https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/77680/archive/files/7bfa2725d153c0ea36acb474a17689fd.pdf?Expires=1782345600&Signature=he7FvvXScJE8C61xJtIKroLDENFqbOgN4WkPiIezb7P7ClBNSKbnGejWCbHKah4BWJyV2Az7OyitM9DYNcpJduV601DfCSqHKhAOlHx0v5xwhegWkpdYWP4rg4CHZy3swA33EBsLTDIr0I2SXVjV0%7E9zSEg91b5z%7EsB-%7E2GxqtulMFk5rbe0%7Ez8kfK4qyvDwseZJP6xfho67w%7EAvoud4A1wC9JmA-DHe9rZPxoTuReiQ7tad37j5L5i-DcXEmPcZ1YSy9-7F9u0wkLx1UbOnr0xoNysCneOB6hcCbHOpfywgFvZCoc6v1Xo3w%7EayFaHuiD7VtkqagaDI4A0lBJ7g7w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 7c9185217b7c334a4bdc259a84ad24a3 PDF Text Text . I Na Himeni Hawaii A RECORD OF HYMNS IN THE HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE Assembled by ETHEL M. DAMON With the assistance of many friends Published by THE FRIEND Honolulu Star�Bulletin Press December 12, 1935 • • �FOREWORDS EmTOa's NoTE: The dignity and splendor of choral sing­ ing in Hawaiian churches may seem to be entirely an out­ growth of influences brought by foreign teachers a century and more ago. In reality its roots strike still further back into the folk habits of poetic composition and spontaneous expression. This record of hymns and hymnals in the Hawaiian language was prompted by the suggestion of Miss Elsie H. Wilcox for a discussion at Lihue, Kauai. Bishop Littell of Honolulu urged a more extended account, which was given in part as a presentation of Hawaiian hymnody at St. Andrew's Parish House. in part as a short historical account at Kawaiahao Church. This revisedt reprint is issued at the request of friends. The paper used resembles in texture the hand:-made stock supplied a century ago from New England to the Honolulu mission press for early editions of hymns and the Bible. This of today was brought recently by Miss Emily Warinner from Japan. where it is still made from the bark of the paper mulberry. Broussonetia Papyrifera, by a hand process not unlike the Polynesian craft of tapa making. Himeni, like many other words univP-rsally used now, was not an Hawaiian word, but, as every syllable in Hawaiian must end with a vowel, was the Hawaiian pronunciation of our word Hymn. Sabati, for Sabbath, Popoki (cat), for Poor Pussy, and many other words no,;.., in common use were not originally in the Hawaiian vocabulary. The Males, Olis and Kanikaus were not rhythmically arranged. The Hawaiians found it difficult to adopt our verse regulations of meter and rime. The missionaries (with­ out exception, I believe) understood vocal music and taught it to the first converts to Christianity, but, it was hard work. One missionary lady on Maui, in writing to another on Ha­ waii, said, "I wonder whether we will ever be able to teach these Hawaiians music." Today, the marked proficiency of Hawaiians, in both lit­ erary and musical composition as well as in vocal expres­ sion, proves the existence of a talent undreamed of a century ago. ELLA HUDSON PARIS - In the day in which we live it is not given to many to get , close enough to the Hawaiiaif people to know them well. Except in certain down-country hamlets they are not to be found in any community way, and when found, they are apt to be shy and uncommu:51icative. To "summer and winter" with them, to learn their speech, follow their moods and fancies, is well-nigh impossible, save to the priest or reli­ gious devotee who gives all of his time to it. One can scarcely find Hawaiians in any numbers in the public schools of Honolulu, where the children of people from over the seas greatly outnumber them. In the one great instance of a school reserved for them, the mixture of foreign blood �has well-nigh obliterated their Hawaiian origin. Their strong­ hold-perhaps their best medium of race identity and ex­ pression-is the Christian church. It has been the privilege of a few of us to have known personally some of the finished gentlemen of tp.e last two generations of Hawaiians-dignified, courteous and of high Christian character; to have studied and played and sung with another generation, now grown up to be men of affairs and already passing q:way. To such of us it is a delight to pay tribute to this pains­ taking work on Hawaiian hymns, so obviously a labor of love. To look around on the thinning ranks of the sympa­ thetic Missionary children (the "Cousins") one wonders who could, but chiefly who would, do this thing-delve into the not-too-well-preserved archives to bring forth the material with which this book is stored. And of course, in the churches resulting from American Board efforts, the names Lyons ("Laiana") and Ella Paris ("Hualalai") must needs transcend any others in the field of hymnology; and the best tunes are the common ·heritage of all Christian people. As to other communions whose work in church music Miss Damon has reviewed with irenic and loving interest without disparagement or discrimination, little need be said; there are few if any of us capable of intelligent criticism. Miss Damon has honored the "fathers," the Hawaiian people and herself in her work, wh!ch breathes reverence and homage to �e Name which is above all names. THEODORE RICHARDS Nor is there any end to discussions like the present. For just after this record went to press came the news, apparently w�ll known among Hawaiians, that the hymn He Akua Hemolele originated on the arrival of Mr. Ellis in Honolul:u harbor. A canoe from shore brought Mr. Bingham out to the vessel. Mr. Ellis called down to him, "He Aku.a Hemolele," God is good, or perfect. Mr. Bingham replied, "Ke Akua no kakou," He is our God. And so in the typical fashion of a Hawaiian ki-ke this dialog of greeting continued for several phrases which were later worked over into the four short stanzas of the hymn. This is told us by the leader of Kawaiahao Sun­ day School, who was born on the famous ship Morning Star. He is the namesake of his father, Rev. Simeon Nawaa, missionary from Hawaii for twelve years to the Marshall Islands. And a member of the Green and Parker fami­ lies reminds us that this old hymn was a lullaby often hummed in Hawaiian by the first Mother Rice, in the days before cradles went out of style and mothers still took time to sing their babies to sleep. �• Na Himeni Hawaii "The heart of a nation is written in its songs." Surely Hawaii expresses its soul in its hymn�singing, for nothing is more inspiring and impressive than to hear the old hymns sung with the volume and power of a Hawaiian choir. Our very word himeni takes over the original Greek meaning. simply to sing, without distinction between sacred and secu... lar. Here at Kawaiahao at the birthday social recently held for our venerable pastor the frequent call: "E himeni e!" Let us sing:-was joyfully obeyed in every sense of the wor._d. Paul and Timothy admonished the Colossians to the use of "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." At a far earlier day the singing tones from David's harp and voice drove out the evil spirit froni Saul's breast. Few there are who have not felt the power of song, first to arouse hidden feelings, then to quiet and c,pntrol them, its rhythm, its cadence, its figures of speech all leading and balancing and enriching this awak ... ened sense of beauty. By those whose scholarly diligence brings to them the reading of the Hebrew prophets and poets in their original tongue we are told that this sense of balance, coupled with f.reguent and powerful imagery, forms a distinguishing mark of Hebrew poetry. Certainly even the most ignorant of us is at once sensible of this in our English versions of the Old Testament poets, although the King James version was printed chiefly in prose form. The poetic ·rhythms vibrated, however, with a mighty power in the Protestant missionary fathers. Na Makua Kakiria, Binamu-Fathers Thurston and Bingham-with Richards. Ellis, Bishop, Green, Clark. Arm... strong and Andrews, as they bent their energies to the stupendous task of transferring into the newly acquired Ha... waiian tongue the psalms and prophecies and tales of the Bible messages. I �8 Not content to form the Hawaiian version on Latin or English translations of the Bible, these mission scholars in­ deed "set their mark high" by turning back to the original Hebrew and Greek, and thus achieved a Hawaiian Sctipttue which has repeatedly won admiration from competent mod­ ern scholars and has consistently built itself into the very life of the Hawaiian people. Take up any copy of the Hawaiian Bible, the Palapala Hemolele, or Sacred Writing-of which there have been many complete editions printed during the last ninety-six years-and turn ,to the Psalms or many another Old Testa­ ment passage. Even eyes unaccustomed to reading Hawaiian will discern at once that