Music of Hawaii
Encyclopedia
The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock
and hip hop
. Hawaii's musical contributions to the music of the United States
are out of proportion to the state's small size. Styles like slack-key guitar
are well-known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtrack
s. Hawaii also made a major contribution to country music
with the introduction of the steel guitar
.
Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people
have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in nature, and includes chanting and dance music
. Hawaiian music has had an enormous impact on the music of other Polynesian islands; indeed, music author Peter Manuel called the influence of Hawaiian music a "unifying factor in the development of modern Pacific musics".
. There is also a Hawaii International Jazz Festival, which was founded in 1993, and holds festivals on Oahu, Hawaii
, Maui
and Kauai
.
Hawaii is home to numerous hotels, many of which feature music in the afternoon or evening; some of the more prominent ones include the Kahala Hilton, the Sheraton Moana Hotel, the Sheraton Waikiki, the Halekulani, Casanova's and the King Kamehameha Hotel. Large music venues in Hawaii include the University Theater, which has 600 seats and is the largest venue on the Big Island. The largest venue and cultural exhibition center on Kauai is the Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center. The Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena is the largest venue in Honolulu and among the largest in the state—other venues for Hawaiian music on Oahu include the Waikiki Shell an establishment used primarily for concerts and entertainment purposes. Over the years many local, as well as international artists have graced the stage there. It is unique outdoor theater located in Kapiolani Park. This venue seats 2,400 persons, with the capacity to hold up to 6,000 more on the lawn area. Concerts, graduation ceremonies and hula shows are very popular at this site. As well as Kennedy Theatre and Andrews Amphitheatre on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, the Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, the Red Elephant (a performance space and recording studio in downtown Honolulu), Paliku Theatre on the campus of Windward Community College and the Leeward Community College Theatre. The historic Lanai Theatre is a cultural landmark on Lanai, dating back to the 1930s.
and the Oahu Choral Society's Honolulu Symphony Chorus, which operates the Hawaii International Choral Festival.
has no word that translates precisely as music, but a diverse vocabulary exists to describe rhythms, instruments, styles and elements of voice production. Hawaiian folk music is simple in melody
and rhythm
, but is "complex and rich" in the "poetry, accompanying mimetic dance (hula), and subtleties of vocal styles... even in the attenuated forms in which they survive today".
The chant (mele) is typically accompanied by an ipu heke (a double gourd
) and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum). Some dances require dancers to utilize hula implements such as an ipu
(single gourd
), iliili (waterworn lava stone castanets),uliuli (feathered gourd rattles), pu`li (split bamboo sticks) or kalaau (rhythm sticks). The older, formal kind of hula is called kahiko, while the modern version is auana. There are also religious chants called oli; when accompanied by dancing
and drums
, it is called mele hula pahu.
In the pre-contact Hawaiian language
, the word mele referred to any kind of poetic expression, though it now translates as song. The two kinds of Hawaiian chant
ing were mele oli and mele hula. The first were a cappella
individual songs, while the latter were accompanied dance music
performed by a group. The chanters were known as haku mele and were highly trained composers and performers. Some kinds of chants express emotions like angst
and affection
, or request a favor from another person. Other chants are for specific purposes like naming
, (mele inoa), prayer
(mele pule), surfing
(mele he'e nalu) and genealogical
recitations (mele koihonua). Mele chants were governed by strict rules, and were performed in a number of styles include the rapid kepakepa and the enunciate koihonua.
s such as the guitar
and possibly also the technique of falsetto
singing, while Portuguese immigrants brought the ukulele
-like braguinha
.
Elizabeth Tatar divided Hawaiian music history into seven periods, beginning with the initial arrival of Europeans and their musical cultures, spanning approximately from 1820 to 1872. The subsequent period lasted to the beginning of the 20th century, and was marked by the creation of an acculturated yet characteristically Hawaiian modern style, while European instruments spread across the islands. Tatar's third period, from 1900 to about 1915, saw the integration of Hawaiian music into the broader field of American popular music, with the invention of hapa haole songs, which use the English language and only superficial elements of Hawaiian music; the beginning of the Hawaiian recording industry was in 1906, when the Victor Talking Machine Company
made the first 53 recordings in the state. By 1912, recorded Hawaiian music had found an audience on the American mainland.
