Songs from a Window: End-of-Life Stories from the Music Therapy Room

by Bob Heath

When music therapist Bob starts working with people at the end of their lives, he realises they all have an important story to tell. But how can they say the unsayable, particularly when they are dying? In his therapy room, people tell their stories, heal emotional wounds and create legacies using words and music. Songs from a Window is a memoir about looking out, and looking in. It’s about living and dying, music and therapy, but most of all it’s a book about the power of the human spirit, hope and love.
Perfect for fans of Oliver Sachs’s Musicophilia , Irvin Yalom’s Creatures of a Day and Stephen Grosz’s The Examined Life .

Genres: Memoir

220 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2021

Reviews

[Lisa Wright]

Music for the soul.
A truly remarkable book, Songs from a Window has to be the single most moving memoir I’ve read – possibly ever.
Extraordinary, inspirational, uplifting, are not words I’d expect to use about a book which has society’s biggest taboo, death, at its heart. In fact most of the characters in Bob Heath’s memoir, die. This is no spoiler though. Bob is a music therapist in an end of life hospice. Whilst we will all die one day, sadly that day will come far too early for Bob’s clients.
At first glance, a book about end of life care sounds depressing and sad, but in Bob Heath’s hands it becomes a thing of beauty. Yes, I had tears in my eyes, and often spilling down my cheeks, whilst reading the individual stories. There is pathos here but there is also laughter, and closure, and an intense spirituality which even affected sceptical old me.
As an ex-occupational therapist, I have sat in on art therapy, music therapy and drama therapy sessions but I’ve never witnessed anything like Bob Heath’s remarkable work. Bob does far more than play a few instruments in a jam session. He gives each client the opportunity to express their feelings through music and to write their own songs, their own legacy. The songs which result are really quite remarkable and can be listened to on Bob’s website.
I’ve now used the word remarkable three times in one review but it sums up this (remarkable) book perfectly. You know the ‘if you only read one book this year’ phrase? This is that book.

[Brigid Gallagher]

Bob Heath shares a little of his own journey as a music therapist, and that of a number of his clients as they create their "songs from a window."
The process of writing words and music as a legacy for their loved ones is different for everyone, from Eileen's "La La" to Oskar and Diana's prolific productions. Some will move you to tears while others like "The Antibiotic Blues" will make you smile.
I loved this quote from Diana, a gifted pianist:
"Grace, that's what I've longed for, what I've searched for all of my life. But it never seemed to find me in the right place. I think I've finally learnt that grace isn't something I could earn; it's something I would have to receive."
A Listening List of recordings can be found at www.bobheathmusic.com
The lyrics for everyone's songs including Diana's song "Grace" are also shared.
"Songs from a Window" is a truly beautiful memoir and my favourite read of 2021.

[Ronald Mackay]

This is an unusually moving and inspiring memoir by a music therapist who chooses to work with patients who are close to the end of their lives as the result of terminal illness.

Bob heath gives us insight not only to his own motivations and feelings as he chooses his career and works with patients but also into the intimate lives of ten patients and the different ways in which they cope with the fate of dying before their allotted time.

Reading Bob Heath’s warm and intensely personal stories about composing songs with his patients is a salutary experience since we will all face death and hope to do so with dignity and in supportive surroundings perhaps like those described in this book.

My overriding feeling while reading Songs from a Window was of that of appreciation for men and women like this author who provide comfort and even inspiration during the last months, days and hours of so many.

[Helen Stephenson]

“Everyone I've met has an amazing back story and that's because we all do”

Bob Heath has written a beautiful book, about ordinary, amazing people coming to terms with their mortality through musical therapy. Each and every case study is deeply moving.

The theme of the book is Bob's work, within the hospice movement, to help people to die well, and to help each one to “live” until they die. It is not a sad book, but a book full of insight, understanding, and hope.

Bob works and writes with empathy and kindness. He charts his journey through his training, and his growing understanding of his role, acknowledging that he was learning as much from each person he worked with as they were from him.

Each person affected him deeply in their own individual way. Many lovely songs were written. He tells us about the foundation of the Souls and Shadows Foundation, which has provided support, training, and equipment for musical therapy to hospices throughout Britain and Europe. Long may this valuable work continue, to bring peace of mind to people grappling with the knowledge that their lives will soon come to an end and to comfort their families and friends.

Session recordings and live concert recordings of many of the songs mentioned in the book are available on www.bobheathmusic.com

[Sverrir Sigurdsson]

This is a must read for everyone facing mortality, and who doesn’t? The author is a musical therapist for the terminally ill. His job is to help patients die peacefully and also to live meaningfully until they die. By helping them create poetry and music, he unleashes energy the dying don’t know they have. Ultimately the process isn’t as much about how to die as how to live.

