History credits Francis Crosby, the famous, blind American writer of hymns, with a legacy of 8,000 hymns. Francis (Fanny) Crosby is one of the most prolific authors of hymns on world record. So famous is she for this feat alone, few individuals are aware that Fanny also wrote secular poetry, and that she and her husband Alexander van Alstyne had a

History credits Francis Crosby, the famous, blind American writer of hymns, with a legacy of 8,000 hymns. Francis (Fanny) Crosby is one of the most prolific authors of hymns on world record. So famous is she for this feat alone, few individuals are aware that Fanny also wrote secular poetry, and that she and her husband Alexander van Alstyne had a baby girl who lived to be about 3 months old. Touched by Crosby’s secular poem, The Sleeping Infant, (1844) in 2001, Lois composed music, in contemporary, classical song form, for Crosby’s poem. Several years later, Lois arranged the song as an instrumental chamber music piece; a woodwind quintet, A Winged Prayer and a Lullaby. In this additional work for piano inspired by Crosby’s poem and performed here, Lois combines her original music for the poem with her own arrangement of the American hymn, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go by Albert L. Peace (1844-1912) and George Matheson (1842-1906). The resulting piano solo, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go & Francis’ Lullaby reflects Lois’ response to Crosby’s poem, The Sleeping Infant and to Crosby’s life: especially her brief experience as a mother.