From 1915 to 1930, mainstream audiences outside of Hawaii became increasingly enamored of Hawaiian music, though by this time the songs marketed as Hawaiian had only peripheral aspects of actual Hawaiian music. Tahitian and Samoan music had an influence on Hawaiian music during this period, especially in their swifter and more intricate rhythms. The following era, from about 1930 to 1960, has been called the "Golden Age of Hawaiian music", when popular styles were adapted for orchestra
s and big band
s, and Hawaiian performers like Lani McIntire, John Kameaaloha Almeida
and Sol Hoopii
became mainstream stars. In the 1960s, Hawaiian-style music declined in popularity amid an influx of rock, soul and pop acts from the American mainland. This trend reversed itself in the final period of Hawaiian music history, the modern period beginning with the Hawaiian Renaissance
in the 1970s and continuing with the foundation of a variety of modern music scenes in fields like indie rock
, Hawaiian hip hop and Jawaiian.
. A compilation of her works, titled "The Queen's Songbook", was published in 1999 by The Queen Lili'uokalani Trust.
Lili'uokalani was one of many members of the Hawaiian royal family with musical inclinations. They studied under a Prussia
n military bandleader, Henry Berger, who was sent by the Kaiser
at the request of Kamehameha V
. Berger became fascinated by Hawaiian folk music, and wrote much documentation on it. However, he also brought his own musical background in German music
, and heavily guided the Hawaiian musicians and composers he worked with.
in 1832 in order to teach the natives how to control an overpopulation of cattle. The Hawaiian cowboys (paniolo) used guitars in their traditional folk music. The Portuguese introduced an instrument called the braguinha, a small, four-stringed Madeira
variant of the cavaquinho
; this instrument was a precursor to the `ukulele.
Steel-string guitars also arrived with the Portuguese in the 1860s and slack-key had spread across the chain by the late 1880s. A ship called the Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on August 23, 1879, bringing Portuguese field workers from Madeira
. Legend has it that one of the men, João Fernandes, later a popular musician, tried to impress the Hawaiians by playing folk music with a friend's braguinha
; it is also said that the Hawaiians called the instrument `ukulele (jumping flea) in reference to the man's swift fingers. Others have claimed the word means gift that came here or a corruption of ukeke lele (dancing ukeke
, a three-string bow).
The popularity throughout the 1920s of Hawaiian music, with its unique slide-style of guitar playing, prompted the invention of the electric guitar in 1931, as a lap steel guitar, the "frying pan"
, by George Beauchamp. Electric amplification allowed the Hawaiian-style guitar to be heard in performances of larger popular bands.
In the 1880s and 90s, King David Kalakaua promoted Hawaiian culture and also encouraged the addition of new instruments, such as the ukulele and possibly steel guitar; Kalakaua died in 1891, and so it is highly unlikely he would have heard it [See: Kanahele, George S., Hawaiian Music and Musicians, pp 367–368]. Kalakaua's successor, his sister Lili'uokalani, was also a prolific composer and wrote several songs, like "Aloha 'Oe", which remain popular. During this period, Hawaiian music evolved into a "new distinctive" style, using the derivatives of European instruments; aside from the widespread string instruments, brass band
s like the Royal Hawaiian Band
performed Hawaiian songs as well as popular marches and ragtimes.
In about 1889, Joseph Kekuku
began sliding a piece of steel across the strings of a guitar, thus inventing steel guitar
(kika kila); at about the same time, traditional Hawaiian music with English
lyrics became popular. Vocals predominated in Hawaiian music until the 20th century, when instrumentation took a lead role. Much of modern slack-key guitar has become entirely instrumental.
From about 1895 to 1915, Hawaiian music dance bands became in demand more and more. These were typically string quintets. Ragtime
music influenced the music, and English words were commonly used in the lyrics. This type of Hawaiian music, influenced by popular music and with lyrics being a combination of English and Hawaiian (or wholly English), is called hapa haole (literally: half white) music. In 1903, Albert "Sonny" Cunha composed My Waikiki Mermaid, arguably the first popular hapa haole song (The earliest known hapa haole song, "Eating of the Poi", was published in Ka Buke o na Leo Mele Hawaii...o na Home Hawaii in Honolulu in 1888 [See Kanahele, George S., Hawaiian Music and Musicians pp 71–72]).
