, or simply over regular piano scales.

" My classical piano music is universal, a mirror to the whole world whether it is Arabic maqamat or some hidden 12 tone scale."

HALIM EL-DABH
The Dog Gone Deaf
© 2009 Halim El-Dabh

So goes the legend - Dog, man's best friend, risked his life to pull man out of the abyss. But man alas responds to the dog with commands and an authoritative attitude. The dog covers his ears - the dog done gone deaf.

Created with this in his mindseye, Halim El-Dabh weaves a synthesis of resonances which evoke down to earth sounds mixed with the mystical and magical realms. He writes for an extended range in all the instruments, stemming from a desire to transcend limits and to push beyond norms. He holds onto traditional elements and stays the authentic while layering his tonal explorations in pursuit of new dimensions of sounds. Truly avant-garde and eclectic.

Master musicians Thierry Amar - string bass, Jean Derome - baritone sax, bass flute
Halim El-Dabh - piano, vocal, Malcolm Goldstein - violin, Sam Shalabi - oud, Ziya Tabassian - percussion form The Barking Dog Sextext for this world premiere at Suoni Per Poplo in Montreal.

HALIM EL-DABH
The Osiris Ritual:
Ptahmose and the Magic Spell Part 1
© 2009 Halim El-Dabh

The story of death and resurrection as told from ancient Egyptian mythology, recounted in an opera written by Halim El-Dabh in 1972 and performed by The Hawthorne School of Washington, D.C.

HALIM EL-DABH
Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic
© 2008 Halim El-Dabh (701376169925)

Halim El-Dabh's electronic music compositions call forth mystical, haunting, and humbling voices which melt words into sound. From a Cairo radio station in 1944 to the studios of Columbia Princeton
his electronic music has led to him to being proclaimed the "father of electronic music" by WIRE Magazine in 2007. Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic is a timeless classic.

HALIM EL-DABH
African Village Music
© 2009 Halim El-Dabh

Halim El-Dabh has conducted ethnomusicological research in the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Zaire. Within the African Diaspora, his research also includes Brazil, Jamaica, and the United States.

El-Dabh has written for African instruments and African themes. His works in opera, symphony, ballet, orchestra, chamber and electronic music are inspired from the heart of cultures in Africa and Asia. Information about his works can be found on his website at www.halimeldabh.com. Presented in this CD are selected pieces from El-Dabh's vast collection of studies, travels and performances by and with African peoples. African Village Music is Halim El-Dabh's third ethnomusicological field research CD release under the Halim El-Dabh Music label. El-Dabh often participated with the villagers in song, dance.

HALIM EL-DABH
African Melody and Beat
© 2008 Halim El-Dabh (701376170228)

Halim El-Dabh has conducted ethnomusicological research in the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Zaire. African Melody and Beat is selected from El-Dabh's vast collection of studies, travels and performances by and with African peoples, including various cultures from the African continent: Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal & Zaire as recorded by Halim El-Dabh

HALIM EL-DABH
Drum Voices of Africa
© 2008 Halim El-Dabh (701376170020)

Renowned ethnomusicologist Halim El-Dabh's recordings of his studies, travels and performances by and with African peoples in Zaire, Mali and Ethiopia. Gathered from his ethnomusicological research across Africa, Halim shares his experience of African cultures on the Drum Voices CD.

HALIM EL-DABH
Music Compositions Throughout the Years
Performances at Kent State University
© 2008 Halim El-Dabh (701376170525)

Professor emeritus Halim El-Dabh celebrates his fortieth year of teaching at Kent State University with a musical medley of his favorite works, performed by the Kent State University Orchestra, Tuyen Tonnu and KSU's Flash in the Pan, among others.

El-Dabh juxtaposes traditional tribal sounds with contemporary music styles, creating operas, symphonies, ballets, chamber music and electronic music. Join us on a musical journey.

KSU faculty, students, and musicians honor Halim on his eightieth birthday with harp, derabucca, bassoon, flute, clarinets, marimba and theremin. Join us for a celebration of Halim's work, performed by his friends at the Ludwig Recital Hall on Kent State University's campus on April 17, 2001.

Halim's Clytemnestra Suite "Orchestral Elaborations" conducted by Nathaniel Chase and
Symphony no.3 played by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and conducted by John Ferrito.

Clytemnestra was first composed for the Martha Graham Dance Company's epic dance drama and premiered on Broadway in 1958. Halim connects the dark underworld of Hades with the idea of rebirth for those who become conscious of their crimes. Halim created the Clytemnestra Suites as an orchestral rendition of his original composition.

Symphony no.3 was written by Halim El-Dabh in 1953 in Cairo, Egypt. Thirty-seven years later it has been revised and performed by the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. With poetic strings and wind, brass and percussion, Halim weaves a mystical fabric enveloping the number thirteen and the mystery and enigma of living forces with feelings of fear, hope, and love.

Halim El-Dabh presents a collection of chamber works and two concertos, featuring prominent artists: Tuyen Tonnu performs the Surrr-Rahh piano concerto with the Kent State University Orchestra, Bryan Thomas performs Aapep and Ra on string bass, and master saxophonist Greg Banazak performs the Pomegranate Concerto with breath taking beauty.

Egyptian Calypso, originally written as a steel drum piece, is adapted here for strings, saxophone and congas. El-Dabh has composed a total of six symphonic works, ten operas, and numerous chamber and solo pieces. His works have been performed on all continents.

Halim El-Dabh uses primeval and ancient vocal sounds in utterance, oratory and melody combined with unique vocal percussive techniques and electro-acoustic treatment. Halim presents a variety of compositions for solo instruments, vocal, chamber and electronic music that reflect ancient cultures, yet bring to life new sounds and new beginnings in the contemporary classical world.

From solo acoustic guitar played by Yuval Avital (composed by Halim in 1952) to the electronic Conversations with Theremin (2005), from Intimacy's Blake Tyson on Marimba to Halim's solo piano work Meditations on the Nile you will enjoy the broad range of Halim's creations. He even indulges us with Belly Dance Classic (2004) for those who wish to get up and groove!