Daniel Kallman is a composer from Minnesota.  He writes music for varied media, including radio, worship, theater, and concerts. He has worked with such luminaries as Garrison Keillor and Philip Brunelle. His music has won him awards and recognition in the US, Europe, and east Asia. His Promenade and Galop was a finalist in the Columbia Summer Winds’s Outdoor Composition Contest.

Kallman has his own extensive website, kallmancreates.com, which features a full catalog of his works and recordings of several of them.

Kallman has a very detailed program for Groundhog’s Lament:

The Groundhog’s Lament is a musical “re-enactment” of the legendary purpose of the animal on its special day in February. The following note specifies the creature’s activities as they are mirrored in the music:

Nestled down deep underground in its burrow, a groundhog slumbers on well into the third month of a long winter nap, dreaming cozy dreams about the coming of a warm spring. Suddenly it stirs, sensing a primal need to awaken. It yawns…stretches…then remembers why it has awakened. It is February 2, a day set aside specifically for the creature to perform an important task. Slowly, still half asleep, it begins to make its way up from the burrow. As it ascends, the anticipation of the coming moment gradually awakens and excites the groundhog. Faster and faster it ascends until, finally — ah, fresh air! After a couple of magnificent gulps, the animal remembers its purpose. It looks to the ground and sees, alas, its own shadow! Disappointed (as will be so many of the rest of us), the groundhog descends once again, finally settling back down in the corner of its dark, cool underground home. It resumes the long nap, hopeful that it still has a six week supply of spring dreams to help it through the remainder of winter hibernation.

You can listen to Groundhog’s Lament here.

And to fill in your background knowledge of this piece, hear are some Groundhog Day resources:

Punxatawney Phil’s Groundhog Day FAQ site.

Groundhog Day on wikipedia.

The classic movie Groundhog Day on the Internet Movie Datebase.