“Done Made My Vow”, (1985) by Adolphus Hailstork (b.

1941)

Adolphus Hailstork composed his “oratorio” (that isn’t really an oratorio) in 1985, the
result of a commission from Norfolk State University in observance of the school’s 50th
anniversary. The work is based on two songs, one a short anthem of his own
composition, “My Name is Toil”; the other is an old Negro spiritual from which the entire
work takes its name, “Done Made My Vow”. The musical forces required for a
performance are quite formidable: Narrator, soprano, tenor and boy soprano vocal
soloists, large orchestra and chorus. The work is cast in the form of an African-American
Christian worship service, which signals an immediate departure from the general
structure of the Baroque, Classical or Romantic oratorio. The role of the Narrator
functions as African griot, preacher, teacher, and older friendly peer throughout the body
of the work. The chorus serves as “church choir” and Civil Rights-era protest
congregation; the sonic capacities of the orchestra create a multicultural panorama that
reflects the variety of African-American music tradition within and beyond its
predominant and predictable genres.

Resonations & Illuminations…

1. The Spiritual: “Done Made My Vow” (Cantus firmus I)
2. The Hymn “My Name is Toil” (Cantus firmus II)
3. The Narrated Text & Role of the Narrator (guide/elder/preacher/parent)
4. The Structure of the Work (“The Afro-Christian Church Service as A New High
Mass”)
5. The Musical Score: Multiplicities of style residing within the work
6. Black History as the emotional cantus firmus of the work
7. “Hohepunkt oder Wendepunkt”? (Climax or Turning Point of the work)
8. Imagery in performance: the chorus as congregation (quasi-Greek tragedy
chorus?); the narrator as “Civil Rights-Era preacher”; the soloists as the black
family, showing love between and within; the percussion section as “lost
drummers” speaking; (“the unknown bards” revealing themselves?);
9. The “time phases”: Thanksgiving, Remembrance and Dedication. Each phase
tends to fold back into the previous one for multiple reasons. [Does “Done
Made” on a large scale…follow a similar or even parallel textual structure as “Lift
Ev’ry Voice and Sing”?]
10. Thanksgiving: for family, familiarity, community and productivity; future time
phases alluded to in this opening narrative period.
11. Remembrance: “stony the road”…; remembrance of those who “declared
themselves guilty before the bench of injustice” (“We Shall Overcome”);
Douglass, Turner, Truth, Tubman, Du Bois, Garvey, Randolph, Parks, King,
Malcolm.
12. Pinnacle One: “Free At Last”, then on to praise with the emotional realms of
thanksgiving and remembrance; the drum rhythms compete with the choral layers
of imitation, culminating on “Great Is The Glory Of The Lord”.
13. Dedication…transitioned into by quiet “remembrances of mercy enduring
forever”; “leave not Thy work undone” (or unfinished): “This Little Light of
 Mine”…YOUR Name Is Toil!! Orchestral interlude possesses profound “textless
commentary”; the orchestra is also a sonic “character” in this dramatic process.
14. Pinnacle Two: Full reprise of the anthem, sung quietly first (what’s the meaning
in that?); the anthem quote dovetails back to the orchestral introduction.

“My name is Toil, my mother is strength, [my father is courage], my future: achievement,
my goal is pride”. I’ve walked this land, I’ve tilled its soil, in the name of this Nation I
have died, so I’ll fight for the right to be free, to proclaim to this world I’m a man, look at
me…”

I. “Now is the time for Thanksgiving…” (for all things good and bad)

II. “Now is the time for Remembrance…” (for the honoring of past heroes);
Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, DuBois,
Garvey, Malcolm X, A. Philip Randolph, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.

III. Now is the time for Dedication…leave not Thy work unfinished…” (of future
generations); the “window becomes a mirror”—“to America”, inclusively;

The structural form of the work proceeds in parallel motion from the familiar points of
worship (Devotion, Call to Worship, etc.)—Thanksgiving (“Gloria”, praise,
“celebration”, “commemoration” (“Credo”); “dedication” (“Benedictus”, “Agnus Dei”).