Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, composed "Aloha 'Oe" (which she translated to English as "Farewell to Thee") in the late 1870s as a love song. Over the years, however, the song has been redefined as one of resistance against the white and Asian settler colonial forces that transformed Hawaiian society, suppressed the Hawaiian language and culture, overthrew the sovereign kingdom, and illegally annexed the islands into the United States as the 50th state.

Since its composition, "Aloha 'Oe" is one of the most widely recognized Hawaiian songs, and it is celebrated as a representation of traditional Hawaiian culture. It has been performed in a century's worth of movies and TV, and it is used in other events such as graduations, luaus, and other concert media.

About this carillon arrangement, Austin Ferguson commented:

I had a request come in for me to play this at the Mayo Clinic one day; I had a sudden burst of inspiration and jotted the arrangement down in about 15 minutes. It should be reflective and lyrical but not too slow!

Further reading:

• Chow, Evelyn T. (2018) "The Sovereign Nation of Hawai'i: Resistance in the Legacy of "Aloha 'Oe"," SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 2, Article 15.

—The GCNA