NATIVE HAWAIIAN COMPOSER IRMGARD FARDEN ALULI DIED
Born in Lahaina, Maui, in 1911, Irmgard Keali’iwahinealohanohokahaopuamana Farden Aluli hailed from a musical family. Known as “Auntie Irmgard,” she began performing publicly in 1926, singing and playing guitar in a trio with her sister, Diana, and steel guitarist, Annie Kerr. Later, she performed with the Farden Sisters, and finally with her group Puamana in the 1960’s. However, her major contribution to music was as a haku mele—a composer. Her song book, with over 120 songs, has been essential material for generations of musicians, from the legendary Alfred Apaka to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. She wrote and recorded Hawaiian music in the 1930’s and 40’s. Her first hit, Puamana, was an ode to her childhood home written in 1935. She played more or less continuously until 1998, when she ”half-retired” after injuring her hand in a car door. While it was hard for her to strum a guitar after that, she could still play the ukulele and made occasional appearances until a few weeks before her death.
Source: Lawrence Downes, “Irmgard Aluli, 89, Hawaiian Singer Known as Auntie Irmgard,” The New York Times, 10/13/2001. Retrieved 7/15/2019,
Photo: Author and date unknown. Irmgard and daughter Aima at the 1996 Washington Place Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Source: http://www.digitaldna.co.jp/hawaiianmusichalloffame/hmhof/news/archive/2001/irmgard_in_memoriam.html. Fair Use: This is being used for non-commercial and educational purposes only. The author is unknown and the subject is deceased. The photograph is used simply to identify the subject. No other publicly available photographs of the deceased exist. As the source for this photograph no longer is active, there is no diminishment in its value by this use.