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At-A-Glance

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Composed: 1985

Length: c. 9 minutes

Orchestration: 3 flutes (3rd = piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons (3rd = contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and percussion (snare drum, whip, triangle, small gong; piatti, glockenspiel, wood block, triangle, large piatti; suspended cymbal, tenor drum, medium gong, wood block, large tam-tam, xylophone, bass drum)

First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: August 12, 2021

About this Piece

Adolphus Hailstork wrote An American Port of Call for the Virginia Symphony who premiered it in 1985. Dr. Hailstork gives this summary of the piece: “The concert overture, in sonata-allegro form captures the strident (and occasionally tender and even mysterious) energy of a busy American port city. The great port of Norfolk, Virginia, where I live, was the direct inspiration.”

©2016 Adolphus Hailstork and John P. Varineau / Reproduced by kind permission of the Richmond Symphony