Description

Rare and Important Hawaiian Hymnal: This delightful Hawaiian hymnal, featuring extensive four-part musical scoring, is the very first music to be printed in the Hawaiian Islands. The title translates to “The rules of music, for hymns and psalms [with which] to praise God.” The first section (56 pages) serves as a musical instruction manual, covering the names for various notes, ways of reading music, scales and octaves, music notes with scores, and finally, music and words. The second part is a hymnal with 194 hymns.

Distribution and Publication: Copies were known to have been distributed before the work was fully completed, with some copies existing only with the first 56-page section. The work appears to have been issued in a run of 10,000 copies by the zealous and active Mission Press. Despite the large original printing, only a small fraction of these copies have survived, and the few survivors are often in poor condition. This particular example is particularly attractive and well-preserved.