Being one of the most valuable and productive composers of contemporary American music who favors vocal works, Libby Larsen (1950- ) has composed over 200 pieces of art songs. Created in 2000, the group Try me, Good king is representative of Larsen’s vocal works. It is a combination of modern and traditional musical techniques where contemporary harmonic methods were applied to Renaissance British music forms.

Unlike conventional art songs, the group was composed accordingly to letters and prose writings of the five wives of Henry VIII, while the original words were directly referred as lyrics which faithfully restored emotions and surroundings of the figures. “Text that reveal strong, colorful and fearless people, many times women, are especially attractive to me”, said Larsen, she was inspired by these five miserable but brave women, through music she presented us their characteristics, their lives and their inner struggles, forging this magnificent piece of art that represents contemporary vocal works.

In this thesis, Larsen’s approach integrating forms of prose writings and vocal music as well as emotion expressions of the subject and modern musical techniques will be further discussed in order to provide thorough understanding and in-depth interpretation of Larsen’s works.