This week’s belly dance class song is “Al Naddah”. The song was originally recorded in 1964 by the Lebanese singer, Sabah. It is has the feel of folk song from Levant (area or Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Jordan) and is the kind of song people might socially dance dabke to! But this week, we have a combination with finger cymbals to this piece.
It’s a song about seeing a girl in the springtime and falling in love. Here are some of the lyrics:
Oh Nada Nada Nada ..
And the flowers blossomed on her cheeks
If they don’t give you to me .. I shall bring down the high mountains
Nada was by the water spring.. and I asked where have you been
She winked at me with those eyes.. wanting to speak but wouldn’t
Nada went down to the orchard.. upon reaching, spring blossomed
She keeps me up all night perplexed.. counting the night stars
Read the full lyrics here
Here is Sabah singing the original, and the scene even features a traditional dabke dance!
Listen to the part around 1:55. This is called a mawaal. It’s a vocal improvisation in colloquial Arabic based loosely on fragments of poetry.
Our recording is by the Salatin Al Tarab ensemble here:
This song is in the 4/4 Saidi rhythm – D t D D t k t and we’ll be learning to play along with that pattern on our finger cymbals!
