Her music as well as her home was a place of refuge, courage, and serenity—a symbol of strength for her people. She sang, played the piano, organ, guitar and autoharp.

The Queen wrote two songs at Washington Place. In 1864, Liliʻuokalani composed “Onipaʻa” ( Standing Firm) at Washington Place.^[1] The piece was for a music school but served as a song of strength. The second was a lighter piece. One evening the Queen while sitting on her lanai and she watched the rotating sprinkler in her neighbor’s yard. The result was “Ka Wiliwili Wai” (The Sprinkler Song).^[2]

Liliʻuokalani collaborated with sister Miriam Likelike and Lizzie Kapoli to write music. In 1867, they wrote “Liko Pua Lehua” (Tender Leaves of the Lehua Flower) as a mele inoa for her husband John Owen Dominis.^[3]