Hawaiian music today is a harmonious blend of different cultures. Ancient Hawaiians did not sing - they chanted. Chanters were considered a special breed, trained at an early age to chant lengthy meles. The chants were performed on special occasions honoring gods, people and events.
Like most Polynesians, ancient Hawaiians were poetic in their use of language and conscious of the balance of nature. For them, nature was a metaphor for life — ferns, flowers and birds were symbols of lovers; water, rain and wetness symbols of life, fertility, growth, grief and hardship.
Many chants were sacred not only to the gods but to families as well. Through the generations, chanters passed their secrets on to a chosen few; hence the reverence for chants today.
My fondness for kahiko (ancient hula) stems from my high school years in Hawaii. An aunt, Zillah Leimomi Young, who was teaching at the Kamehameha Schools took me to the Big Island along with her Girls Concert Glee, and we met the great Iolani Luahine. Luahine’s performance that day captivated me. I felt as if my soul had been with hers a hundred years before.
Hawaii’s introduction to Western melodies most likely came with the crews on sailing ships that came to port with their sea chanties. In 1820 a New England rig, Thaddeus, brought the first Protestant missionaries, Christianity, and a new way of life. Within twenty years, they had taught the Hawaiians a new religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, history of Western civilization, and music. Perhaps more than any other missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Amos Starr Cooke had the most profound effect. In 1840 they were chosen to teach the highest ranking children of the alii (chiefs) some of whom went on to become kings and queens of Hawaii — including Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, Lunalilo and Kalakaua, Queen Emma, Liliuokalani and Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
Missionary wives and children were also influential in the westernization of these 19th century Hawaiians. They taught many how to sing and play the piano. Ella Paris, daughter of a Kona missionary, wrote many himeni (hymns) and collected enough to be made into a hymnal which was used for years in island churches.
In the mid 1800s, Spanish Vaqueros from the U.S. were brought to Hawaii to teach the Hawaiians how to be cowboys. With them came the broad-rimmed hat, the neck handerkerchief, the lariat, and the guitar to play romantic ballads on lonely nights. Hawaiian paniolo adapted quickly to this new style of music and started to mimic their fellow ranchers. Some experts believe this was the birth of the slack key sound.
The Portuguese also contributed to the music of Hawaii. Portuguese settlers arrived on the scene on board the Priscilla in 1878. They had been recruited for the whaling industry and came from Cape Verde, the Azores and Madeira. They brought with them the cavaquinho and braquinho or ukulele as it is more commonly known.
The revival of the hula prompted by King Kalakaua sparked a resurgence of Hawaiian culture. Hawaiians had been told by the missionaries to abolish their heathen worship and chants. At his coronation, however, the king requested that the chanters perform. A gifted lyricist, Kalakaua wrote Hawaii Pono’i which later became Hawaii’s National Anthem. Queen Liliuokalani, an avid musician, wrote hundreds of songs including Aloha Oe.
After the U.S. annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the influx of immigrants, Hawaiian way of life became an integration of the traditional and the new. In the 1920s Hollywood arrived at Waikiki, enticing starlets to star in their own version of Hollywood musicals.
Sonney Connor popularized hapa haole music with composer Henry Kailimai. They combined ragtime rhythms with an island beat to English and Hawaiian words.
Other part-Hawaiians were coming out with their own unique styles. Johnny Noble (Pretty Red Hibiscus), Charles E. King (Ku’u Lei Mokihana) and Johnny K. Almeida (The Beauty Hula). Remember the radio program Hawaii Calls, which broadcast from the Banyan Court of the Moana Hotel from 1935 until 1975 and was later syndicated for television?
Individual recording artists including Jack Pittman made Beyond the Reef which sold millions. Other classics during that era include Sweet Leilani, Lovely Hula Hands, and the Hawaiian Wedding Song.
By the 1950s Waikiki nightclubs were showcasing the big time all-Hawaiian bands with Polynesian floorshows. Rosalie Vida, my aunt from Maui, was an entertainer. She would say, “Those were the days of the bright and shiny multicolored cellophane skirts.” Dance troupes often performed for movie stars and politicians.
Hawaiian music declined in popularity in the 1960s when acts like the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley dominated the airwaves of America. There was one man however, who kept Hawaiian music alive — Don Ho. He was the local boy who became a Hawaiian icon with his signature song Tiny Bubbles.
The 1970s brought changes to Hawaiian music. Hawaiian musicians were rediscovering their roots and their music was gradually transformed into an upbeat sound of the past. Utilizing their natural abilities to harmonize ukulele, steel guitars and traditional percussion, a new sound was born and a renaissance of Hawaiian music and the performing arts began.
Each year the Na Hoku Hanohano special music awards are given to accomplished island musicians recognizing excellence and contributions to Hawaiian music. Hoku recipients include the Brothers Cazimero, the Peter Moon Band, Karen Keawehawaii, Henry Kapono, Makaha Sonas of Ni’ihau and the Beamer Brothers.
What is the enchantment of the music of Hawaii that has touched the hearts of so many people? Hawaiians themselves, might point to a history of cultural exchange, a unique blend of the traditional and the new and an embellishment of the aloha spirit that permeates each song and mele.
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