Try Me, Good King

Last Words of the Wives

of Henry Viii

Libby Larsen
 Libby Larsen
"Music exists in an infinity of sound. I think of all music as existing in the substance of the air itself.
It is the composer's task to order and make sense of sound, in time and space,
to communicate something about being alive through music."
-Libby Larsen

Libby Larsen (b. 24 December 1950, Wilmington, Delaware) is one of America's most prolific and most performed
living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 200 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal
and chamber music to massive orchestral and choral scores. Her music has been praised for its dynamic, deeply
inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by
major artists, ensembles and orchestras around the world, Libby Larsen has established a permanent place for her
works in the concert repertory.

Larsen has been hailed as "the only English-speaking composer since Benjamin Britten who matches great verse with
fine music so intelligently and expressively" (USA Today); as “a composer who has made the art of symphonic
writing very much her own." (Gramophone); as "a mistress of orchestration" (Times Union); and for "assembling one
of the most impressive bodies of music of our time" (Hartford Courant). Her music has been praised for its “clear
textures, easily absorbed rhythms and appealing melodic contours that make singing seem the most natural
expression imaginable." (Philadelphia Inquirer) “Libby Larsen has come up with a way to make contemporary opera
both musically current and accessible to the average audience." (The Wall Street Journal). "Her ability to write
memorable new music completely within the confines of traditional harmonic language is most impressive."
(Fanfare)

Libby Larsen has received numerous awards and accolades, including a 1994 Grammy as producer of the CD: The
Art of Arlene Augér, an acclaimed recording that features Larsen's Sonnets from the Portuguese. Her opera
Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus was selected as one of the eight best classical music events of 1990 by USA
Today. The first woman to serve as a resident composer with a major orchestra, she has held residencies with the
California Institute of the Arts, the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, the Philadelphia School of the Arts, the Cincinnati
Conservatory, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. Larsen's many
commissions and recordings are a testament to her fruitful collaborations with a long list of world-renowned artists,
including The King's Singers, Benita Valente, and Frederica von Stade, among others. Her works are widely recorded
on such labels as Angel/EMI, Nonesuch, Decca, and Koch International. In 2001, two new recordings were released
on Koch International: Love After 1950, performed by mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer (for whom the song cycle
was written), with Craig Rutenberg, piano; and an album of her orchestral works, including the world premiere of her
fifth symphony, Solo Symphony, performed by the Colorado Symphony under the direction of Marin Alsop.

Libby Larsen is a vigorous, articulate champion of the music and musicians of our time. In 1973, she co-founded
(with Stephen Paulus) the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum, which has been an
invaluable advocate for composers in a difficult, transitional time for American arts. Larsen's commitment to the
wider issue of music in society has led her to activity on a national level: she has served on the boards of the
American Symphony Orchestra League, Meet the Composer, and on the Music Panel of the National Endowment for
the Arts. She has been Vice President of the American Music Center and a director of the College Music Society.
Consistently sought-after as a leader in the generation of millenium thinkers, Libby Larsen's music and ideas have
refreshed the concert music tradition and the composer's role in it.
 Try Me, Good King
A song cycle in five movements for soprano and piano. Premiered by Meagan Miller, soprano, and Brian
Zeger, piano, at the Juilliard Theatre on 19 January 2001 for the Marilyn Horne Foundation's Eighth Annual
New York Recital.

Program Note

“Divorce, behead, die, divorce, behead, die. This grade-school memory game is how I first came to know
about the six wives of Henry VIII, King of England from 1509-1547. Since then, I've been fascinated with
the personal consequences of power that befell the Tudor family and the circle of political intrigue of both
church and state, which caused such turmoil in the private lives of Henry and his queens.

Try Me, Good King is a group of five songs drawn from the final letter and gallows speeches of Katherine
Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard. Henry's sixth wife, Katherine
Parr, outlived him and brought some domestic and spiritual peace into Henry's immediate family. Although
her written devotions are numerous, her role in the story of the Henry's wives is that of peaceful catalyst. In
these songs I chose to focus on the intimate crises of the heart that affected Henry's first five wives. In a
sense, this group of songs is a monodrama of anguish and power.

I've interwoven a lute song into each movement, including John Dowland's "In darkness let me dwell"
(Katherine of Aragon and Katherine Howard), Dowland's "If my complaints" (Anne Boleyn), Michael
Praetorius' "Lo, how a Rose e'er blooming (Jane Seymour), and Thomas Campion's "I care not for these
ladies" (Anne of Cleves). These songs were composed during the reign of Elizabeth I, and while they are cast
as some of the finest examples of the golden age, they also create a tapestry of unsung words, which
comment on the real situation of each doomed queen.

Two other musical gestures unify the songs: first, the repeated note recalls the lute and creates psychological
tension; second, an abstract bell-tolling punctuates punctuates each song and releases the spiritual meaning of
the words.

