Uploaded February 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
huapala.org/Hawaii/Hawaii_Ponoi.html
Lot, Kamehameha V, wanted a gift of music for his people and asked Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany to send a bandmaster to Hawaiʻi. Henri Berger arrived June 5, 1872, and organized the Royal Hawaiian band who perfomed June 11,1872, after 5 days of practice. This first performance of the Royal Hawaiian band introduced "Hymn to Kamehameha I "which Berger re-wrote for the first celebration of King Kamehameha Day. The melody was based on the Prussian hymn originally titled "Heil Dir Im Siegerkranz". The words by King David Kalākaua was set to the Hymn to Kamehameha I in 1874, and was first sung by the Kawaiahaʻo Church Choir, on King Kalākaua`s birthday, Nov. 16, 1874. The King made a state visit to Japan on March 4, 1881, and was received lavishly by Emperor Mutsuhito. Landing at the Bay of Yeddo, Yokohama, he was greeted by a Japanese military band playing his song. During the visit, Kalākaua proposed the marriage of his niece, 5-year-old Princess Kaʻiulani to Prince Yamashina Komatsu Sadamoro, the 15-year-old nephew of the emperor. The emperor replied that the prince was already betrothed. Upon Kalākaua's return to Hawaiʻi, he received formal letters from Foreign Minister Inouye Kaoru and Prince Komatsu politely declining the offer of marriage to the Hawaiian princess. Thirteen years later, Jan. 29, 1894, Queen Liliʻuokalani wrote to Princess Kaʻiulani asking the princess to marry and choose a suitable mate from Prince David Kawananakoa, Prince Jonah Kūhiō or Prince Komatsu, the Japanese Prince. In a letter to the Queen, June 22, 1894, Princess Kaʻiulani rejected all three princes writing "I feel it would be wrong if I married a man I did not love. I should be perfectly unhappy, and we should not agree and instead of being an example to the married women of today, I should become like them, merely a woman of fashion and most likely to flirt". The Hawaiʻi legislature proclaimed Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi the state anthem in 1967.
huapala.org/Hawaii/Hawaii_Ponoi.html
Lot, Kamehameha V, wanted a gift of music for his people and asked Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany to send a bandmaster to Hawaiʻi. Henri Berger arrived June 5, 1872, and organized the Royal Hawaiian band who perfomed June 11,1872, after 5 days of practice. This first performance of the Royal Hawaiian band introduced "Hymn to Kamehameha I "which Berger re-wrote for the first celebration of King Kamehameha Day. The melody was based on the Prussian hymn originally titled "Heil Dir Im Siegerkranz". The words by King David Kalākaua was set to the Hymn to Kamehameha I in 1874, and was first sung by the Kawaiahaʻo Church Choir, on King Kalākaua`s birthday, Nov. 16, 1874. The King made a state visit to Japan on March 4, 1881, and was received lavishly by Emperor Mutsuhito. Landing at the Bay of Yeddo, Yokohama, he was greeted by a Japanese military band playing his song. During the visit, Kalākaua proposed the marriage of his niece, 5-year-old Princess Kaʻiulani to Prince Yamashina Komatsu Sadamoro, the 15-year-old nephew of the emperor. The emperor replied that the prince was already betrothed. Upon Kalākaua's return to Hawaiʻi, he received formal letters from Foreign Minister Inouye Kaoru and Prince Komatsu politely declining the offer of marriage to the Hawaiian princess. Thirteen years later, Jan. 29, 1894, Queen Liliʻuokalani wrote to Princess Kaʻiulani asking the princess to marry and choose a suitable mate from Prince David Kawananakoa, Prince Jonah Kūhiō or Prince Komatsu, the Japanese Prince. In a letter to the Queen, June 22, 1894, Princess Kaʻiulani rejected all three princes writing "I feel it would be wrong if I married a man I did not love. I should be perfectly unhappy, and we should not agree and instead of being an example to the married women of today, I should become like them, merely a woman of fashion and most likely to flirt". The Hawaiʻi legislature proclaimed Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi the state anthem in 1967.
