Composers · Adolphus Hailstork
Fanfare on Amazing Grace
Fanfare on Amazing Grace
Adolphus Hailstork
A short orchestral fanfare by Adolphus Hailstork that builds the hymn tune "Amazing Grace" out of brass calls, often used to open American concert programs.
What to listen for
This is a curtain-raiser, over in about the time it takes to read a program note. It works in one continuous sweep rather than separate movements, so there is no pause to wait through.
The opening is brass: bright, declamatory calls that do not yet spell out the hymn but circle around its first rising interval, the leap that carries the word "Amazing." Percussion punctuates rather than drives, and the orchestra answers the brass in blocks of sound.
As the piece settles, the tune itself comes into focus. "Amazing Grace" is one of the most widely recognized melodies in American life, and the pleasure here is hearing it emerge from fanfare material that has been hinting at it from the first bar. Hailstork treats the melody with respect for its simple shape, letting it sound plainly in the middle of the ensemble while the brass keep their ceremonial stance around it.
The close returns to fanfare mode, broadening rather than accelerating, with full brass and a firm final chord. Listeners who know the hymn from church, from bagpipes, or from public memorials will recognize it well before the last phrase. Concerts often place this first on the program, so it arrives before the audience has fully settled.
The story
Adolphus Hailstork, born in Rochester, New York, in 1941 and raised in Albany, sang as a boy in an Episcopal church choir, and hymn tunes and spirituals have run through his music ever since. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in France and later with Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, and spent much of his career teaching in Virginia, first at Norfolk State University and then at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.
Fanfare on Amazing Grace belongs to a long line of short ceremonial pieces Hailstork has written for American orchestras and civic occasions. It takes a hymn known to almost every American listener and gives it the brass-forward treatment of a formal fanfare. Pieces of this kind are commissioned for openings, anniversaries, and memorial concerts, and they survive by being useful as well as memorable. It remains one of Hailstork's most frequently programmed short works, appearing on concerts by orchestras across the country.
First time hearing it?
- Short: roughly three to five minutes, played straight through with no breaks.
- Brass carry the piece. Listen for the hymn tune to surface out of the opening calls.
- You almost certainly know the melody already, from church, bagpipes, or public memorials.
- Usually programmed first, as an opener before a longer work.
- No soloist and no singing in the fanfare itself, though a program may pair it with vocal music.
Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.