In 1927, Rose Moe (1908–1999), a Hawaiian singer, with her husband Tau Moe
(1908–2004), a Samoan guitarist, began touring with Madame Riviere's Hawaiians. In 1929 they recorded eight songs in Tokyo
. Rose and Tau continued touring for over fifty years, living in countries such as Germany, Lebanon and India. They even performed in Germany as late as 1938 when the Nazi raciscm was on the rise and people of a darker color were regarded as inferior people; it is said that they even performed even for Adolf Hitler
himself. With their children, the Tau Moe family did much to spread the sound of Hawaiian folk music and hapa haole music throughout the world. In 1988, the Tau Moe family re-recorded the 1929 sessions with the help of musician and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman.
The 1920s also saw the development of a uniquely Hawaiian style of jazz
, innovated by performers at the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels.
, though, the example of players such as Auntie Alice Namakelua, Leonard Kwan
, Raymond Kane, and Keola Beamer
had encouraged the sharing of the tunings and techniques and probably saved the style from extinction. Playing techniques include "hammering-on", "pulling-off", "chimes" (harmonics), and "slides," and these effects frequently mimic the falsettos and vocal breaks common in Hawaiian singing.
The guitar entered Hawaiian culture from a number of directions—sailors, settlers, contract workers. One important source of the style was Mexican cowboys hired to work on the Big Island of Hawaii in the first half of the 19th century. These paniolo brought their guitars and their music, and when they left, the Hawaiians developed their own style of playing the instrument.
Slack key guitar evolved to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian dancing and the melodies of Hawaiian chant. Hawaiian music in general, which was promoted under the reign of King David Kalakaua as a matter of national pride and cultural revival, drew rhythms from traditional Hawaiian beats and European military marches, and drew its melodies from Christian hymns and the cosmopolitan peoples of the islands (although principally American).
show called Bird of Paradise introduced Hawaiian music to many Americans in 1912 and the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco followed in 1915; one year later, Hawaiian music sold more recordings than any other style in the country. The increasing popularization of Hawaiian music influenced blues
and country
musicians; this connection can still be heard in modern country. In reverse, musicians like Bennie Nawahi began incorporating jazz
into his steel guitar
, ukulele
and mandolin
music, while the Kalama Quartet introduced a style of group falsetto singing. The musician Sol Ho'opii arose during this time, playing both Hawaiian music and jazz, Western swing and country, and developing the pedal steel guitar; his recordings helped establish the Nashville sound
of popular country music. Lani McIntyre
was another musician who infused a Hawaiian guitar sound into mainstream American popular music through his recordings with Jimmie Rodgers
and Bing Crosby
.
In the 1920s and 30s, Hawaiian music became an integral part of local tourism
, with most hotels and attractions incorporating music in one form or another. Among the earliest and most popular musical attractions was the Kodak Hula Show, sponsored by Kodak, in which a tourist purchased Kodak film and took photographs of dancers and musicians. The show ran from 1937 through 2002. In the first half of the 20th century, the mostly young men who hung around the Honolulu beaches, swimming and surfing, came to be known as the Waikiki Beachboys and their parties became famous across Hawaii and abroad; most of them played the ukulele all day long, sitting on the beach and eventually began working for hotels to entertain tourists.
Popular Hawaiian music with English verse (hapa haole) can be described in a narrow sense. Generally, songs are sung to the ukulele or steel guitar. A steel string guitar sometimes accompanies. Melodies often feature an intervallic leap, such as a perfect fourth or octave. Falsetto vocals are suited for such leaps and are common in Hawaiian singing, as is the use of microtones. Rhythm is mostly in duple meter. A musical scale that is unique to Hawaiian music imbues it with its distinct feel, and so is aptly named the Hawaiian scale.
The Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 introduced Hawaiian steel guitar to mainland country music artists, and by the 1930s country stars Hoot Gibson and Jimmy Davis were making records with Hawaiian musicians.