It is an honor to create new work for Meagan Miller and Brian Zeger and contribute to the ongoing vision of
the Marilyn Horne Foundation.”

- Libby Larsen
 Table of Contents
Libretto....................................................................................................................................................1

I, Katherine of Aragon: “The hour of my death now drawing on”.........................................................3

II, Anne Boleyn: “Try me, good king”...................................................................................................8

III, Jane Seymour: “Right trusty and Well-Beloved”...........................................................................14

IV, Anne of Cleves: “I have been informed by certain lords”..............................................................17

V, Katherine Howard: “God have mercy on my soul”..........................................................................21

Editorial Notes from the Composer

Throughout the score, accidentals should be applied to only the indicated note, not the entire measure.

Mvt. II, m. 59, piano, treble clef: first beat, F# should be F natural.

Mvt. II, m. 66, soprano: last note should be D natural.

Mvt. III, m. 22, piano, treble clef: last A should be A-flat.

Mvt. III, the ending: There exists an alternate ending, written for and recorded by Eileen Stremple.
Dr. Larsen prefers the ending published in the Oxford University Press score.

Mvt. V, m. 18, piano: the F in the bass clef is tied to the F in the treble clef in m. 19.

Mvt. V, m. 39, piano RH: The bottom note of the third eighth note should be D natural instead of D#.
The same is true of the bottom note of the seventh eighth-note.

Mvt. V, m. 37 and 39, piano, bass clef: beat seven (C#) should be C-natural.

Mvt. V, m. 45, piano: RH should be in bass clef.

 Libretto
Katherine of Aragon (1485-1536)
Queen from June 1509 to May 1533
Katherine of Aragon, formerly Queen of England, to King Henry VIII, 7 January 1536

My most dear Lord, King, and Husband,

The hour of my death now drawing on, the tender love I owe you forces me…to commend myself unto you and to put
you in remembrance of the health and welfare of your soul. …You have cast me into many calamities and yourself into
many troubles. For my part, I pardon you everything, and I wish to devoutly pray God that He will pardon you also.
For the rest, I commend unto you our daughter, Mary, beseeching you to be a good father unto her. ...Lastly, I make
this vow, that my eyes desire you above all things…

Anne Boleyn (1501/1507-1536)

Queen from May 1533 to May 1536
Letter from Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, to Henry VIII, 6 May 1536;
Excerpts from two letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn;
Anne Boleyn's speech at her execution, 19 May 1536

Try me, good king, …and let me have a lawful trial, and let not my...enemies sit as my accusers and judges. ...Let me
receive an open trial for my truth shall fear no open shame. ...Never a prince had a wife more loyal in all duty, ...in all
true affection, than you have ever found in Anne Bulen ...You have chosen me from low estate to be your wife and
companion. ...Do you not remember the words of your own hand? "My own darling…I would you were in my arms
for think it long since I kissed you. My mistress and friend…" Try me good king. ...If ever I have found favor in your
sight ‒if ever the name of Anne Bulen has been pleasing to your ears‒ then let me obtain this request...and my
innocence shall be…known and…cleared.

Good Christian People, I come hither to die, …and by the law I am judged to die. ... I pray God save the King. I hear
the executioner's good, and my neck is so little…

Jane Seymour (c.1508-1537)

Queen from May 1536 to October 1537
Jane Seymour, Queen of England, to the Council, 12 October 1537;
"Tudor rose" (Anonymous)

Right trusty and Well-Beloved, we greet you well...for as much as be the inestimable goodness...of Almighty God, we
be delivered...of a prince,...

I love the rose both red and white.

To hear of them is my delight!
Joyed may we be,
Our prince to see,
And roses three!
 Libretto (cont.)
Anne of Cleves (1515-1557)
Queen from January 1540 to July 1540
Anne of Cleves, Queen of England, to Henry VIII, 1 July 1540

I have been informed…by certain lords...of the doubts and questions which have been...found in our marriage. …It
may please your majesty to know that, though this case...be most hard…and sorrowful…I have and do accept [the
clergy] for my judges. So now, ...the clergy hath…given their sentence, I...approve....I neither can nor will repute
myself for your grace's wife yet it will please your highness to take me for your sister, for which I most humbly thank
you.

Your majesty's most humble sister,

Anne, daughter of Cleaves

Katherine Howard (1521-1542)

Queen from July 1540 to November 1541
Recorded at her execution by an unknown Spaniard, 13 February 1542

“God have mercy on my soul. Good People, I beg you pray for me. By the journey upon which I am bound, brothers, I
have not wronged the King. But it is true that long before the King took me, I loved [Thomas] Culpeper. …I wish to
God I had done as Culpeper wished me, for at the time the King wanted...me, [Culpeper] urged me to say that I was
pledged to him. If I had done as he wished me I should not die this death, nor would he… God have mercy on my
soul. Good People, I beg you pray for me. …I die a Queen, but I would rather die the wife of Culpeper.”