22- Five Symphonic Dances

Five Symphonic Dances

Five Symphonic Dances

Malek Jandali

Born in Waldbröl, West Germany, December 25, 1972

Malek Jandali is “a uniquely gifted composer” (The Washington Post) and his music has been hailed as “a major new addition to the 21st century’s symphonic literature” by (Fanfare magazine). His symphonies, concertos, and upcoming opera, The Square, have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by leading orchestras and distinguished soloists around the world. Through his works he seeks to promote cultural communication and understanding. His large-scale orchestral works engage major philosophical themes and integrate Arabic maqams (modes) with persuasive craft and a marked seriousness of purpose that echo UNESCO’s call to preserve and protect the rich cultural heritage of his homeland Syria.

Jandali has produced ten albums of lauded performances encompassing more than forty of his compositions. He is the first Arab musician to have arranged the oldest example of music notation in the world, which was featured on his 2008 album Echoes from Ugarit. Jandali is the recipient of the 2014 Global Music Humanitarian Award, and in 2015 the Carnegie Corporation of New York honored him as a Great Immigrant, a Pride of America.

Composer-in-residence at both Queens University of Charlotte and at Qatar Museums, Jandali is also the founder and CEO of Pianos for Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building peace through music and education. Malek Jandali was born in Germany and raised in Syria. He now makes his home in Atlanta and New York City.

Jandali composed his Five Symphonic Dances in 2023 based on simple folk dances from different regions of the Middle East. One of these folk sources had also played a role in his acclaimed Symphony No. 6, “The Desert Rose.” The Five Symphonic Dances were premiered in Moscow by the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sergey Kondrashev, on January ?, 2024.

Arising from a powerful, slow-moving unison melody, the solemn first dance serves as an introduction, accumulating texture and piquant dissonances, winding up to a grand peroration. The main theme reappears in a poignant trombone solo before the return of the stark tone that began the piece.

The second dance struts along comically, jazzily, pausing portentously to admit a majestic wall of sound. Jauntiness and grandeur alternate until the final emphatic chord.

In its colorful outer sections, the third dance brings to mind the great Respighi tone poems celebrating the glories of ancient Rome, here transplanted to an even more ancient civilization. The main theme—with its distinctive rhythm derived from an ardah, danced by men with swords to the accompaniment of drums and poetry—had also made its mark in the fifth movement of Jandali’s Desert Rose Symphony. Here in the dance, the central section’s contrast—a mysterious astral backdrop with delicate violin solo—could not be more pronounced.

Out of a tremolo flutter, a triplet rhythm foreshadows the rhythmic motion of the fourth dance’s smooth main theme, first presented by the violins but soon featured in myriad ways—and notably flowing unperturbed against contrasts of energetic clamor. The ending neatly mirrors the beginning.

After an annunciatory gesture, the final dance presents a jolly folk theme in a relaxed atmosphere that receives strenuous brass comments. A flute solo delicately continues to present the theme amid interruptions until the full orchestra revels in the dance. The two final punctuating chords humorously suggest the hand-brushing-hand gesture that signals “that’s that!”