these songs are presented in the form of free verse. And how superbly! With what glorious poetic liberty as well as justice! Also to those familiar with the Hawaiian printed page and spoken word my call extends, especially to them in fact, for they, our makuas, or elders, are so steeped in poetic thought and expression that they quite rightly make little distinction in their speech, as in their Bible, between prose and poetry. But to those of us who must approach Hawaiian through the eye rather than the ear it is a noteworthy distinction that our Hawaiian Old Testament, like more modern English trans­ lations, presents so many passages in poetic form. When our Protestant missionaries came to hymnody in Hawaiian-as they very soon did-they reared a natural superstructure upon this rich •and rhythmical foundation of the Bible. It was a veritable treasure house. But strangely, too, another very deep-seated source of balance and rhythm and figured speech flowed in the cultural consciousness of the Hawaiian people to whom these new Christian messages were being brought. Instinct in the Hawaiian mode of thought was the impulse and the act of prayer, of supplication, of praise. Long before the dawn of each day the lowliest of them were wont to turn toward the east and implore the great being of Light: "Here is the Sun. Help us not to mar this Day!" 9 Toward the setting of the sun they chanted, turning to the west: "All that has been wrong during this day Forgive us. As the Sun sinks Let it carry our sins to the depths." The actual Hawaiian words of these ancient folk prayers are not far to seek. Nor of the Malu ke Ala, the prayer to clear the path of Laka's priest and his pupils when they set out as was their wont in the mists of early dawn to gather ferns and maile for decking the kuahu, or temple altar. The beautiful Hawaiian words are often sung to me by Mrs. Mary Pukui, a young Hawaiian who as a child in Kau learned them from the daily prayers of her tutu, her grand­ mother: "Noho ana l.ce akua i ka nahelehele I alai ia e ke kiohuohu E ka ua koko! 0 na kino malu i ka lani Malu e hoe, E hooulu mai ana o Laka i kona kahu. Owau, owau no a." Even in their English form much of their first fragrance lingers: "O gods dwelling in the wildwood Hidden away by puffs of mist And low-hanging, blood-red rainbow, 0 beings sheltered under the skies, Shelter us as we walk, Protect us from all that hinders on our way! Laka inspires us, her followers." Is it any marvel that the religious hymns of England and America have found a natural home in Hawaii nei? Indeed, _it would have occasioned surprise, had the songs of worship �brought in by various forms of religious observance not been adapted by the native Hawaiians and• absorbed into their • cultural thought. True it is, of course, that racial forms differ. Judge An­ drews. one of the most gifted of our eariy mission translators. tells us that Hawaiian poetry is close kin to Hebrew verse and that these Polynesian singers had developed their own peculiar rhythm quite unlike the jingle of rime and meter in the quatrain of our usuul English hymn. But many of .our foreign hymns have a dignity and stateliness even if read as poems without formal music, and a century ago, when many of our Scotch and American congregations chanted the freer metrical versions of King David's Psalms, this was still more true. True it is also that primitive Hawaiians were not singers in the English or American sense of that term. But equally true is it that through long ages a very marked d�velopment of throat and lungs had been brought about by rigorous and systematic training for mele and oli, or songs and chants of varying length and design. And although hymnody as such did not form a part of temple or other religious worship in ancient Hawaii, prayer in poetic form and familiar alike to priest. chief, and commoner, grew up as a vital essence of both religious and medical lore. It was a part of everyday life. And these chanted prayers. highly figurative and rhyth­ mic, not only influenced the cadence of everyday speech. but not infrequently merged into songs which may quite properly be termed odes or hymns of praise and worship. • In primitive Hawaiian days the delight of singing cente?ed more in t�e poem and the imagery thus evoked., than in the music as such. Indeed it is not too much to assert that every Hawaiian was naturally a poet in his everyday speech, and even now this is almost equally true. The professional poet was one honored at couu..the Haku Mele, sorter of songs, one skilled in· the selection of just the _ right words and well, versed in their chanting. Miss Helen Roberts discovered this and much more in her study of Ha­ waiian music for the Bishop Museum. Miss Martha Beck- 11 with. prefacing her translation of the prose romance, Laiei­ kawai, shows how aristocratic an art was Hawaiian poetry and how great its social value. If, in thinking of that primi­ tive society as an unlettered one, we are prone to underesti­ mate the reality of its culture. we need only recall those poets as the historians of Hawaii whose works are now treasured mosaics of the past. With such usage of chant and story familiar in the back­ ground of daily life. imagine, if you. can, the effect produced by the sound of the first foreign hymn ever to float out into the bright sunshine of Hawaii. Two young missionary voices carried those cadences. and so freshly that although its effect on· Hawaiian ears is not recorded for us, the stately, vigorous rhythms of that old hymn still ring out in echo from the black lava rocks of the Kohala and North Kona shore. Let me sketch in that memorable picture for you. Th� clay was April first. The year 1820, one hundred and fifteen years ago. The mission brig Thaddeus had sighted snow­ crested Mauna Kea two days before, and now. at sunset and moonrise, was coasting slowly southward along west Hawaii toward Kawaihae bay after receiving its first guests of state, the chief Kalanimoku and his wives. As these guests departed for shore in their long double canoes, the young brethren Thurston and Bingham. with the zeal of boys, climbed into the rigging of their little vessel and sang out the full length of their ordination and embarkation hymn. Head of the Church Triumphant. Mr. Bingham has left us an indelible picture of these two "yokefellows," the only ordained ministers in the group, "standing upon the maintop ( the mission family, captain and crew being on deck) as the mission }?arque gently floated along on the smooth. silent sea," singing that favorite song of Zion to the stately old English tune of Melton Mowbr�y. In the calm of that lee shore the strong young voices were easily heard by those in canoes and by others only a few rods away on land. Did any dream then how hymns were to grow into the life of these Hawaiian islands, to be sung for a cen- �12 fury and more by Hawaiian choirs with such fullness and power? Save for the chanteys of sailors as they hauled on ship's tackle, no such harmonized sounds had ever come to these Pacific shores. Did the frequent variation of pitch, with the two voices in harmony. but not in unison, seem a marvel to Polynesian ears? One may well imagine so. Three weeks later, when with his voice and big basswiol • or 'cello, another passenger on the Thaddeus, young George Prince Kaumualii of Kauai, assisted at the first church service in Honolulu, Mr. Bingham recorded all too modestly that "these sacred songs appeared attractive to native ears." In view of the fact that the best modern Hawaiian music, now known the world over, owes much to the musical form of these early hymns, one wishes that history had been less restrained. Yet, even in default of any direct, consecutive record, one may piece out quite a little of the story of Hawai� ian hymns from references in early letters and accounts of their printing. And when one has the good fortune to touch with one's own hands many of the early songbooks printed in Hawaiian, the search toward a complete account of them becomes a fascinating pursuit. In one private library on the island of Kauai there may be found some thirty different editions: three Catholic, one Epis� • copalian, several Mormon, and over twenty from our little Protestant mission press at Kawaiahao in Honolulu. The earliest edition in is Kauai collection, on rough, durable _ paper. is unbound, 2i t 108 pages merely folded and stitched, untrimmed and there re with very uneven edges, in small duodecimo pages. Evidently a printer's left-over or reserve copy. One turns the uncut pages with reverence and a deep respect, thinking of the justifiable pride taken in his labors by the Hawaiian type-setter