Daniel Kallman’s setting of “Lord of All Hopefulness” is the perfect easy anthem. It’s great for a small choir, for a summer choir,” for an “yikes! half my choir got snowed in!” choir. It’s the piece you want in your back-pocket just in case you have to cancel an anthem last minute, like I did last fall. It’s also just a lovely anthem!
4 Reasons Why Kallman’s “Lord of All Hopefulness” Is a Gem:
- It’s based on a hymn tune that everyone in your choir knows: SLANE (the tune we associated with “Be Thou My Vision”).
- It can be sung completely unison, even by only trebles or only lower voices. As written, it’s for SAB, with trebles and lower voices taking turns with the melody, and the altos and sopranos briefly providing harmony. However, it’s beautiful without the harmonizing, and there’s no reason it wouldn’t work for a women’s or men’s ensemble.
- The flute part is beautiful, but the piece is beautiful even without it. And the flute part is accessible to a midlevel flutist.
- Most importantly: it’s musically satisfying. So often, hymn-tune based anthems are boring. They have a predictable introduction, predictable interludes, and go “upper voices, then lower voices, then both together.” But while Kallman’s anthem does follow a familiar format, it is truly a musical gem.
So tell me: what hymn-tune based unison anthems do you love? I’m in the midst of planning for my summer choir and I would love to expand our repertoire!
GEMS is a series devoted to continual delights—music, books, and other things that bring joy, year after year.
Hello Sarah, I just found your blog post regarding my anthem, and I want to thank you for your thoughtful article. That setting has been around a while (my first worship publication!) and I now own the copyright again. The anthem can be ordered on my web site at https://kallmancreates.com. Thanks again, Daniel Kallman