Chamber Music flute,
piano
SKU:
PR.114424240
Free
at Last!. Composed by
Adolphus Hailstork. Set
of Score and Parts.
Duration 11 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#114-42424. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.114424240).
ISBN
9781491137581. UPC:
680160691036.
THE
BONES OF MR. FORTUNE
(FREE AT LAST!) is an
11-minute concerto-like
work for solo flute
accompanied by symphonic
winds and percussion –
perfect to play with band
or with orchestra, as
well as with the
composer’s own piano
reduction. The work
features lengthy
cadenzas, and
exhilarating dance-like
sections with the
ensemble. Hailstork
describes the historical
inspiration: Abused in
life and death, an
enslaved man (Mr.
Fortune) was owned by a
surgeon who preserved his
skeleton to study
anatomy. The bones
remained with the
doctor’s family for
generations, and were
given a proper burial
making national news in
2013, 215 years after Mr.
Fortune’s
death.
Abused in life
and death, an enslaved
man known as Mr. Fortune
was honored with an
elaborate funeral more
than 200 years after he
died in Connecticut.Mr.
Fortune was owned by Dr.
Preserved Porter on a
farm in Waterbury,
Connecticut. When Fortune
died in 1798, Porter, a
bone surgeon, preserved
his skeleton by having
the bones boiled to study
anatomy at a time when
cadavers for medical
study were
disproportionately taken
from slaves, servants and
prisoners.One of
Porter’s descendants
gave the skeleton in 1933
to Mattatuck Museum in
Waterbury, where it was
displayed from the 1940s
until 1970. The
descendant referred to
the slave as “Larryâ€
and his name was
forgotten at the time.A
study by forensic
anthropologists at the
Quinnipiac University
School of Medicine
concluded that Fortune
was about 5 feet 5 inches
tall and died at around
55 years old. He suffered
a number of painful
ailments, including a
fracture in his left
hand, a severe ankle
sprain and lower back
pain. “He was an
individual who was in
considerable distress,â€
a forensic professor,
Richard Gonzalez said.I
was taken by the bizarre
story of Mr. Fortune and
decided to use it as the
stimulus for this
work.
