I was feeling so confident in using my new Flic buttons to turn the pages on my iPad that last Sunday at St. Mark’s, I put 95% of the service music on it, and created a Setlist, putting all the music in order. Things were going along swimmingly until we got to the communion hymn. I clicked my Flic button and I confidently played the introduction, expecting the choir to join in on the first verse.

But …

Nothing.

I played the first two lines of hymn

Nobody sang!

One of the sopranos came round to the organ console and whispered, “It’s Hymn 224.”

Horrors! I had played the wrong hymn!

Somehow in the Setlist I had mixed up the order of the exit hymn, No. 516, “Come down, o Love divine (DOWN AMPNEY), with No. 224, “Hail this joyful day’s return” (SONNE DER GERECHTIGKEIT).

Luckily, before I started the introduction, I had the presence of mind to open the hymnal to the right page as a backup and after playing two lines of the wrong hymn, I was able to quickly play the correct hymn. Luckily, both hymns were in the same key of D!

This is only the third time in my career that this has happened. I remember this happened once at the early service at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. After playing the introduction, Pastor Don Johnson called out, “Kathy, what hymn are you playing?” I had quickly glanced at the bulletin, and had misread the number.

Another time, I played the introduction to a hymn, and my husband Carl, came running up to the console with another hymnal in hand, opened to the correct page. I finished playing the introduction of the wrong hymn, and immediately switched to the correct hymn starting with the first verse. I didn’t miss a beat! I don’t remember what the hymns were, but again I was very lucky in that both hymns were in the same key of F major! I can still remember this many years later.

Amazingly, even AI (Artificial Intelligence) had an answer for this situation:

Don’t panic! Everyone—from church organists to Olympic organizers—makes musical slip-ups. The best immediate step is to stop, gracefully acknowledge the mistake with a brief, lighthearted apology, and segue directly into the correct hymn or a brief, reflective transition.

If you are a church musician or leader and want to navigate this smoothly, try these steps:

• Pivot immediately: If the congregation hasn’t started singing yet, seamlessly switch to the correct sheet music if you can find it.
• Make a quick verbal apology: You can simply say, “I apologize, I started on the wrong verse/song. Let’s start with [Hymn Name].”
• Keep your composure: Take a slow, deep breath. The congregation will be entirely forgiving, and most people appreciate the authentic human moment.

HAHA! There was no time for this. After a brief pause, I played the introduction of the right hymn and we finished the service without further incident.

(Sigh.)

Last night Early Music Hawaii presented the early music ensemble, Lyracle, in an outstanding concert called “Musicians of the Tenshō Embassy.” The music-making was exquisite — I love the sublime sound of viols! The soprano, Ashley Mulcahy, had a wonderfully expressive and soulful voice—no wonder that she has sung with outstanding early music conductors such as Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki, David Hill and Simon Carrington. Through narration and reading of correspondence we heard about four Japanese students of a Jesuit seminary who traveled to Lisbon from Nagasaki, and learned music for voices and viols. The story itself was fascinating, and beautifully read by my houseguest, Danielle Boivin. (She doesn’t pronounce her last name in the French way, instead she says “boy-vin” in an American way.) The group traveled to Kona this morning and will perform the concert again tomorrow afternoon.

We had a short but wonderful time together, and Early Music Hawaii was so fortunate to have this group here.

Tomorrow night I’m off to Los Angeles to celebrate the 9th birthday of my grandson, then I’ll fly to Atlanta for the Association of Anglican Musicians conference.