[Alyson Sheldrake]

A deeply moving and inspiring book. Highly recommended.
I was recommended this book by a friend, and I initially thought it would be a difficult read full of death and despair. I was so wrong, this was a beautiful book, which was both uplifting and fascinating. Far from being a book about death, it seemed to be more about life - and celebrating life in all its technicolour glory.
Bob’s role as a music therapist working with end-of-life patients gave him a unique insight into the life stories of each of the people he encountered. Every chapter was unique and yet through it all, Bob’s humble and gentle spirit touched each person with the music he wove into their lives. Some of the outcomes of the stories were very moving and inspiring. His website has recordings of all the songs featured in the book too. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Mitos Suson]

A heart rending and emotional read. I love Bob’s stories about his patients in their final days. ‘Songs from a Window’ is a collection of Stories by Bob Heath, who is a music therapist, musician, singer and songwriter. His patients are in their final few days of life, and he adds to their meaning with the creative process of songwriting; they write lyrics and compose music together. Bob clearly has a gift to make patients comfortable and relaxed with him as together they bear witness to their journey, pain, happiness, and the reality of life and their soul’s culminating days. I would love to go this way as an ultimate encore to my life. This book is a real gift to both the author, the patients, and the reader, and I could not stop crying. Thank you, Bob, for sharing the powerful gift of your music. I highly recommend reading this book with a box of tissues.

[Lis McDermott]

This book is about music, poetry, and palliative care.

Bob Heath is a music therapist with an amazing talent for helping people to tell their stories, using words and music as they come to terms with their end of life.

There are ten emotional stories, that even though, incredibly moving, are also powerfully life affirming in terms of human spirit hope and love.

A box of tissues is a must to accompany a read of this book, but despite it being about death, it is one of the most beautiful and uplifting books I’ve read for ages. Bob’s style of writing shows the empathy and kindness that he has to work with people in their darkest hours, and help them to leave legacies for their loved ones.

[Liza Grantham]

Songs from A Window is a beautifully crafted and utterly compelling memoir in which the author recounts his experiences as a music therapist, bringing purpose and comfort into the lives of the terminally ill. Don’t for a moment be deterred from reading this book for fear of being drowned in a sea of mawkish sentimentality – you will find nothing of the sort here. The author adopts an unapologetically pragmatic, yet positive approach to his work, resulting in a celebratory and uplifting read. The narrative is interwoven with a series of moving cadenzas, as each patient enters the room with a unique story and leaves with a song. Songs from A Window leaves the reader enriched and encouraged by its message: the human capacity for living, loving and learning continues right up until the end.

[Cristina B.]

So aptly named, Songs from a Window offers us a glimpse from the very threshold of life. The author, a music therapist, tenderly and with utmost respect bears witness to and accompanies the last steps of patients who are dying. Such an intimate glimpse into a part of life and living that most of us are no longer privy. The radical acceptance Bob Heath must hold, and how he is able to transmit that acceptance through his music, is breathtaking and beautiful. Such a gift. Having read Songs from a Window, I feel somehow healed and whole. Thank you. I received a free copy of this book from a contest.

[Veronica]

Songs from a Window tells us what a music therapist does. This particular therapist, Heath, specializes in assisting patients at the end of their lives. He helps them look at their past and make sense of their lives, and encourages them to look forward to the life they have left. When a person’s days are numbered, every single day is precious. Heath encourages his patients to express themselves through poetry, which he puts to music. If hearing is the last sense to leave us, then music is the only thing we can take with us. This is an uplifting spiritual book. I only wish it were made into an audio book so we can hear the music.

[Karey Lucas-Hughes]

I really enjoyed this book and found it very moving but also uplifting. In the face of terrible circumstances and awful fear and sadness, somehow music helps Bob’s clients and himself to get a notion of hope and healing - being made whole.

Bob writes beautifully and really captures the differing personalities of his clients. He also talks openly about his own ‘journey’ and how these experiences have shaped him too - it’s not a one way flow.

It was wonderful to be able to read all the words and listen to the music - added a whole other layer of meaning.

I highly recommend it!

[Rebecca]

I admit to being a little reluctant to read this memoir but I shouldn't have been at all. After all death is something we can't avoid and grief is part of life.
It's a wonderful inspiring book where the author, Bob Heath tells the stories of just a few of the people he has helped at the end of their lives with his Music Therapy sessions. What happiness, peace and comfort he brought to them and what a lasting legacy for their loved ones.
I admit I cried but I also found it uplifting that Bob Heath could inspire his clients to express their feelings through song and music. What a gift he has. It's possibly one of the most touching books it has been my privilege to read. The words to all the songs are at the end of the book and there's a link to the author's website where you can listen to the songs. Wonderful, just wonderful.