and pressman as he first laid those sheets off the press on a day now well over a century ago, for from those earliest days Hawaiians have been quick to learn and 'to follow the printer's trade. A second glance at the narrow title page of this little vol� ume startles one into the realization that, although it bears the early date, 1830, it is also plainly designated: "Alima ke l?t Pai Ana" -Fifth Printing or Edition. The beginning of our story therefore still remains to be discovered. When we come to look further back along this printing trail we have the advantage of finding that two eager search� ers, Professor Howard M. Ballou and Governor George R. Carter, have been here before us and have left signposts along the way. Struggles with the new language and difficul­ ties as t o housing postponed for almost two years the first printing in the Sandwich Islands. By 'January of 1822 a little Spelling book and 500 copies of the alphabet and primer were struck off the press. Meanwhile the missionaries were trying to put a few short hymns into Hawaiian words. In August of 1823 the Honolulu missionaries wrote: "We have completed 'the walls of the printing house .. . of old coral dug in the plain a few rods from our door, and laid in mortar made of the common soil." Today this little building still stands as the center of the Protestant missionary esta�lishment here, just south of Ka­ waiahao Church. In this small printing house were struck off during the latter weeks of the year 1823 two thousand copies of the first Hawaiian hymnbook. Its title page reads: "Na Himeni Hawaii; He Me Ori ia lehova, ke Akua Mau" -Ha� waiian Hymns and Songs to Jehovah, the Eter�al God. Its sixty small pages contain 47 hymns which were partly orig­ inal and partly translations by Mr. Bingham, but more largely the labor of the Rev. William Ellis, an English mis­ sionary from Tahiti. As a typical missionary, that is, as a minister, carpenter, botanist, printer, bookbinder, agriculturist, sugar manufac­ turer, boat builder and linguist, this William Ellis had already demonstrated his ability in Tahiti. Later he became a distin­ guished diplomat as well as author of one of the standard works on Hawaii and Polynesia. Nor do we forget the "tall, commanding figure . . . and benignant countenance of the Tahitian chief. Auna, and his wife, Auna Wahin.e," who, as it were, came over into Macedonia and helped us. They arrived in April of 1822 with Mr. Ellis, were welcomed by Kaahumanu and Kaumualii, and remained for a year at their f �,. 14 • urgent invitation. The Tahitian tongue was so similar to Ha� waiian that with Mr. Ellis these two visitors, as Mr. Bingham wrote, "sung Tahitian hymns in a manner gratifying and encouraging." By August 4th, in less than four months, "hymi;_is prepared by Mr. Ellis were introduced into public worship with manifest advantage." I ' In 1 857, thirty�flve years after leaving Hawaii, Mr. Ellis, NA H I M E N I HAWA I I ; then returning to England from his first mission to Mada� gascar, fell in with the wreck of an American whaleship in the Indian Ocean. Two survivors, the captain and a Hawai� ian sailor from Oahu, were found clinging almost in despair to a frail raft. Mr. Ellis spoke to the sailor in Hawaiian, but the man was unable to reply. Mr. Ellis then repeated the first two lines of He Akua Hemolele, a beautiful and beloved Hawaiian hymn which he himself had written in 1 822 or 1 823. The man's face brightened and, taking up the strain, he finished the four short stanzas of the hymn "with evident satisfaction," as The Friend recorded many years later. The tune of this old Himeni Hawaii is the one known as Sicily, the Sicilian Mariners Hymn. I have often thought that Mr. Ellis must have felt strongly the special call of that ancient song of the sea as he greeted this Hawaiian sailor just res� cued from the perils of the deep. His M E ORI IA IEHOVA, KE E l1oonanz ia IE110YA , e r,ukou na aina a /1au : e ho-orea ia Ia e oukou na kanai'a a f1uu .-Dal!i<.la.. f OAHU : P.Ul.A I KA MEA PAI PALAPALA A KA For lack of hands and time, at the Honolulu press of 1 823 to 1 830, sheet forms of these little hymnbooks fresh from the press were often sent unbound to the out stations of the mis� sion, where they were folded, hand�stitched and covered with home�tanned goat� or calfskin, or even stiff "boards" of tor� toise shell.. One of these is now owned by the Hawaiian Historical Society, though first the possession of Mrs. Ursula Emerson of the Waialua mission station on Oahu. It is stoutly backed with calfskin, and a legend on the flyleaf states: "Bound by a native here, tlil! covers of turtle shell obtained from a lake nea; us." Another, now in the Treasure Room of our Con� gressional Library at Washington, was bound with boards of breadfruit wood and taken to France in 1 827. I ;1KU.A .MA U. .. Actual size Tille Page of the First Edition 1823 Courtesy of M. Lois Wilcox Perhaps five copies of this edition are still extant. This particular one bears, In the handwriting of Rev. William Ellis, a literal translation of the title page, as If the book were being sent as a gift to strangers. �17 In April of 1 824, a few months after the printing of the first edition of Hawaiian hymns, two or three copies of it were struck off on tapa cloth sent in by one of the chiefs as an experiment and in the hope of helping on in the great need of books. The little Ramage press, having done valiant service on thousands of spelling pocks, tracts and catechisms, was only limping along, its main screw cracked beyond repair short of help which was 1 8,000 miles away. And although the first edition of hymn� had been printed on narrow, eco­ nomical pages, the supply of paper from Boston was almost at an end. In August of 1 825 the 2,000 copies of this first edition had all been given out gratis and it was felt that hymns were needed more than any other textbook. On March 1 0, 1 826, it was recorded that 10,000 copies of the second edition of hymns, nearly through the press, would exhaust the paper on hand. The next issues of this little book then appeared in what now seems rapid succession: 1 827, 1 828 and 1 830. In the edition of 1 826 the number of hymns had grown from 47 to 63; in the third, fourth and fifth editions 1 00 hymns were printed on 1 08 pages. Each of these four issues from 1 826 to 1830, was published in an edition of 10,000 copies, except that of 1 828, of which 20,000 were printed. The fifth edition, of 1 830, was delayed because the old type was so worn down by long usage as to be quite imprac­ ticable. And when a new font of type from Boston was at last joyfully welcomed in 1829, the printer discovered that its proportion of vowels and consonants conformed to the de­ mands of spelling in English and therefore included only enough type letters K and A to set up five -or six pages in the Hawaiian tongue! Early printed hymnals in Hawaiian are very simple. None of them gives any special name for a hymn, only the number of the order of its appearance, then its metrical des­ ignation for the beat of the measure, and the Scripture pas­ sage from which the words are taken. At the end of the words <:omes the name of the tune, well known in England or America as, for in'Stance, Sicily for Hymn No. 2 in the .. .- • • �19 18 edition of 1830, Glorious Jehovah, Mr. Ellis' old hymn later known by its first line, He Akua Hemolele. Many familiar tunes appear, su_sh as Bunker Hill, Bethlehem, Calvary, Greenwich, or 61d Hundredth, some of them being used for more than one set of words. I • Not one of these first editions used notation. But from the earliest days of the mission schools singing was taught by Do. Re, Mi, or Pa, Ko, Li, Ha, No. La, Mi, Pa. The verb in Hawaiian meaning to sing the scale is pac-ko-li, just as the word alphabet, our A .B C, is pi-a-pa, that is be-a-bi. Memorizing at mission schools, as also much of the reciting by the pupils, all of whom at first were grown men and women, was done in loud, monotonous chanting somewhat reminiscent of their own .mele and oli. Not unnaturally this gave rise to a native form of scripture hymn, the pupils com­ posing both words and music. The genealogical catalogs of the Old Testament, long lists of names which are toilsome to our modern eyes and tongues, were soon recited, that is sung, by the Hawaiians with great zest as the choicest por­ tions of the Palapala Hemolele. These seemed not unlike their own mete inoa, or name chants. David's Psalms also furnished many a hymn in the people's own rendering, the natural imagery resembling much in their own poetry and everyday speech. Some of these homemade hymns were not unlike the kepakepa, or rhythmic recitations