ALOHA OE

Composer: Queen Lili'uokalani

Liliuokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii, was born on September 2, 1838, as Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka‘eha. She studied music from a young age, learned to sing and play several instruments, and would eventually write more than 160 songs, mostly about Hawaiian life and culture. The most popular is Aloha Oe, the story of two lovers parting reluctantly. She became Queen in 1890 following the death of her brother Kalakaua. He had been forced by powerful business interests from the mainland to accept a new constitution that greatly reduced his power and effectively disenfranchised the native Hawaiians. Liliuokalani attempted to replace that constitution with another, fairer one, but instead, in a shocking coup, a group of b… Go to person page >

Arranger: Thoro Harris

Born: March 31, 1874, Washington, DC. Died: March 27, 1955, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Buried: International Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. After attending college in Battle Creek, Michigan, Harris produced his first hymnal in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1902. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois at the invitation of Peter Bilhorn, and in 1932, to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He composed and compiled a number of works, and was well known locally as he walked around with a canvas bag full of handbooks for sale. His works include: Light and Life Songs, with William Olmstead & William Kirkpatrick (Chicago, Illinois: S. K. J. Chesbro, 1904) Little Branches, with George J. Meyer & Howard E. Smith (Chicago, Illi… Go to person page >

Arranged: Baylus Benjamin McKinney

Pseudonyms-- Martha Annis (his mother’s maiden name was Martha Annis Heflin) Otto Nellen Gene Routh (his wife’s maiden name was Leila Irene Routh) ----- Son of James Calvin McKinney and Martha Annis Heflin McKinney, B . B. attended Mount Lebanon Academy, Louisiana; Louisiana College, Pineville, Louisiana; the Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas; the Siegel-Myers Correspondence School of Music, Chicago, Illinois (BM.1922); and the Bush Conservatory of Music, Chicago. Oklahoma Baptist University awarded him an honorary MusD degree in 1942. McKinney served as music editor at the Robert H. Coleman company in Dallas, Texas (1918–35). In 1919, after several months in the army, McKinney returned to Fort Wor… Go to person page >