Posted on: Sunday, October 7, 2001

Editorial
Irmgard Farden Aluli: a prodigious legacy

One wonders, as we lose more of the icons of Hawaiian culture, whether they are being replaced by younger legends-in-the-making, or are the last of a breed.

"Auntie" Irmgard Farden Aluli, who died Thursday at 89, was a true giant of Hawaiian music. She was "our last great composer," said her grandnephew.

According to Advertiser staffer Wade Shirkey, himself a kumu hula, the late 1950s were a fertile time for Auntie Irmgard's thought and creativity.

It was a time, she told Shirkey, when four or five complete songs would come to her in a single day, occasionally in dreams, perhaps even in Hawaiian — a neat trick, since she didn't speak Hawaiian.

Even God, it seemed, had told her to quickly commit ideas to paper. Despondent over her songwriting at one point, she prayed for guidance. The words "Kakau 'awiki me kealoha pumehana" came to her, she said.

Translated, the words became her hallmark and her inspiration: "Write quickly with warm affection."

And she did. At her death Auntie Irmgard was credited with writing more than 300 Island songs, including "Puamana," about the Farden family's fabled Lahaina home; and "The Boy from Laupahoehoe," a staple for most male hula dancers. You can bet that some of the lesser-known songs will be revived and repopularized for many years to come.

Nahenahe — soft and sweet as in Island breeze — was the word for the sound of her trio, also called Puamana, which included two daughters.

Auntie Irmgard gave in many ways, composing, performing, teaching, into her last years. She'll be missed, but her legacy is prodigious.