Last Sunday, the LCH choir sang “The Beatitudes” by Slovenian composer, Damijan Močnik (b. 1967), a new name to many of us at LCH. The piece loosely based on plainchant and somewhat reminiscent of the works of Estonian Arvo Pärt. Since it’s been a long time since I took geography, I found out that Slovenia… Read More New names, new faces
ser·en·dip·i·ty/ˌserənˈdipitē/ Noun: The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: “a fortunate stroke of serendipity”. It was pure serendipity that on All Saints Sunday, forty-three continuous years of ministry at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu were represented by the presence of Pastors Donald K. Johnson (1969-2000), Fritz Fritschel (1990s),… Read More All Saints serendipity
Today is Election Day in America, and I know I wrote earlier that I was a political junkie, but even I will be glad to be out from under the barrage of political advertising on television, radio, newspapers, direct and electronic mail, and even social networks. There’s been no letup for months and months of… Read More Vote for me!
Okay, I admit it — I’m a political junkie and am always trying to catch up with the latest polls and the pundits, red states, blue states and battleground states. So yesterday I couldn’t resist taking a picture of several LCH choristers as they joined St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir in an evensong service in memory… Read More Red or blue?
In contrast to the works of Marcel Dupré for All Saints morning service, tomorrow night at Vespers you’ll hear lots of Bach, not only the works by J. S. but also Johann Ernst Bach (1722-1777), who was the son of Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749). That would make Johann Ernst a nephew of Johann Sebastian. Johann Ernst… Read More Bach at night
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRcMtB27z7E?rel=0] Marcel Dupré plays his Cortège et Litanie at Saint-Sulpice. January 22, 1965. That’s the date my organ teacher wrote in my music to assign me Marcel Dupré’s Cortège et Litanie. To be honest, at that point in my life I didn’t know what a cortege was, or a litany either, or that one day… Read More Dupré in the morning
Today is Reformation Day and I wanted to share with you the visit of Martin Luther (aka John Bickel) to the Iolani School campus this week. John, a history teacher and long-time LCH member, recreates characters from the past such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. and makes them come alive… Read More Speaking of Martin Luther
There was an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe last week titled, “Save the church! kill the organs” and it naturally elicited a lot of response from organists and parishioners alike. The author, Jennifer Graham, associated music coming out of an organ to that of a horror movie, and had the nerve to blame organ… Read More Don’t blame the organ!
I can’t believe it! What a terrible loss! That was my first reaction when I read the news on FaceBook about the death of Yoshi Nishimura, considered THE piano technician in Honolulu. Chances are, not many people in the pews and the concert hall audiences knew about this quiet, unassuming man. But I dare say… Read More Aloha, Yoshi
This Sunday is Reformation, one of my favorite Lutheran festivals in the whole church year because it’s a day that I inevitably play Bach. I’ll be playing Bach’s Prelude in E minor, BWV 548a for the prelude and the Prelude and Fugue in E minor (“Cathedral”) BWV 533 for the postlude. During communion, I’ll be… Read More Bach to basics for Reformation