of olden time which were more varied in pitch than the sonorous chant of the oli. I Of the earliest translated hymns several were antiphonal, with question and answer from teacher to pupil. The quick dramatic instinct of the Hawaiian seized upon these almost at once and thus often dramatized such stories as those of Jonah or Noah for presentation at quarterly hoikes, or Sun­ day School exhibitions. This extremely interesting develop­ ment is easily comparable to that in the medieval church drama of Europe and England. Only rarely now does one hear any of these old folk dramas in Hawaii. They were never printed. And now that we live less intimately with the Bible they are for the most part quite lost to us today. Anthems also were frequently composed, as well as nar­ rative plays. It is true that the anthem words consisted largely of reiterated phrases such as Praise the. Lord, praise the Lord, but are not the texts of many of our own anthems and oratorios built on a similar plan? There seems to be a musical instinct and talent in the Hawaiian nature. The people used to compose songs for whaling expeditions, sim­ ilar perhaps to the chanteys which they heard from foreign sailors. Today they still make lyrics for political candidates and sing them with marked effect during the whole progress of an election campaign! Great national events are often the occasion for such topical songs. One of the most famous of these was the ode composed by Father L yons in his old age, "He Mele Pule no Haili Hilo," a hymn or prayer for Hilo, to the tune of the hymn known as "Jesus Comes." It was sung with deep feeling in Father Coan's church at Haili on September 19, 1881. one of the days set apart for devout thanksgiving that God had held back the onrush of niolten lava from Mauna Loa which had threatened the town of Hilo with destruction. • Many Hawaiians have a definite gift, not only at com­ posing, but also at translating from English into Hawaiian, which is an achievement of distinction. A few copies of the Carmina Sacra, a standard hymnbook of three generations ago, still exist at Kaumakapili church with Hawaiian words neatly printed in manuscript under the English text of an­ thems from such composers as Handel. This manuscript edition of Hawaiian hymns is by Mr. J. Moses Ulunahele, a graduate of Lahainaluna Seminary and a translator of singu­ lar sensitiveness. He was for many years the leader of the choir at Kaumakapili church and his widow still tells with affection of his much-used manuscript songbooks of long ago. The choir director at Kawaiahao Church, Miss Lydia Kawai­ nui, has her �wn indexed library of anthems, in manuscript and mimeographed, composed, translared and arranged by herself and other gifted musicians. Such collections really form the most recent editions of Hawaiian hymnals. Our �20 annual song contests in J:Iawaiian give such a stimulus to anthem composition that one often longs to have permanent sound recorcis made of these spontaneous, powerful choruses. Our first record of printing in music reads: "In 1 832 a Gamut was finished and a few rules; an·d eight tunes were engraved by Dr. Judd." In 1 834 appeared the first ecl.ition of the Hawaiian hymn-book with tunes in musical notation, a solid, businesslike little volume of 1 94 hymns on 360 small pages. I have often wondered how that mission press printed musical notation so well a century ago when it is so costly to have it done here today. T�e first 56 pages of this edition are entitled: "Ke Kumu Leomele, The Tune-Singing Teach­ er," and contain detailed instructions by Mr. Bingham for singing hymns and psalms. Some of these hymns of 1 834 are the first to bear local names like 'Maui, Waioli or Punahou. The one named Kaa­ humanu is thought by Miss Ella Paris, who is now our veteran translator of Hawaiian hymns, to have been a chant of which Queen Kaahumanu was particularly fond. Another is named Kawaiahao, or Waiahao in the edition of 1 848, doubtless because first sung here at some hoike or special event. Our Opio, or Young People's Choir at Kawaiahao sing this old chant today somewhat as a response. And our older choir is learning that g�and old mission hymn, Head of the Church Triumphant, "'Nhich we now sing on Kauai as Lanakila, in Hawaiian translation, by Mr. Henry Waiau. Mr. Bingham's valuable work in Hawaiian hymnology ter­ minated only with his departure for the United States in 1 840. By New Year's Day of 1 830 he had prepared and printed a 36-p�ge primer, or alphabet and catechism with a few hymns and an abridgment df the Ten Commandments in dialog form. The whole is described as "embellished with appropriate cuts kindly furnished by the American Tract Society" in New York; its Hawaiian title page may be trans­ lated: A first book for children to be taught while young. So it seems that children as well as older folk were beginning to flock to the mission schools. 1n fact, "great eagerness was manifested by the children to get first copies of the New 21 Year's present." Two thousand copies were distributed at once; a second edition of 1 3,000 was printed and a third of 1 0,000 was recommended. While the hymns in this early primer may perhaps not be properly termed a hymn book, they bear a definite relation, if only in volume of the edition, to the preparation and distribution of hymns in general. By 1 832 appeared the first book of children's hymns, Hi­ meni Kamalii. This was followed by numerous editions, some called Ka Lira Kamalii or The Children's Lyre. In 1 837 ap­ peared a little Sunday School paper, Ke Kumu Kamalii, with several children's hymns; and a number were used also in Ke Kumu Hawaii, the monthly paper published by the mission at Honolulu from 1 834 to 1 839. Perhaps for the benefit of children were the himeni hai­ naka or handkerchief hymns, printed for durabiltty on squares of white cloth and so popular that none now remain, apparently. But in the museum of the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society there still exists a hainaka umikanawai, or Ten Commandment handkerchief, a similar edition of the Decalog printed on a square of cloth in 1 835, just a century ago. Even the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. printed as verse, like many other passages in the Hawaiian Bible, come within the province of hymns, sin<;e_ they are often chanted metrically, somewhat as our Lihue Hawaiian Sunday School is now chanting, though in English, the names of the books of the Bible, as an aid to the memory. After Mr. Bingham, lovingly known all over the islands as Binamu, left the Sandwich Islands Mission, the presiding editot and composer in Hawaiian Protestant hymnology was, for almost fifty years, the lyric poet and missionary, Rev. Lorenzo Lyons of Waimea, Hawaii, called Ka Haku Mele o ka Aina Mauna, Song Maker of the Mountain Land. So in­ timate became his knowledge of both people and l�mguage that many a- legend has grown up abqut him. The people marveled that Ka Makua Laiana, Father Lyons, could make such sweet songs when his own voice was unmusical. more like the roar of a bull, they said, "ka uwo o ka bipi." Always �22 he made his long tours on foot, for when a kind neighbor, the original John Parker of the Parker Ranch, gave him a horse- to r_ide, he fell off at the first attempt and so decided that God intended him forever after to use his own two canoes and ten paddles, that is, his own feet and toes. Even into old age Father Lyons continued his habit of writing at least one hymn a week to be published in the Kuo� koa, the Hawaiian newspaper in Honolulu. Rhythm and rime were so instinctively a mental habit with Laiana, or Father Lyons, that he often wrote family letters of daily events in verse form. As he tramped the long meadows and scaled the steep cliffs of his highland parish his thought turned frequently to the sorting of words and arrangement of tunes for Hawaiian hymns. Once, indeed, he injoyed three uninterrupted hours of con� centrated meditation on such a tour. He was traveling to Waimanu Valley with two Hawaiians by canoe. In a rough sea the canoe capsized, spilling all three into the angry water just as they were about to teach their destination. The two men searched frantically for their passenger, swimming about and diving repeatedly into deep water. At last, giving him up for lost, they righted the canoe and, to their amazement, dis� covered him under it with his Bible hugged tightly to his side. His copy of the Himeni Kamalii of 1 837, sewed and resewed again and again in its homemade binding, was car� ried with him for years on his foot tours. His scrapbook, an America,n hymnal of 1 849 called the Domestic and Social H arp and