The influx of thousands of American servicemen into Hawaii during World War 2 created a demand for both popular swing rhythm and country sounds. The western swing style, popular on the mainland since the 1930s, employed the steel guitar as a key element and was therefore a natural evolution. Beginning in 1945, the Bell Record Company of Honolulu responded to the demand with a series of releases by the western swing band Fiddling Sam and his Hawaiian Buckaroos (led by fiddler Homer H. Spivey, and including Lloyd C. Moore, Tiny Barton, Al Hittle, Calvert Duke, Tolbert E. Stinnett and Raymond "Blackie" Barnes). Between 1945 - 1950 Bell released some 40 sides by the Hawaiian Buckaroos, including a set of square dance numbers.
, pop
, hip hop
, soul
and reggae
performers, and many local musicians in the clubs of Waikiki and Honolulu play outside the various "Hawaiian" genres. Hawaii has its own regional music industry, with several distinctive styles of recorded popular music. Hawaiian popular music is largely based on American popular music
, but does have distinctive retentions from traditional Hawaiian music.
found their careers revitalized; Pahinui, who had begun recording in 1947, finally reached mainstream audiences across the United States when sessions on which Ry Cooder
played with him and his family were released as The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1 on a major mainland label. Pahinui inspired a legion of followers who played a mix of slack-key, reggae, country, rock and other styles. The more traditional players included Leland "Atta" Isaacs, Sr.
, Sonny Chillingworth
, Ray Kane
, Leonard Kwan
, Ledward Ka`apana, Dennis Pavao
, while Keola Beamer
and Peter Moon
have been more eclectic in their approach. The Emerson brothers rekindled the classic sound of Sol Ho'opi'i with the National steel guitar on their vintage 1920s stylings. George Kanahele
's Hawaiian Music Foundation did much to spread slack-key and other forms of Hawaiian music, especially after a major 1972 concert.
Don Ho
(1930–2007), originally from the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kaka'ako, was the most widely known Hawaiian entertainer of the last decades of the 20th century. Although he did not play "traditional" Hawaiian music, Ho became an unofficial ambassador of Hawaiian culture throughout the world as well as on the American mainland. Ho's style often combined traditional Hawaiian elements and older 1950s and 1960s-style crooner music with an easy listening touch.
Loyal Garner
also embraced Hawaiian elements in her Vegas-style lounge act and in the songs she recorded. A third notable performer, Myra English
, became known as the "Champagne Lady" after recording the song "Drinking Champagne" by Bill Mack
in 1963 became her signature song in Hawaii, and she achieved considerable commercial success both locally and abroad.
music. Reggae music is a genre that evolved in the late 1960s and early in Jamaica
. has become popular across the world, especially among ethnic groups and races that have been historically oppressed, such as Native Americans
, Pacific Islanders, and Australian Aborigines. In Hawaii, ethnic Hawaiians
and others in the state began playing a mixture of reggae and local music in the early 1980s, although it was not until the late 1980s that it became recognized as a new genre in local music. The band Simplisity has been credited by Quiet Storm Records as originators of the Jawaiian style. By the end of the 1980s, Jawaiian came to dominate the local music scene, as well as spawning a backlash that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
compared to the "disco
sucks" movement of the late 1970s.
Reggae culture as a whole began to dominate Hawaii, as many locals can be seen sporting Bob Marley memorabilia, and lots of local merchandise and souvenirs have been emblazoned with the red, yellow, and green colors of the Ethiopian flag, a known symbol of the Rastafari movement
. The Rasta colors have also become a symbol of local pride.
Henry Allen (virtuoso on all three instruments) had left Hawaii in the early 1950s to go L.A. and work with Richard Kauhi and Alec Keack, who left the islands to pursue a career on the mainland as they were far ahead of their time back here in Honolulu. Henry moved to Maui in 1971 thus establishing himself in all the show rooms in the hotels and produced many jazz concerts over the years with the likes of Shorty Rodgers, Bud Shank, Lonne Smith, Gary Grant, Jay Leno Horns,(Chuck Findley, Ralph Moore, Slyde Richard Hyde) Gabe Baltazar and a series for Lana'i, called Jazz Under the Stars, of which the famous Howard Rumsey of the Hermosa Beach Light House fame was a part. Henry is not only a jazz guitarist, but Master artist of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar for which he is world-renowned, and recognised by the state and governor as such.www.henrykallen.com, guitarmaui@aol.com Henry is currently as of July 29, 2008, producing jazz CDs and is author of two published books on music, "Learning to play the Hawaiian Steel Guitar" and Ukulele, Pila Li'i Li'i. Henry is now considered one of Hawaii's "Living Treasures".
