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Music therapists aim to improve comfort and ease the distress experienced by patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families by offering a range of creative musical experiences in a therapeutic relationship. The power of music to ‘move’, relieve, inspire, touch one’s sense of the individual and the universal, and transcend cognitive forms of knowing, is fundamental to music therapy’s (MT’s) impetus as a treatment modality. After delineating historical origins and defining MT in palliative care, varying aims and methods will be described. Research findings will also highlight the profession’s quest to evaluate MT’s role in ‘total patient care’.