Welcome to my website!

Thank you for visiting and looking at the music offered here. All songs are free to download if not otherwise designated (i.e. Seasons of Joy). Be sure to visit the Young Women page where most are my favorites. These songs don’t have to be limited to YW use, but can be used in Relief Society and often, Sacrament Meeting, since each one is based on the scripture designated for the year.

These songs are my “offering.” We all have something to give to the building of the kingdom, and this is mine. That’s why I give them freely. It is a joy each year to add the Mutual theme song—a little scary not knowing the reaction it will get, but a joy in the hope I am making a small contribution.

How did my website start? Many years ago when the Internet became popular, a friend made a website for “The Family, A Proclamation To the World” set to music, making it free to download and print. After my son Ted returned from his mission to Australia, he took over the website and started adding other songs. (I figured the songs weren’t doing any good just sitting in my piano bench and might as well be available for others to use.) As he learns more about website design, he tries out the techniques on mine. So what you see is Ted being creative. He has done a great job, don’t you agree? Go Ted!

If you find a highlighted link not working, or a misprint on the music, please email him through the contact pages.

The Family Proclamation set to music is to make learning and memorizing easier. The melodies and piano parts are simple enough for families and wards to use.

From whence came this idea, you ask? Lilk Williams started putting melodies to the words so that her Primary children could memorize the document, but realized that at the rate she was going, the Sunbeams might be married and gone by the time she finished, so she decided to find others to assist her. When Lilk presented me with the idea of singing the Proclamation word for word, I told her she was crazy. It was a dry document that didn’t rhyme, making it almost impossible to make musical phrases. But she was persistent and I soon found I was wrong. I was amazed how well those un-rhyming sentences and unmusical words sung themselves. We separated each concept, making seventeen short songs, and with the help of Milli Packard and Jean Smith, the whole Proclamation was finished in just a few months.

We submitted our work to the Church Music Submission and received an honorable mention and permission to publish without profit. I hope you will print it out and play through—clear to the end—for the last is one of my favorites.

I have a special place in my heart for the Young Women. I guess because I was one once ☺ and some of my favorite people are or have been young women. Each year, the Mutual is given a scripture as a theme. Learning and memorizing is faster when it involves music, and I love the challenge of using the exact scripture wording.
As you can see by the YW list of songs, I have written a song for the theme for several years. The first one was Come unto Christ who is “The Holy One of Israel” which is now listed in the SATB selection.

Last year (2007) was the first year that we recorded the Mutual theme song. Ted took a recording class in college and decided it was something we should include on the website. One day he brought home singer Jen Klippel from his institute class. We hardly knew Jen or what she could do, but when she started singing Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts in her pure, unpretentious voice, it really touched my heart. The combined simplicity of the song and her voice, clearly reflected the message, that virtue is pure, lovely, and simple.

May music always be a part of your life,
Joan Sowards