Among the greats on the local jazz scene who have since passed on are Richard Kauhi, Ernie Washington, Paul Madison and Trummy Young. Kauhi was born in Hawaii, the others settled in Hawaii after successful careers on the US mainland.
Notable jazz vocalists in Hawaii, both current and retired include Jimmy Borges, Rachel Gonzales, Azure McCall, Joy Woode and I. Mihana Souza. Although Hawaiian vocalist Melveen Leed
is known primarily for singing Hawaiian and "Hawaiian country" music, she has also earned good reviews as a jazz singer.
The most visible jazz group in Hawaii as of November 2007 was the Honolulu Jazz Quartet consisting of Baron (drums), Del Negro (keys), Kolivas (bass) and Tsukiyama (sax).
There are frequent performances by the two University of Hawaii
jazz bands.
Locales
Links
was introduced to Hawaii
by the Portuguese immigrants near the close of the 19th century. The Portuguese brought small guitar-like instruments with them. These small guitars are called the cavaquinho
. The instrument became a very popular one in Hawaiian culture, and a majority of Hawaiian songs involve the ukulele. In Hawaiian, ukulele literally means "flea (uku) jumping (lele)." It was named as such because when plucked, the high pitch of the strings brings to mind the image of a jumping flea. There are currently four sizes of ukulele; soprano, concert, tenor and baritone.
Queen Liliuokalani, the last Hawaiian Queen, believed that the name for the ukulele means "The gift that came here". She believed this because of the Hawaiian words "uku" which means "gift or reward" and "lele" which means "to come."
The ukulele can be played with simple strums to elaborate strums and what is called "picking," which is the act of picking the strings to make single sounds. There are multiple ukulele makers. The most popular ukulele maker is Kamaka Ukuleles, Inc.
Well known ukulele recording artists include Eddie Bush, Peter Moon, Benny Chong, Kelly "Kelly Boy" DeLima, Troy Fernandez, Canadian virtuoso James Hill, Raiatea Helm, Daniel Ho
, slack key guitarist Ledward Kaapana, Jesse Kalima, Eddie Kamae
, David Kamakahi, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
, Moe Keale, Ken Emerson, Bob Brozman, Pat Cockett, David Heaukulani http://www.ukulele-uncle.com, Kirby Keough, Gordon Mark, Herb "Ohta-san" Ohta, Herb Ohta Jr., Brittni Paiva, Lyle Ritz, Bruce Shimabukuro, Jake Shimabukuro
, Bill Tapia, Byron Yasui, Abe Lagrimas Jr., and Uluwehi Guerrero.
The ukulele is mostly recognized as being Hawaiian, even though it is originally based on the Portuguese cavaquinho
.
is a Hawaiian musical bow played with the mouth. It's the only stringed instrument indigenous to Hawaii.
is an emerging form of Hawaiian rap.
It is difficult to promote popular acts from the mainland due to its geographical isolation, and the smaller group of people interested in the music.
Links
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. Hawaii's musical contributions to the music of the United States
Music of the United States
The music of the United States reflects the country's multi-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. Among the country's most internationally-renowned genres are hip hop, blues, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, barbershop, pop, techno, and rock and roll. The United States has the...
are out of proportion to the state's small size. Styles like slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar
Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. Its name refers to its characteristic open tunings: the English term is a translation of the Hawaiian kī hōalu, which means "loosen the [tuning] key"...
are well-known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
s. Hawaii also made a major contribution to country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
with the introduction of the steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
.
Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in nature, and includes chanting and dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
. Hawaiian music has had an enormous impact on the music of other Polynesian islands; indeed, music author Peter Manuel called the influence of Hawaiian music a "unifying factor in the development of modern Pacific musics".
Music festivals and venues
Major music festivals in Hawaii include the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, which brings together hula groups from across the world, as well as a number of slack-key and steel guitar festivals: Big Island Slack Key Guitar Festival, Steel Guitar Association Festival and the Gabby Pahinui/Atta Isaacs Slack Key Festival. April's Aloha Week is a popular tourist attraction, as is the Moloka'i Music Festival held around Labor DayLabor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
. There is also a Hawaii International Jazz Festival, which was founded in 1993, and holds festivals on Oahu, Hawaii
Hawaii (island)
The Island of Hawaii, also called the Big Island or Hawaii Island , is a volcanic island in the North Pacific Ocean...
, Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
and Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
.
Hawaii is home to numerous hotels, many of which feature music in the afternoon or evening; some of the more prominent ones include the Kahala Hilton, the Sheraton Moana Hotel, the Sheraton Waikiki, the Halekulani, Casanova's and the King Kamehameha Hotel. Large music venues in Hawaii include the University Theater, which has 600 seats and is the largest venue on the Big Island. The largest venue and cultural exhibition center on Kauai is the Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center. The Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena is the largest venue in Honolulu and among the largest in the state—other venues for Hawaiian music on Oahu include the Waikiki Shell an establishment used primarily for concerts and entertainment purposes. Over the years many local, as well as international artists have graced the stage there. It is unique outdoor theater located in Kapiolani Park. This venue seats 2,400 persons, with the capacity to hold up to 6,000 more on the lawn area. Concerts, graduation ceremonies and hula shows are very popular at this site. As well as Kennedy Theatre and Andrews Amphitheatre on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Blaisdell Center Concert Hall, the Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, the Red Elephant (a performance space and recording studio in downtown Honolulu), Paliku Theatre on the campus of Windward Community College and the Leeward Community College Theatre. The historic Lanai Theatre is a cultural landmark on Lanai, dating back to the 1930s.
Music institutions and industry
Hawaii is home to a number of renowned music institutions in several fields. The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra is an important part of the state's musical history, and is the oldest orchestra in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, founded in 1900 . The Orchestra has collaborated with other local institutions, like the Hawaii Opera TheatreHawaii Opera Theatre
The Hawaii Opera Theatre is an opera company located in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became active in 1961. The company typically performs three operas during February and March in Blaisdell Concert Hall...
and the Oahu Choral Society's Honolulu Symphony Chorus, which operates the Hawaii International Choral Festival.
Folk music
Hawaiian folk music includes several varieties of chanting (mele) and music meant for highly ritualized dance (hula). Traditional Hawaiian music and dance was functional, used to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology, and accompany games, festivals and other secular events. The Hawaiian languageHawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
has no word that translates precisely as music, but a diverse vocabulary exists to describe rhythms, instruments, styles and elements of voice production. Hawaiian folk music is simple in melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
, but is "complex and rich" in the "poetry, accompanying mimetic dance (hula), and subtleties of vocal styles... even in the attenuated forms in which they survive today".
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
) and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum). Some dances require dancers to utilize hula implements such as an ipu
Ipu
Ipu is a percussion instrument made from gourds that is often used to provide a beat for hula dancing.There are two types of ipu, the ipu heke and the ipu heke ole . Both are made from gourds that have been cut off at the neck and hollowed. The ipu heke is two such gourds joined together with a...
(single gourd
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
), iliili (waterworn lava stone castanets),uliuli (feathered gourd rattles), pu`li (split bamboo sticks) or kalaau (rhythm sticks). The older, formal kind of hula is called kahiko, while the modern version is auana. There are also religious chants called oli; when accompanied by dancing
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
and drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, it is called mele hula pahu.
In the pre-contact Hawaiian language
Hawaiian language
The Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
, the word mele referred to any kind of poetic expression, though it now translates as song. The two kinds of Hawaiian chant
Chant
Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures Chant (from French chanter) is the rhythmic speaking or singing...
ing were mele oli and mele hula. The first were a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
individual songs, while the latter were accompanied dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
performed by a group. The chanters were known as haku mele and were highly trained composers and performers. Some kinds of chants express emotions like angst
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
and affection
Affection
Affection or fondness is a "disposition or rare state of mind or body" that is often associated with a feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology concerning: emotion ; disease; influence; state of being ; and state of mind...
, or request a favor from another person. Other chants are for specific purposes like naming
Hawaiian name
A Hawaiian name is a name in the Hawaiian language. Such names are popular not only in Hawaiian families, but also among other residents of Hawaii, and even in the United States mainland among both non-native and native Hawaiians.- Meanings of names :...
