(Southern Music Band). American Guernica began as a technical challenge to Adolphus Hailstork to combine gospel-flavored material with contemporary compositional techniques. That led to the idea of an interrupted church service, which called to mind the bombing (in which 4 girls were killed and another child was blinded) in Birmingham, Alabama, September 15, 1963. What would that moment (and music reflecting that moment) contain? Sunday School music, explosion sounds, chaos, anguish, screaming. Eventually, there would be a funeral. This work is in two major contrasting sections. (Allegro and Solemn) with an extensive coda. Each section is interrupted by a piano solo. This new second edition has been newly engraved with revisions made by editor Brent Levine in collaboration with Adolphus Hailstork. A 9"x12" score comes with the set, and both 9"x12" and an oversized score are available separately to order.