Album Notes

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. Finally, represented on this CD are five recently composed pieces (2005) which El-Dabh created spontaneously while on the ivory keys the piano.