The large, ambitious symphonies of the imposingly named Adolphus Hailstork presented here do not make much explicit use of African-American vernacular materials, but the composer's heritage shows through in his preference for band-like textures -- and he indeed has written music for bands. There is a good deal for the percussionists to do as well, but this quality has as much to do with the basic musical language employed as with any questionable cultural affinities -- these are full-fledged specimens of the neo-Romantic ...
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The large, ambitious symphonies of the imposingly named Adolphus Hailstork presented here do not make much explicit use of African-American vernacular materials, but the composer's heritage shows through in his preference for band-like textures -- and he indeed has written music for bands. There is a good deal for the percussionists to do as well, but this quality has as much to do with the basic musical language employed as with any questionable cultural affinities -- these are full-fledged specimens of the neo-Romantic symphony, albeit diverted from crowd-pleaser status by a serious tone that pervades the Symphony No. 2, especially. Hailstork notes that he intended the work as abstract, not programmatic, but a visit to the Ghanaian forts and dungeons from which slaves were sent off to death or doom. The Grave second movement of that work, part of a pair with the broadly hopeful finale that forms the work's heart, is an episodic lament framed by solo utterances from an English horn, an impressive...
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