Listen to "Firefighter's Prayer"theme for While Hope Remains (MP3)

The original hymn on which the larger structure of Joelle Wallach's While Hope Remains rests uses the traditional words of "The Firefighter's Prayer." While Hope Remains is scored for orchestra, chorus, tenor soloist and speaker. Its text is drawn from memos and recollections of the surviving men and their captain at Engine Company 40 as well as from the "Firefighter's Prayer," itself. Of Engine Company 40 and Ladder 35, all but one of the men who responded to the World Trade Center alarms on September 11th , 2001 never returned. The surviving firefighters' eloquent expressions of their losses and their shock - and the stark contrast between the prayer and what we know to have been its fulfillment - infuse the music with a stark dignity and a deeply lyrical tenderness.

Essay on the larger work in progress:
       While Hope Remains: Envisioning the Music
       A Composer's Response to 9/11

Memo from Captain James J. Gormley

Firefighter's Prayer

When I am called to duty,
Whenever flames may rage,
Give me strength to save a life
Whatever be its age.

Help me embrace a little child
Before it is too late
Or save an older person from
The horror of that fate.

Enable me to be alert
And hear the weakest shout
And quickly and efficiently
Put the fire out.

I want to fill my calling
To give the best in me
To guard my every neighbor,
protect his property.

And if according to Your will
I must answer death's last call
Bless with Your protecting hand
My family one and all.