given him by his friend Rev. S. C. Damon of Honolulu, is, like that old Himeni Kamalii, treasured by the Hawaiian Historical Society, in whose archives it may be seen pasted up front and back with printed copies of his Hawaiian hymns as they came out every week in the Kuokoa. For authentic accounts of Father Lyons' writings we are indebted to one of his friends and c�workers, the Rev. Charles M. Hyde, a younger missionary of the American Board and himself a scholar of no mean attainment in the Hawaiian tongue. He came to the islands in 1 877 and had the great advantage of knowing Laiana personally. Yet ap� 23 patently not even Dr. Hyde can tell us how lllany hymn books Father Lyons wrote and edited. In 1 8 70 J,Vlr. Lyons prepared an introduction to his revision of the stan�ard hymnal. Ka Buke Himeni Hawaii, which listed the various editions of Hawaiian hymns somewhat differently from the list in the Ballou�Carter account. Mr. Lyons gives the first edition as of 1 823, but second edition of 1 827 and third 1 830, leaving out the two editions of 1 826 and 1 828 which the mis� sion letters distinctly record and one of which exists today in the Car ter library. Just why Mr. Lyons should have con� sidered the edition of 1 830 a third edition when its title page plainly records it as the fifth, we have now no way of know� ing. Yet, after all, the matter is of no great consequence, save to bibliophiles and specialists. Of far greater interest is it to realize that with Laiana as editor and writer the first Protestant mission continued to republish this first little hymnal in li37, 1 846, 1 855 and 1 864. By 1 870 the number of hymns, qriginally 47, had iif"creased to 612: and in numerous editions. notably in 1 872 and 1 885, comprised the standard book o,f .hymns for our evangelical churches. It was thick, small and compact, and is still affec� tionately referred to by older Hawaiians as Ka Buke Himeni Poepoe, or the little fat hymnal. As in the smaller early editions tunes are not given, but names are indicated, with metrical sign for tune, and credit for authorship of the text is ascribed as follows : 5 anonymous; 1 by Rev. A. 0. Forbes; 2 by Rev. R. Armstrong: 3 by Bingham and Lyons; 9 by Rev. A. Bishop; 10 by Rev. William Ellis; 29 by Ellis and Bingham; 95 by Rev. H. Bingham: and 458 by Rev. L. Lyons. ?f the total 6 1 2 hymns 363 were translations o f earlier ones 1� English. Dr. Hyde mentions this edition as Mr. Lyons' sixteenth revision of the first little coUection of 1 823. Had this b�e� the extent of Laiana' s hymnody. he might . . have died a d1stingmshed writer. But one discovers that he _ publi�hed also many collections of children' s hyJJlns. beside contr1bu �ng fo� seven years numerous Sunday School lesson helps, prmted m the Kuokoa, which had a wide circulation. �25 24 In 1 88 1 , on the fiftieth anniversary of Laiana's arrival in the islands, the Hawaiian Protestant Sunday Schools pre� sented him with a purse of $ 1 ,200 which he invested in the pubfication of the Hoku Ao Nani, or Beautiful Morning Star, in New York, "a large and choice selection of Sunday School hymns translated into Hawaiian," for which "by long and persistent correspondence he secured the rig ht to •publish the music copyrighted in America, but generously given by the owners for use in this book." Also, not many years before he died, Laiana issued a num� her of Moody and Sankey gospel hymns in small booklets of several editions which Dr. Hyde states met with a speedy sale and were largely responsible for the success of the revival meetings of 1 88 1 and 1 882. Father Bond of Kohala, the next�door neighbor of Father Lyons at Waimea, also wrote a ·number of children's hymns, among them the well� loved Kulu Wai Liilii la, or Little Drops of wa·ter, the Ha­ waiian words of which came to him as he rode along on horseback one day on one of his parish tours. He also edited the words, and Father Rowell the music of the 1 862 edition of the Lira Kamalii, 1 48 hymns for children, republished in 1 867. Temperance hymnals were printed as early as 1 849. One of the later ones was called Kulu Wai Liilii from this translation by Father Bond. But for by far the greater number of hymnals Laiana was responsible, including the tune book printed in Honolulu as Ka Lira Hawaii, or the Hawaiian Lyre, in 1 844, 1 846, 1 848 and 1 855, containing "226 standard church tunes and 95 chants in common use in the Hawaiian churches." Thus re­ ports Dr. Hyde in 1 889. The more is the pity that these old chants have for th� most part fallen into disuse in our own time in Congregational churches, although there seems to be some prospect that a few of them may yet come again into their own. As for Laiana, one often thinks of that "lonely mountain home. quaint in its style of building as the hill-town farmhouses of New England a century ago," and of the sweet psalmist who lived in it. "of his slight, spare frame, and cheery, genial disposition," and no room is left to marvel that t Laiana was always "greatly beloved by his missionary asso­ ciates and revered by the Hawaiians for his guileless, peace� loving character and his personal interest in individual Ha­ waiians, and in Hawaiian national progress and prosperity." Nor was it less than fitting that that slight body, when at last laid to rest in the upland soil he had so loved, should be shrouded, at th� hand of the king, in the national flag of Hawaii. The sovereign who so revered Laiana was Hawaii's last king, Kalakaua, human as are we all, and often misjudged. He loved his people. One likes to recall Stevenson's friend� ship with him, and the companion portrait in Lloyd Os� bourne's "An Intimate Portrait of R. L; S." King Kalakaua, he wr�e. "was the greatest gentleman I have ever known . . . He was . . . a highly devoted man, . . . and had a most win� ning graciousness and charm, . . . a grave, earnest, rather careworn man . . . who seldom came to see us without his Chamberlain carrying books, and who was always urging Stevenson to • stay and make your home with us. Hawaii needs you.' " The present hymnal of our Hawaiian evangelical churches, published now a generation ago, in 1 902, combines a reprint of Laiana's Hoku Ao Nani with the Leo Hoonani, or Songs of Praise. This is a collection of new and old hymns edited by Theodore Richards, whose enthusiastic voice and genuine fervor have long been constructive forces in our Hawaiian congregations. Composers in this Leo Hoonani include the older translators such as Bingham and Ellis, and of course Laiana-what Hawaiian hymnal could exist without Laiana? -also Joseph Kalaina, the first Hawaiian name to appear in printed editions; Dr. Hyde, as author of the words for sev� eral male choruses: and finally that loyal mission daughter, our dearly loved Hualalai, Miss Ella Hudson Paris, now our best translator and sage of the Kona mountainside from which she takes her pen name. Once, not many years ago, Mr. Richards, speaking before a large gathering at Kawaiahao Church, asked for an infor­ mal vote on the favorite hymn of all Hawaiian congrega- �. 26 tions. The hymn, Nearer my God to Thee, in Laiana's translation seemed the favorite of many, but an overwhelm­ ing vote was given for Jesu no ke Kahuhipa, Laiana's trans­ lation of Jesus, Like a Shepherd Lead Us, which is sung to this day by young and old with ever-increasing affection. So genuine is the love of Hawaiians for these Christian hymns and so widespread has been their use that many of them have found frequent harbor also in the services of other religious denominations. Priests of the Roman Catholic faith, however, used Latin hymns from the first and before very long composed their own hymns in Hawaiian. Some printing of Catholic pfayers for mass in Hawaiian was done as early as 1 831 at Macao in South China, but the only such copy that it has been my goQd fortune- to see, while obviously �arly, is undated. Printing of hymns at the Catholic press in Honolulu seems to have begun in 1 84 1 with a handbill of Church History and the list of popes from St. Peter to Greg­ ory XVIII, both in verse and both reprinted in the Mele Evanelio, or Gospel Hymns, in 1 880. The .first Catholic .hymnal. the Palapala Himeni, was printed at Honolulu in 1 852. In 1 853 and 1 855 handbills of hymns for special church dedications on Oahu were issued from the same Catholic press. Probably, as early as 1 863 appeared also Latin hymns with Gregorian notation for ques­ tion and answer. These were followed by the Lira Katolika and Latin Masses. In 1 870 and 1 880 two different editions of Gospel Hymns were published. Father Reginald Yzen­ doorn, a scholar who has just recently ended his work as our