Page 18 - New West Symphony Oct-Nov 2024 Digital Playbill

PROGRAM Notes

THREE SPIRITUALS FOR ORCHESTRA
Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III (b. 1941, Rochester, NY)
Composed: 2005
Instrumentation: pairs of woodwinds, two french horns, three trumpets,
three trombones, one tuba, percussion and strings
Duration: approximately 8 minutes
Adolphus Hailstork is an American composer, educated at Howard University, the
Manhattan School, and Michigan State University, where he received his PhD. He has
taught at various American universities and is currently a member of the faculty of
Old Dominion University in Virginia. His reputation for technical prowess, directness
of expression, and stylistic accessibility for a variety of audiences has garnered him
widespread recognition and awards. His wide span of musical compositions ranges
from symphonies, opera and a violin concerto to “Springtime for Two Elephants” for
two tubas. He often employs material relating to African-American traditions as points
of departure.
Three Spirituals for Orchestra aptly demonstrates his mastery of melding traditional music

into a contemporary musical language. The first movement, based upon “Everytime I
Feel the Spirit,” illustrates an approach that reminds one of Aaron Copland’s approach
to Mexican music: While the traditional tune does appear clear and easy to apprehend,
the composer then employs fragments of it to weave a rhythmic, syncopated, and

often disjoint musical fabric, adroitly and artfully manipulated. The well-known campfire
song, “Kum Ba Yah” is the apt subject of the bluesy second movement, and, as in the

first movement, Hailstork demonstrates his complete mastery of orchestration—even
matching the best of Broadway arrangers. Finally, a jazzy “Oh Freedom” is the basis of
the last of these immensely appealing settings of traditional spirituals as the basis for
sophisticated orchestral excursions.
© 2017 William E. Runyan
“LOVE WILL FIND A WAY” FROM SHUFFLE ALONG
Eubie Blake, arr. Arroyo (b. Baltimore, 1887 – d. Brooklyn, 1983)

Shuffle Along premiered in 1921 in New York City
Instrumentation: piano solo and strings

Duration: approximately five minutes
A widely celebrated American pianist, composer and lyricist, Eubie Blake was at the
vanguard of the Harlem Renaissance and is widely acknowledged as a key fi gure in
the evolution of the jazz movement in the United States. His musical talents were
recognized at age four and by age 15 he was gigging throughout Baltimore before
joining various ragtime and vaudeville acts. In 1921, Blake, along with F. E. Miller
and Aubrey Lyles, premiered Shuffl e Along, the fi rst hit Broadway musical written
by and about African Americans. “Love Will Find a Way” is among the hit songs
introduced during the show.
©2024 Michael Christie

18 | New West Symphony