, (mele inoa), prayer
Prayer
Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
(mele pule), surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
(mele he'e nalu) and genealogical
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
recitations (mele koihonua). Mele chants were governed by strict rules, and were performed in a number of styles include the rapid kepakepa and the enunciate koihonua.
Music history
Historical documentation of Hawaiian music does not extend prior to the late 18th century, when non-Hawaiians (haoles) arrived on the island. From 1778 onward, Hawaii began a period of acculturation with the introduction of numerous styles of European music, including the hymns (himeni) introduced by Protestant missionary choirs. Spanish-speaking Mexican cowboys (paniolos), were particularly influential immigrants in the field of music, introducing string instrumentString instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
s such as the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and possibly also the technique of falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
singing, while Portuguese immigrants brought the ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
-like braguinha
Braguinha
Braguinha can be:* one of the names of the cavaquinho, a string instrument of the guitar family;* the nickname of Carlos Alberto Ferreira Braga, a Brazilian songwriter....
.
Elizabeth Tatar divided Hawaiian music history into seven periods, beginning with the initial arrival of Europeans and their musical cultures, spanning approximately from 1820 to 1872. The subsequent period lasted to the beginning of the 20th century, and was marked by the creation of an acculturated yet characteristically Hawaiian modern style, while European instruments spread across the islands. Tatar's third period, from 1900 to about 1915, saw the integration of Hawaiian music into the broader field of American popular music, with the invention of hapa haole songs, which use the English language and only superficial elements of Hawaiian music; the beginning of the Hawaiian recording industry was in 1906, when the Victor Talking Machine Company
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
made the first 53 recordings in the state. By 1912, recorded Hawaiian music had found an audience on the American mainland.
From 1915 to 1930, mainstream audiences outside of Hawaii became increasingly enamored of Hawaiian music, though by this time the songs marketed as Hawaiian had only peripheral aspects of actual Hawaiian music. Tahitian and Samoan music had an influence on Hawaiian music during this period, especially in their swifter and more intricate rhythms. The following era, from about 1930 to 1960, has been called the "Golden Age of Hawaiian music", when popular styles were adapted for orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
s and big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s, and Hawaiian performers like Lani McIntire, John Kameaaloha Almeida
John Kameaaloha Almeida
John Kameaaloha Almeida , was born John Celestino Almeida Jr. in the Pauoa Valley on the island of Oʻahu in Hawai‘i, to Portuguese contract laborer John Celestino Almeida Sr. and his wife Honolulu lei seller Julia Kamaka Almeida...
and Sol Hoopii
Sol Hoopii
Sol Hoʻopiʻi was born Solomon Hoʻopiʻi Kaʻaiʻai in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a Native Hawaiian guitarist, claimed by many as the all-time best lap steel guitar virtuoso, and he is one the most famous original Hawaiian steel guitarists, along with Joseph Kekuku, Frank Ferera, Sam Ku West and "King"...
became mainstream stars. In the 1960s, Hawaiian-style music declined in popularity amid an influx of rock, soul and pop acts from the American mainland. This trend reversed itself in the final period of Hawaiian music history, the modern period beginning with the Hawaiian Renaissance
Hawaiian Renaissance
The First and Second Hawaiian Renaissance was the Hawaiian resurgence of a distinct cultural identity that draws upon traditional kānaka maoli culture, with a significant divergence from the tourism-based "culture" which Hawaii was previously known for worldwide .-First Hawaiian...
in the 1970s and continuing with the foundation of a variety of modern music scenes in fields like indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
, Hawaiian hip hop and Jawaiian.
Liliʻuokalani and Henry Berger
Queen Liliʻuokalani was the last Queen of Hawaii before the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown. She was also a musician and prolific composer who wrote many musical works. She was best known for Aloha 'OeAloha 'Oe
"Aloha ʻOe" is Liliʻuokalani's most famous song and a common cultural Leitmotif for Hawaii. The song was inspired by a horseback trip she took in 1877 to the windward side of Oʻahu...
. A compilation of her works, titled "The Queen's Songbook", was published in 1999 by The Queen Lili'uokalani Trust.
