Not too long ago, we were contacted by Ken Peterson, a singer in the Seattle Compline choir, for information about the Compline service at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. Ken writes an excellent blog, Compline Underground, and he is beginning a new series of articles on the fifty plus Compline services which have been started since Peter Hallock founded Compline at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle. The Honolulu Compline is definitely one which was inspired by the Compline Service in Seattle.
Ken’s blog posting, “Compline in Honolulu,” was just published, and it brought back many memories of the beginnings of our long association with Peter Hallock. You see, Carl used to attend the Seattle Compline service as a college student, as well as Advent and Good Friday Procession at St. Mark’s Cathedral. When Carl moved to Honolulu in 1972, it was the memory of those services that influenced him as he built the music program at LCH. What’s interesting is that Carl never spoke to Peter before he moved to Hawaii, and had to write a long letter of introduction in connection with asking him to share music. In those early days, Peter would send his manuscripts and Carl would return them, neatly re-transcribed in clearer and more readable music editions. In 1985, Ionian Arts was born, a music publishing company venture between the Crosiers and Peter Hallock.
As Ken writes, the Seattle Compline Choir came to Honolulu to sing at the 1979 Far West Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists — at Carl’s invitation. The Seattle Compline Choir sang Compline at the opening service at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and I still remember how exquisitely beautiful it sounded. Later in the week, the Seattle and Honolulu Compline Choirs joined forces to sing a joint Compline at Kawaiaha’o Church.
Over the years Carl sang with the St. Mark’s Compline Choir on his many visits to Seattle, and we were there for the 50th anniversary in 2004, when these pictures were taken. By the way, the “medallion” that Carl is wearing around his neck was a souvenir that every Compline singer received at the 50th anniversary, listing how many years he sang with the choir. That being the year of the Olympics, Father Ralph Carskadden made “gold medals” for every singer. Carl also toured Russia, Scandinavia and England with the Seattle group on their 1997 and 2000 tours.