authority on the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii, has given me these data in his carefully prepared bibliography of Hawaiian Catholic publications. He feared that this work had been lost, but a typed copy had fortu­ nately been deposited with the Carter qbrary. Father Reg­ inald tells me that _he considers Bishop Maigret the founder of Catholic hymnology in Hawaii. Interesting indeed it would be to pick up this . thread of Hawaiian history and trace it more carefully along its winding course! Only yts­ terday I was told of the very latest Hawaiian Catholic 27 hymnal. of 1 935, by its present editor, our friend, Father Valentin, who promised me an autographed copy as soon as it should arrive from Braine-le-Comte, the Mother House of the Order in Belgium. Missionaries of the Mormon faith arrived in Hawaii in 1 850 and for a lot).g time used in their congregational singing hymns already translated by the first missionaries. The Leo Hoonani is still used in many congregations of Latter Day Saints. But now that they are translating their own hymns into Hawaiian President Castle H. Murphy informs me that _they publish their own hymnals. These still include several of Laiana's favorite old hymns with due credit accorded him. Indeed. for the preservation of one of his most beautiful Hawaiian songs we have largely to thank the devotion of Mormon communities, for it is among some of their older people that we have at last been able to find more than the memory of Laiana's Hawaii Aloha, My Home, My Native Tund. This is his young people's ode sung to the old tune of the gospel hymn, I Left It All With Jesus, but appar­ ently never printed as a Hawaiian hymn. It is one of the best-loved among the older folk and the younger ones are now singing it with the slime affection, its renaissance due in large measure to the patient search and enthusiastic stimulus gi� by one of our most gifted educators, Miss Jane Lath­ rop Winne. Name and sour<;e for the original tune were given us by Mrs. Melia Kaiawe of Lihue, Kauai., A curiously creative process is at work 01\ this hymn. In the course of a generation or two the singing of this olq gos­ pel tune to Hawaiian words by Hawaiian voices has in a measure re-created it until now it sounds like an indigenous Hawaiian song and has more than once been thought to be so when heard recently both by island folk as well as by strangers. There is in this metamorphosis the manifestation of a definite creative power such as one feels in the quilt work by Hawaiian women who, taking over the New Eng­ land patterns and stitchery, have in the course of a century created an art now quite their own. A new series of hereto­ 1 fore· unpublished hymns, Na Himeni Hoaloha, appearing �28 j 29 each month in Ka Hoaloha, the Hawaiian Protestant Sunday School paper, has begun with this old favorite, Hawaii Aloha. With the coming of the Anglican Catholic, or Episcopal. church to the Hawaiian Islands in 1 862 we find an analogous beauty in . translation. and that by the hand royal. The Chiefs School. founded by Father and Mother Cooke of the first Protestant mission and conducted in low adobe build­ ings just back of the palace, included among its pupils the young prince Alexander Liholiho and the charming girl, Emma Rooke. These two, as king and queen. were later destined to shape the religious thought and observance of many of their Hawaiian people. Especially sensitive to the magic of words, the young prince read Tennyson, Kingsley and Longfellow with keen appreciation. On his journey to England in 1 850 with his brother and Dr. Judd he was im­ pressed by the stately beauties of Westminster Abbey and the ancient ritual of the Church of England. Not unmind­ ful of the Congregational worship in which he had oeen taught in his boyhood, his whole heart turned to the older forms. He wrote fluently in both English and Hawaiian, and while still a very young man set himself to the serious task of translating the English Book of Common Prayer. Bishop Staley arrived at Honolulu on October 1 1 , 1862. In his very first conversation with the new bishop Kameha­ meha IV "said he had already completed his translation of the Morning and Evening Prayers and Litany into the H�­ waiian language, and that it was then in the hands of the printer." During the next few months of his short life the king worked regularly with the bishop on the Hawaiian ver­ sion of sermons and on a complete revision of the Hawaiian Prayer Book. The king's preface to this translation is so impressive that Bishop Staley sent it in English form for publication by a mission magazine in England. Of the Ha­ waiian Prayer Book it may justly and reverently be said that the dignity and be�uty of its expression approach closely to. those of the original. This is high praise. The full text was completed by the king only very shortly before his death. It was, Bishop Staley recorded, "his daily work and consola- tion for many months. A fortnight before his death, he sent to England a box of these books just published, �pecially well-bound, and writing his name in each, as a gift to the Laymen's Council and the Bishop who had so generously helped to send out this mission from England. He had only finished writing his beautiful preface to the book in pencil, lying on his sofa, during his last illness." To feel with the king and understand something at least of his striving and yearning, we must look into his thoughts as expressed in his preface to the Hawaiian Book of Com­ mon Prayer. The English words are from the translation sent to England by Bishop Staley: t "This Book is a Book of Prayer, sanctioned by the Church of Christ as an assistant to devotion . . . . Its purpose is to teach men the way to pray truly to God; . . . and to teach the Priests of God their own partic­ ular fwictions and those things which they have together with the congregation to perform in the sight of God. . . . This unison in adora­ tion is no new thing, indeed it is very old; nor does it conflict in any way with the Word of God, because therein lie the prototypes of what this Church system is. Let us look to Moses and Miriam and the daughters of lsr�el; to Aaron with his sons, when they blessed the peo­ ple; to Deborah also, and to Barak; and who will deny the purposed composition of the Psalms of David as so many prayers and songs of praise to be offered, in reading or from memory, to Jehovah his God? . . . "In many places in the Word of God we are shown h9w established a thing it is · that the LORD is to be worshipped in this way, that is to say, by offering our praise in one voice, by singing hymns· in com­ mon, by saying prayers already prepared that all may pray in concert. ", . . . The Church is, in fact, an association fowided and established on earth by our blessed LORD Himself. . . . And because she is one and alone, tbe Church of our Lord is called the Catholic Church (which means one and universal ) . . . . Such is CHRIST'S Holy Catholic Church. . . . There are branches of this Church in every land • • • • and now, behold! she is here with us in these islands of our own. "Let us see how she felt her way and reached us at last. Our ancient i1:!ols had been dethroned, . . . the temples were demolished, • • • there were no priests, for their office had died out. These changes came, no doubt, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, acting through blind, unsus­ pecting agents. These revolutions were greatly furthered and helped by those devout and devoted men who first brought here and translated into our mother-tongue GOD'S Holy Word; and we, whilst these lines are being written, see the complete fulfillment of what that Bible enjoins in �30 the establishment here of CHRIST'S Church complete in all her func­ tions. Vancouver, long ago, was requested to send us the True GOD; Iolani, [Liholiho] then your King, went to a distant and powerful country to hasten the advent of that which our eyes now see and the spirit within us acknowledges, the very Church, here planted in Hawaii -but how long we had waited!" The effect of the English service in Honolulu may easily be surmised. In a small book now long since out of print Bishop Staley fortunately published, after his return to Eng­ land, an account of his Five Years of Church Work in Ha­ waii. Much of vivid interest is also to be found in extracts from his diary and letters printed recently in the Hawaiian Church Chronicle and edited by his daughter, Dr. Mildred Staley, now of Honolulu. Ha,ing sung chants and hymns, mostly to Gregorian plainsong. with passengers on board ship on the journey out, the first Bishop of Honolulu made his first service there "a fully