Music Scene
Hawaiian hymn books offer lessons in history

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

This 175-year-old first-edition copy of "Na Himeni Hawai'i," or "Hawaiian Hymns," bound in tortoise shell, is part of the Mission Houses Museum's collection. Saturday's free event at the museum will focus on Hawaiian hymn books and manuscripts. Mission Houses Museum 'Na Himeni' A History of Hymns in Hawai'i 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday Mission Houses Museum Free 531-0481

Slipping on a white glove, Mission Houses Museum head librarian Marilyn Reppun gingerly reaches into a small manila envelope and pulls out a 175-year-old first-edition copy of the collection titled "Na Himeni Hawai'i," or "Hawaiian Hymns," and begins an impromptu history lesson on hymn books. A number of the museum's large collection of 19th- and 20th-century hymn books and manuscripts will be displayed at this weekend's museum-sponsored "Na Himeni: A History of Hymns in Hawai'i" lecture and music program.

"There's so many here that we'll have to really choose what we have out on Saturday," Reppun says of the museum's hymnal collection, procured mostly from private donations. The Mission Houses Hawaiian Mission Children's Society Library has more than 100 hymnals from the 19th century alone, Reppun says.

Measuring just 5.3 by 3.3 inches and bound between somewhat faded though remarkably sturdy tortoise-shell covers, the volume Reppun holds in her hand was compiled by the Revs. Hiram Bingham and Richard Ellis and printed on a Ramage Press on the Mission Houses grounds.

"Since musical notes couldn't be printed until the 1834 edition of the hymnal, this first edition has just lyrics," says Reppun, carefully flipping pages with a metal page turner. Only 2,000 copies of the hand-bound 60-page hymnal were published for use by Native Hawaiian parishioners during Congregational Church services at Kawaiaha'o Church and a number of missions that were being started around O'ahu at the time. The hymnal's 47 hymns include a number of original Hawaiian works, translations of well-known Western hymns such as Watts' "50th Psalm" and even a few choruses from Handel's "Messiah."

The most recent 11th edition of the hymnal, titled "Na Himeni O Ka 'Ekalesia" or "The Hymns of the Church," was published in 1999 after six years of research and translation work led by Kahu Richard Kamanu, pastor of Kapa'a First Hawaiian Church and a scholar on the history of Hawaiian hymns. Kamanu will lead a lecture and sing-along on Hawaiian hymnology as part of this weekend's "Na Himeni" program.

"These hymns are an important part of the Hawaiian culture in post-missionary times," Kamanu says of the collection. "The Congregational Church was the only church in the Islands for quite some time before other religious groups were able to come in."

In preparing the most recent edition of "Na Himeni" — the first revised edition of the hymn collection in more than 25 years — Kamanu and his staff re-examined previous translations of traditional hymns and added a number of contemporary hymns, boosting the collection to 227 compositions. New additions to the text include Graham Kendrick's "Shine, Jesus, Shine" (in Hawaiian, "Kau Mai Ke Aloha") and Kamehameha Schools Performing Arts director Randie Fong's 1988 composition "Na Iehova No I Hana," or "Jehovah's Creative Works."

In addition to his hourlong Hawaiian hymnology lecture, Kamanu will lead a sing-along of a few of the 11th-edition's new hymns.

The Mission Houses' Na Himeni program will also include a hymn performance by the Hawai'i Youth Opera Chorus led by Kawaiaha'o Church choir director Nola Nahulu, and a hymn-printing demonstration on the museum's Ramage Press replica. The entire Mission Houses Museum complex will also be open to the public for free tours.

"I've been wanting to do a program on Hawaiian hymns for years," says Mission Houses Museum executive director Deborah Dunn of this weekend's inaugural program. "If it all goes over well, I'd love to make it an annual event."