The carillonneurs who regularly play the carillon at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, made a generous donation to the Johan Franco Composition Fund, in memory of Dr. Lorn Howard. Lorn Howard began playing the carillon in 1984, as soon as the bells were installed. He continued playing up until just a few weeks before his death in 2012, at age 94! The committee and the GCNA Board decided that it would be appropriate to do something special with this gracious gift, and commission a piece that the carillonneurs at Dallas would find useful, and very approachable to play. This came about as I was stepping down from 28 years chairing the committee, and I was greatly honored when the GCNA Board decided I should be the one commissioned to write them a hymn-based piece! In a way, this was an easy thing for me to undertake, since I am constantly improvising settings and variations on hymn tunes, but when committing it to print, the details must be much more carefully worked-out. I also, of course, needed to pay attention to what the player is asked to do. It's intended to be reasonably easy to play, with no special technical challenges. (There are a few challenges involved in playing it with the correct interpretation, however.)

The choice of hymn tunes was quite intentional. Every time Lorn sat down to play the carillon, he opened with "Old Hundredth," so of course, this piece should do so as well, in his memory! "For All the Saints" (Sine nomine) was one of the hymns sung at his funeral, and since that is a familiar favorite throughout all denominations, that was also a great candidate to include. I couldn't resist taking on the challenge of making the two tunes work together, but since they don't consistently match in meter (or, in places, the notes would conflict), this required "bending" one of them a bit when they were combined. To this was added some flourishes and some additional passages that spring naturally (I hope!) from the tunes themselves. The final section, in its first version (measures 81–104) was the ending I had in mind, which takes advantage of the bright, singing qualities that are the hallmark of Paccard carillons (such as the Highland Park carillon). An alternative version (measures 105–128) is provided for carillons with more delicate, or less resonant, treble bells. It is, of course, perfectly fine to play the alternative version on a carillon with brilliant trebles if preferred. It is not fine to play them both in succession, of course! I thank the GCNA Board for this honor, and I thank my friends at Highland Park United Methodist Church for their thoughtful contribution to the creation of new music for the carillon.

—John Gouwens