choral one. Many natives crowded in and stood around the windows and doors, and some of the foreign residents said they had not set foot in a church for twenty years. The service was in English except for one hymn sung in Hawaiian by the king's request." And only a month after this the Bishop's record runs : "November 9, 1 862. This day our first completely native service was held, long to be remembered. Crowds came, quiet and reverent. The Litany, chanted in Hawaiian, to Helmore's Plain Song, went beautifully. choir and people singing the responses in cadence most musically. . . . At Evensong the first public baptism of infants caused amazed interest in a Church full to overflow:ing with natives. I put the questions in Hawaiian." From the scene . of the royal confirmations on November 28th more than the echo of stately anthem and response comes back to us. This is sketched in the Bishop's volume \,y one of the English clergy who assisted: "The hour fixed for the ceremony was 1 0 : 30, but long before that time the temporary cathedral was besieged by hundreds anxious to gain admittance. One-third of the church was reserveci for members of the Court, House of Nobks, and Consular body; 31 another for the. regular congregation, and the rest for the native population. The street was occupied by His Maj­ esty's troops-viz .. the cavalry, infantry and rifle volunteers. Precisely at 1 0 : 30 the processioe entered the church, con­ sisting, of the choir of native boys and men vested in sur­ plices, and the Bishop and clergy. At the same moment the sounds of the National Anthem announced the approach of their Majesties: and the Bishop, attended by his chaplain, the Rev. G. Mason, received the King and Queen at the west door. Here the King and Queen knelt down, having begged the Bishop to give them his blessing. His Lordship immediately pronounced Episcopal benediction, and then conducted their Majesties to their seats. "The service commenced with the Litany, charited in Ha­ waiian, the choir responding in harmony: from the musical nature of the language, it had a mQst solemn and beautiful effect, and the harmony of the responses was perfect. The Litany ended, we then left the church for the vestry, where we re-formed in the following order: ...-Major Kaauwai ( the King's aide-de-camp ) . vested in Surplice, and carrying the Bishop's banner; choristers ( native boys and men, two and two ) , clergy, chaplain bearing pastoral staff, and the Bishop. The procession left the vestry and entered the church at the west door, chcfllting the 1 9th Psalm, to the 3rd tone, 2ncl ending. "Their Majesties then left their s�ts, and stood in front of the altar. The address was read by the Rev. G. Mason. The Bishop having put the question, their Majesties replied in a clear, audible voice. All kneeling, the Bishop said the prayers. His Lordship then called upon the congregation to spend a few moments in silent prayer on behalf of those to be confirmed. The request was responded to in earnest. Those few moments were indeed silent and solemn: the con­ gregation then rose and sang the Veni Creator over · their Majesties'; who remained kneeling. \Ve sang it to the ancient Gregorian melody. The Bishop then confirmed the King and Queen, and afterwards delivered an impressive address. �32 Their Majesties were deeply affected, and so were the peo­ ple; judging from their devout behaviour and attention. . . . Before the Blessing we sang the 100th Psalm. "After the service was over, the King and Queen returned to the Palace, the band playing as before, the guns firing a royal salute. The altar was vested in white, and decorated with flowers, offered by members of the congregation. The King wore his uniform, which is similar to that of an English field-marshal; the Queen was dressed in white, and wore a long white veil. We said Evensong, as usual, at 7 : 30, and Friday happening to be the evening for the Hawaiian serv­ ice, the church was crowded with natives: after which we sang a Te Deum in the native language as the closing act of this happy and important day." Significant in� in the history of Hawaiian church music was this solemn intoning of chant and hymn from Old Eng­ land, thus rehearsed for the first time in Hawaiian in a great public event. The Easter service the following year, pre­ ceded by matins and the Easter hymn at the west door of the church, burst forth in all the glory of "the grand choral celebratjon, with Mendelssohn's Kyrie, the Agnus Dei and Gloria in Excelsis, from Mozart's Twelfth Mass . . . the music beautifully sung by the choir." When the king died, late in 1863, hymns in Hawaiian formed a beautiful and touching part of the sad pageant of burial. Holy Communion was celebrated chorally as a Re­ quiem, the Queen receiving, and most of the service being in Hawaiian. Even two chorales from the St. Paul of Men.. delssohn were sung in Hawaiian by a choir of fifty ...two voices. Well might the people mourn the passing of that _king who, though faulty as are we· all, had yet with his own hands and heart fashioned in the Hawaiian Pray�r Book a monument of such beauty and dignity as are accorded to few even of crowned heads. An English edition of the Anglican church hymnal had been printed in Honolulu in 1862, possibly in anticipation of the bishop's arrival. or not long after. A copy of this edition 33 is owned by the Hawai4ln Historical Society, bearing the label : Bequeathed to the Honolulu Library and Reading Association by her late Majesty, Dowager Queen Emma, A. D. 1885. Of the first edition of the Hawaiian Prayer Book and Hymnal published in Honolulu in 1863 the diocesan archives may well boast its copy. With a good tenor voice himself, Bishop Staley was also widely experienced in training church choirs. One of the­ needs he had first felt was that of a church hym nal in Ha­ waiian. He had therefore appoint�d a committee, with him.. self as chairman, "to translate a few hymns for special Cmtllitl'�sons, and restore the real meaning to some which had been altered to fit Calvinistic doctrines," This term Cal.. vinistic still appears in colloquial Hawaiian, Kalawina refer.. ri�g to the mission of the first Pr �testants in Hawaii, and B1hopa always referring to the Episcopalians. Bishop Staley's impression of Hawaiian voices and musi... cal capabilities is today most significant. He noted in his voluntary choir of fifty-two voices many very fine singers who delighted in learning Plainsong and Gregorian chants as well as "quite difficult anthems, Palestrina, the Purcells, and Handel." And in November of 1864 Bishop Staley hoped the following "year to have Bach's Passion music at the end of Lent." He found the Hawaiians "specially appre... dative of this solemn type of music," and regretted that their previous training in church music had been limited to simple chorales when "they were capable of rejoicing in even greater music of the old masters and composers." He felt their inherent need of music and even feared that unless led on to the higher forms, they would in time degrade their taste by evolving a trivial, catchy type of song. Oh, the pity that this prophecy has, in part, come to pass! Our love lyrics and local dance songs to the strumming of Lhe ukulele . have, it is true, a well-earned place in the affection of the entire world. But why not add to more of our radio programs the unmatched beauty of our Hawaiian choruses, so organ... like in their resonance and power and volume that instrumental accompaniment simply £�des out as a thing superfluous! �34 Of the Prayer Book and Hymnal there have been a num­ ber of editions. I am so fortunate as to possess a copy of the Hawaiian edition printed in Honolulu in 1866 with 63 hymns. It is a battered little book, much used, and was given to me by Sister Albertina of St. Andrew's Priory in 192 1 . As the gentle Sister handed this copy to Miss Mary Catton for me, she said deprecatingly that -she -hoped some day to find a cleaner one. This one had often been lent to the clergy who, she adde�, were not always particular as to how they returned borrowed books! The first title page in this copy is gone and its edition must be surmised from the second section, the hymnal, which bears its own title pa� Date and title, however, of the first section were supplied to me from a duplicate copy which I was once privileged to see in the library of the late Bishop Restarick and which he then told me was sometime to become incorporated in the diocesan archives here. Bishop Restarick' s library contained also an interesting Hawaiian edition of the Prayer Book and Psalms printed in Oxford in 1 869, as also Na Himeni o ka Ekalesia Anglicana, a Hawaiian hymnal