Music Notes 4-26-26

Apr 26

Alooooooooooha! Our intrepid choir is back from our excursion to the island of Maui. We spent

9 days over there making music with the choir at Kihei Lutheran Church and participating in a

memorial service for one of their most prominent members. It was a huge success, and the

congregation and choir members came away from the week uplifted and energized. Kihei

Lutheran was renowned for having the best church choir on the island…and then came the

lockdown. Like most churches, they lost their mojo after that and are still rebuilding. Their

woes were compounded by the loss last year of their choir director of 16 years and a number of

the choir and handbell choir members moving off the island. My goal was to help start the re-

energizing process and create a partnership with them, to create an environment where we can do

this every year – take the first week after Easter, which the choir gets off anyway (after our big

Easter season) and go to Paradise and join with our fellow singers to make music. We made a lot

of friends and we’re already looking forward to next year, April 3-11.

Hawai’i Aloha is a revered anthem of the native Hawaiian people and Hawaiian residents alike.

It was composed by Reverend Lorenzo Lyons, a Christian minister who died in 1886, to the tune

of the old hymn I Left It All With Jesus. It was considered by the Hawaiian State Legislature in

1967 and the Hawaiian State Constitutional Convention in 1978 to be the official Hawaiian state

song, but it lost out to Hawai’i Pono’i, which was written by King David Kalakaua with music

by Royal Hawaiian Band Master Henri Berger. Whenever the locals get together for events,

meetings, concerts, etc., they will stand, join hands, sway side to side and sing this song, with the

last chorus being sung with the hands raised above their heads. There is a wonderful recording

of this on YouTube, with Brudda IZ closing a televised concert on the beach with this song. You

can see it here -

Aloha Oe was composed by Hawaiian Princess Liliʻuokalani, who became Queen of Hawai’i and

Hawai’i’s last monarch, in 1878. There are different stories around the actual circumstances, but

her recollection was that she was out for a horseback ride and saw 2 young lovers kissing on the

next hill over. She was an experienced composer and, inspired, began humming a tune on her

return ride. When she arrived at Washington Place, one of her residences, she completed the

song. The original manuscript is available to be seen online by the Hawaiian State Archives.

She wrote on the score "Composed at Maunawili 1878. Played by the Royal Hawaiian Band in

San Francisco August 1883 and became very popular." It is simply a love song, in a mixture of

Hawaiian and English, and is probably the most recognized Hawaiian song.

Jim Raycroft

Music Notes 5-3-26