“The Music Therapists’ Anthem”

I’ve only found one copy of the music for this song, plus a rough, incomplete draft, and it’s dated 2007. There are many copies of other songs, which suggests that she didn’t perform this one much, if ever. Maybe I’ll find it in Sibelius format or another program on an old backup drive later.

However, the lyrics were published in 2018 by the Orleans Writing Group as a poem, following a writing workshop in 2014 (I think, as per “Writers Block 2014” note in margin) when she made some changes, presumably with feedback by other participants. In particular, see the note in the margin: “Consider 1 syllable ending 2nd line.” That may make it tighter as a poem without music.

On the music, it appears that she tried to apply the changes to the original tune. But I haven’t found a rewrite, so I don’t think she worked it through to a conclusion. There are also many edits to the chords. The two-syllable line endings work fine for singing, I think.

I’d be tempted to keep the original version for singing, and let the poem be a poem. But try it out and let me know what you think and what works for you.

For now, I’m posting the scans “as is” and enabling comments on this post below. – HH

Sheet Music

PDF version of sheet music (2 pages)

Clean version of original lyrics

Download original lyrics (PDF)

Marked up lyrics

Poem

As published by Orleans Writing Group, 2018