An arrangement of For all the Saints (Sine Nomine) for Brass Quintet & Percussion, for use on All Saint's Day.

All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day,the Feast of All Saints,[4][5] the Feast of All Hallows,[6] the Solemnity of All Saints,[6] and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the Church, whether they are known or unknown.

From the 4th century, feasts commemorating all Christian martyrs were held in various places,[3] on various dates near Easter and Pentecost. In the 9th century, some churches in the British Isles began holding the commemoration of all saints on 1 November, and in the 9th century this was extended to the whole Catholic Church by Pope Gregory IV.[10]

In Western Christianity, it is still celebrated on 1 November by the Roman Catholic Church as well as many Protestant churches, such as the Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist traditions. The Eastern Orthodox Church and associated Eastern Catholic and Eastern Lutheran churches celebrate it on the first Sunday after Pentecost.] The Syro-Malabar Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church, both of which are in communion with Rome, as well as the Church of the East, celebrate All Saints' Day on the first Friday after Easter Sunday. In the Coptic Orthodox tradition, All Saints' Day is on Nayrouz, celebrated on 11 September. The day is the start of the Coptic new year, and of its first month, Thout.

There is a sparlking Piccolo Trumpet descant in the last verse.

’’For All the Saints" was written as a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saint’s Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864.

The hymn was sung to the melody Sarum, by Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906. This hymnal used a new setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he called Sine Nomine (literally, "without name") in reference to its use on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, or the first Sunday in November, All Saints Sunday in the Lutheran Church. It has been described as "one of the finest hymn tunes of [the 20th] century.

While most English hymn tunes of its era are written for singing in SATB four-part harmony, Sine Nomine is primarily unison (verses 1,2,3,7 and 8) with organ accompaniment; just three verses (4, 5 and 6) are set in sung harmony. The tune appears in this forms in most English hymnbooks (for example English Hymnal (641), New English Hymnal (197), Common Praise (232)) and American hymnals (for example, The Hymnal 1982 and the Lutheran Service Book (677).

Since the 1990s, Some Presbyterian churches and groups affiliated with Reformed University Fellowship in the United States use a tune composed by Christopher Miner.

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford’s tune Engleberg was also written to be partnered with this hymn, although in the wake of Sine nomine it never gained popularity and is now more commonly used with other hymns, including "When in our music God is glorified.