Biography
Adolphus Hailstork was born in Rochester, New York, USA in 1941. He studied composition at Howard University with Mark Fax, at Manhattan School of Music with Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond and at the American Institute at Fontainebleau, France, with Nadia Boulanger. Then, following service in the US armed forces in Germany (1966-8), he returned the United States to complete a doctorate in music at Michigan State University in East Lansing, with H. Owen Reed. He also completed studies in contemporary music at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire USA.
He has taught at Michigan State University, Youngstown State University in Ohio, Old Dominion University and also at Norfolk State University where he currently resides.
He is a prolific composer, having written symphonies, orchestral music, choral works and chamber music as well as solo songs. He has been showered with awards and commissions for his services to music as a composer. His work is performed regularly by major orchestras such as Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Detroit and many more, and by leading conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim and Kurt Masur.
Songs of the Magi, for Oboe and Strings was written in 1987 for a student needing something new to perform. It is a suite in four sections entitled The Call, The Journey, The Wonder, and The Joy. The opening section, The Call (Andante) begins with a mystical quasi improvisation unaccompanied in D minor, played by the oboe, which later is accompanied by strings in 4/4. The pace quickens and becomes sprightly in the second section The Journey (Andantino), which is in triple metre. A much more lyrical section in F major begins for the third section, The Wonder (Adagietto), in slow triple metre. The final section, The Joy, is literally joyous and very stately, and marked Vivace. There are phrases in the section, which bear the influence of blues and jazz in the oboe part. The tonal centre hovers over D major, moving later to F major for restatement of the adagietto theme, and then a recollection of the opening theme in D minor, before heading for the coda in D major.
