"Joyce Mekeel’s “Toward the Source” for orchestra and chorus was commissioned by the Concord Bicentennial Committee and was premiered by the Concord Orchestra and the Concord-Carlisle High School Concert Choir for the April Patriots’ Day celebration in 1975.Joyce Mekeel did extensive research to complete her assignment to interpret “Concord, its rivers, and its search for values.“"

"The piece relates the town’s history from 1635 to the time of the transcendentalists.