That was the title of a desperate email I sent to Tim Carney, director of the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, when I came to try out the organ in the Mystical Rose Oratory this afternoon.

The morning started out innocently enough … I began the day with my usual morning walk, then as I was preparing to practice at Waiokeola Congregational Church for this Sunday’s service, I received a phone call from Lihue, Kauai. I didn’t recognize the number, and almost wasn’t going to answer. However, it was a good thing that I did, because it turned out to be a reporter from The Garden Island, a daily newspaper based in Lihue, Hawaii. She wanted to interview me in advance of the Kauai Chorale concert this coming Thursday night.

Then it was on to Waiokeola, where they had it decorated for Christmas.

I then went to Mystical Rose Oratory at Chaminade University, where tonight’s rehearsal was to be held for the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble concerts this weekend.

I quickly learned that whenever I put on a pedal stop, it resulted in a constantly droning tone cluster on the pedalboard. Yikes! This was going to be impossible to ignore. I experimented with only coupling the manual down without pulling any pedal stops — but that resulted in the same tone cluster, so it wasn’t going to work.

Coupled with the fact that I couldn’t set any pistons (to quickly change registrations), and the general cancel button not working, led me to call the organ technician who told me the pedal problem was caused by the pedalboard not being perfectly aligned with the console. I was to pull out the pedalboard and realign it. Yay! That stopped the tone clusters, but they started up again as soon as I started playing on the pedals.

That’s when I sent my email to Tim, writing “Houston, we have a problem!” He said he would bring some towels to lay under the pedalboard in an effort to keep it more stable.

In the meantime, I prepared a Plan B: to have Eric Shank, the choir’s accompanist, play the pedal line on the manuals with the 16′ Bourdon, while I played the rest of the manual parts. Fortunately we didn’t need to use this backup plan, as the pedal division behaved itself and didn’t produce any drones!

I somehow got through the rehearsal in spite of not having any pistons to quickly change the stops, but I’m hoping the music will miraculously come together for the concerts. And the organ behaved itself during the rehearsal without any extraneous tone clusters. Hallelujah!

[Editor’s Note: I didn’t want to give you the wrong impression—the choir sounds just fabulous in this acoustically marvelous space; it’s MY PART which needs more practice, which I will work on after I return from Kauai!]

In the meantime, I’m taking an early plane to Lihue, Kauai, tomorrow morning where I’ll spend the next two days with the Kauai Chorale, directed by Shane Morris Wise. I’m also taking the opportunity to teach an organ lesson with my student, Henry Adams Curtis, while I’m over there.

Ah, my insanely crazy life, four concerts this week on three islands! I must have lost my mind to agree to all of this!