printed in Honolulu in 1 880 for the Kula N ui Iolani, or Iolani College. .. The little Hawaiian Episcopal hymnal of 1 866 prints its 63 sacred songs without notes, but the musical tones of at least one of them ring out with the clear peal of bells. This is the eleventh hymn, a Christmas carol called simply Keri­ setemasa. Undoubtedly this was �ung, with others, the very first year of the mission in Honolulu in its first celebration of the Christmas service and carol-singing of Old England. Observance of the Christmastide had been little used here by the American mission, who brought the traditions of the simplest Congregational services of New England. In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on Fort Street the impressive midnight mass of Christmas Eve had n.o doubt been celebrated for many years with profound influence upon the minds and hearts of its communicants. But it was a new and joyous thing for others to be learn­ ing Christmas carols for weeks before the event and to have the king proclaim Christmas Day a general holiday for all. 35 It was a new thing to have Choral Evensong on Christmas Eve, the church aglow with all the king's silver candelabra: to chant the Hawaiian Litaky and Christmas hymns with a full choir: to celebrate Holy Communion at midnight: and then to form in procession with torchlights and wind slowly through the narrow lanes of the Honolulu of 1862, stopping now and then to sing carols and offer prayer, and ending up at the palace with crowds following and "picking up the tunes, if not the words." Although still suffering from the loss of their little son, the king and queen could at last take comfort that the blessing of these ancient ceremonies was come to their native land. The picture of the king, Kamehameha IV, drawn a year later in the sermon preached the Sabbath after his death, is one not soon forgotten. The words are those of Archdeacon :fvfila.son, as he described the secret of the king's "Christmas joy last year, when the blazing kukui torches revealed in the streets of his royal city the unwonted sight of a King walk­ ing in choral procession at midnight, hymning the nativity of the Babe of Bethlehem." Everyone may not feel it, but to me there is much that is beautiful and appealing in this transfer of prayers and hymns from English into Hawaiian words. One of the mar­ vels is the fitness of these Hawaiian words and the· readiness with which beth words and voices give out the fundamental emotions of praise and supplication. Did we but know more of what Laiana described as "the grand old, sonorous, poeti­ cal Hawaiian language," had we but a more intimate insight into that elusive thing, the cultural thought and mental habit of our Hawaiian friends, this marvel might be seen to be apparent only, since the blending and absorption take place in a very normal process. ;J'he peculiar power of the Hawaiian tongue was mani­ fested this very week when I had the honor to visit Miss Laura Green, a gifted translator. She lives on .a street named �37 36 by herself The Way of the Dawn, Alaula, and she is one of the very few "mission children" who still linger among us. At times she finds great consolation in singing softly to her� self Hawaiian hymns familiar since childhood. She gave me a copy of lerusalema Nani, her translation of Jerusalem the Golden, which she had- just made as a pastime. This little manuscript forms perhaps the most recent of Hawaiian hymns and will always be to me a particular treasure. Miss Paris calls attention to the fact that the Protestant missionaries, both men and women, were thoroughly con� versant with vocal music. Mr. Richards, glancing recently at Mr. Bingham's translation of the fine old Welsh hymn, Guide Me, 0 Thou great Jehovah, remarked the thorough scholarship of the translator, in the strong and idiomatic flavor of the Hawaiian words. This hymn was evidently an early one, since oral tradition marks it as the hymn sung in December of 1 824 at the brink of Pele's crater by Chiefess Kapiolani and her followers, with the missionary, Rev. Jos� eph Goodrich. As the "Pilgrim's Prayer" these words appear for the first time in the sixth edition of Hawaiian hymns, in 1-834, the tune, a very simple melody, bearing the name, Ka Malihini, The Pilgrim. This hymn does not occur in the present edition, of 1 902, but strangely enough is a traditionary one still at Mr. Bingham's church, 1<awaiahao, where it is beautifully sung from memory as a prayer or response, to the quiet melody known as Zion. Outing the singing of this hymn a spirit of prayer pervades the room. Only rece�tly have the members of Kawaiahao realized that this singing was a memorial also to their first pastor. Not �ne there sings it without a loving thought of the late pastor, Rev. Akaiko Akana, with whom it was a favorite "song of Zion." If I were to give my own closing word, it would be to go back almost to the beginning of this story and call to your attention the rare quality of our Hoonani, the Doxology in Hawaiian words as rendered by Binamu, the Rev. Hiram Bingh'am, builder and first pastor of Kawaiahao Church. In his first efforts at translation, while still groping in the dark­ ness of Polynesian thought patterns so foreign to his own, his mind must have fastened upon one of the shorter forms of the 1 00th Psalm which cannot have been very different from those used in the Bethel Chapel by the foreign congre� gation and appearing in 1 840 in pi;obably the earliest hymnal printed in English at the American mission press in Hono­ lulu. One copy of this in the Carter Library was first owned by Dr. T. C. B. Roolce, .adoptive father of Queen Emma. These are the words of Old Hundredth in this edition: "Be Thou, 0 God, exalted high; And, as Thy glory fills the sky, So let it be on earth display'd, Till Thou art here as there obey'd." It is surprising to find how many versions of Old Hun� dredth were in use in English. Although this form just quoted does not correspond literally to the Hawaiian words used by Binamu, it follows much the same thought. More nearly word for word, our Hawaiian Doxology might be set back into tl'lese few English words: Praised be the Eternal Father, Son and Spirit; Eternal God, blessed be He in this world as in that. So Binamu shaped them in Hawaiian, and so they have been sung by Hawaiian voices down through the years of a century and more, until today they seem to be an indigenous part of our Hawaiian church music. Quite recently, in September, 1 935, the coral walls of Ka­ waiahao Church echoed to this Hawaiian doxology at five o'clock of a week-day afternoon. The occasion was a vesper service for the Rev. Brewster Bingham and his bride. This great-grandson of the first pastor of Kawaiahao has just written back from his mission station in China that that Ka­ waiahao service will always be a memorable one in his life. Our Hoonani, quickly done, for, not appear on the the third edition, or Praise God, was not a translation so far as I have been able to learn, it does pages of the early Hawaiian hymnals until in 1 827, and then at the end as No. 98 �38 among the 100 hymns in that small volume. These four lines of Old Hundredth form perhaps the shortest of all Hawaiian hymns used today, but great dignity is in them, and a majestic power. I know of no truer benediction, no more certain "shrine of quietude and peace" than to stand of a Sabbath morning at the opening of the service in a Ha� waiian congregation, and to join with the mighty organ tones of their singing in this greatest of all Hawaiian hymns : "Hoonani i ka Makua mau, Ke Keiki me ka Uhane no, Ke Akua mau-hoomaikai pu Ko keia ao, ko kela ao.'.' � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Music Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Record of Hymns in the Hawaiian Language Na Himeni Hawaii Description An account of the resource This is a pamphlet written in December 1935 by church member Ethel Damon who also wrote "The Stone Church at Kawaiahao." It is a narrative on the history of how the Himeni Hawaii came into being and printed after hymns were introduced to the Hawaiians by the missionaries. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1935-12-12 Language A language of the resource eng haw Type The nature or genre of the resource text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context FA.37_2 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Music References A related resource that is referenced, cited, or otherwise pointed to by the described resource. Damon, Ethel Paris, Ella Hudson Richards, Theodore Bingham, Hiram Ellis, William Lyons, Lorenzo Extent The size or duration of the resource. 1 item Contain names