Kathleen, As She Was - OB/HARPSICHORD

Kathleen, As She Was (1998)
for oboe and harpsichord
by Libby Larsen (b. 1950) - American composer

Rockwell Kent's 1924 journal, Voyaging, is an account by the illustrator of Moby Dick, of his personal voyage southward from the Strait of Magellan in his boat the Kathleen. My fantasy for oboe and harpsichord (keyboard), is inspired by Kent's woodcut entitled, Kathleen As She Was. The "Kathleen" (named for Kent's wife) is shows in her original state, a lifeboat, aboard the larger frigate Lonsdale. My work, Kathleen As She Was, explores the notion of idea liberated from a larger idea to develop and change.

The piece centers around the grace notes "A" to "B, a musical motive akin to the tugging of a boat at its mooring, a metaphor for the musical idea tugging to free itself from the larger idea. 

--Libby Larsen