Lili'uokalani was one of many members of the Hawaiian royal family with musical inclinations. They studied under a Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n military bandleader, Henry Berger, who was sent by the Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
at the request of Kamehameha V
Kamehameha V
aloghaKamehameha V , born as Lot Kapuāiwa, reigned as monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipa`a": immovable, firm, steadfast or determined; he worked diligently for his people and kingdom and was described as the last great traditional chief...
. Berger became fascinated by Hawaiian folk music, and wrote much documentation on it. However, he also brought his own musical background in German music
Music of Germany
Forms of German-language music include Neue Deutsche Welle , Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, Volksmusik, Classical, German hip hop, trance, Schlager, Neue Deutsche Härte and diverse varieties of folk music, such as Waltz and Medieval metal....
, and heavily guided the Hawaiian musicians and composers he worked with.
Guitar innovations
Guitars could have come to Hawaii from several sources: sailors, missionaries, or travelers to and from California. The most frequently told story is that it accompanied the Mexican cowboys (vaqueros) brought by King Kamehameha IIIKamehameha III
Kamehameha III was the King of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854. His full Hawaiian name was Keaweaweula Kiwalao Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa and then lengthened to Keaweaweula Kiwalao Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa Kalani Waiakua Kalanikau Iokikilo Kiwalao i ke kapu Kamehameha when he ascended the throne.Under his...
in 1832 in order to teach the natives how to control an overpopulation of cattle. The Hawaiian cowboys (paniolo) used guitars in their traditional folk music. The Portuguese introduced an instrument called the braguinha, a small, four-stringed Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
variant of the cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
; this instrument was a precursor to the `ukulele.
Steel-string guitars also arrived with the Portuguese in the 1860s and slack-key had spread across the chain by the late 1880s. A ship called the Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on August 23, 1879, bringing Portuguese field workers from Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
. Legend has it that one of the men, João Fernandes, later a popular musician, tried to impress the Hawaiians by playing folk music with a friend's braguinha
Braguinha
Braguinha can be:* one of the names of the cavaquinho, a string instrument of the guitar family;* the nickname of Carlos Alberto Ferreira Braga, a Brazilian songwriter....
; it is also said that the Hawaiians called the instrument `ukulele (jumping flea) in reference to the man's swift fingers. Others have claimed the word means gift that came here or a corruption of ukeke lele (dancing ukeke
Ukeke
The ūkēkē is a musical bow made of koa wood, 16 to 24 inches long and about 1½ inches wide with two or three strings fastened through and around either end, tuned to an A major triad. Prior to the introduction of steel strings, gut or sennit were used.The strings were strummed with one hand...
, a three-string bow).
The popularity throughout the 1920s of Hawaiian music, with its unique slide-style of guitar playing, prompted the invention of the electric guitar in 1931, as a lap steel guitar, the "frying pan"
Frying pan (guitar)
The "frying pan" was the first electric lap steel guitar ever produced. George Beauchamp created the instrument in 1931, and it was subsequently manufactured by Rickenbacker Electro...
, by George Beauchamp. Electric amplification allowed the Hawaiian-style guitar to be heard in performances of larger popular bands.
Late 19th and early 20th century
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s like the Royal Hawaiian Band
Royal Hawaiian Band
The Royal Hawaiian Band is the oldest and only full-time municipal band in the United States. At present a body of the City & County of Honolulu, the Royal Hawaiian Band has been entertaining Honolulu residents and visitors since its inception in 1836 by Kamehameha III...
performed Hawaiian songs as well as popular marches and ragtimes.
In about 1889, Joseph Kekuku
Joseph Kekuku
-Biography:Kekuku was born in Lāie, a village on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii. As a boy, he would experiment with guitar technique, sliding ordinary household objects across the strings to see what sounds could be produced. By the time he was an adult, he had developed a unique style of playing...
began sliding a piece of steel across the strings of a guitar, thus inventing steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
(kika kila); at about the same time, traditional Hawaiian music with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
lyrics became popular. Vocals predominated in Hawaiian music until the 20th century, when instrumentation took a lead role. Much of modern slack-key guitar has become entirely instrumental.
From about 1895 to 1915, Hawaiian music dance bands became in demand more and more. These were typically string quintets. Ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
music influenced the music, and English words were commonly used in the lyrics. This type of Hawaiian music, influenced by popular music and with lyrics being a combination of English and Hawaiian (or wholly English), is called hapa haole (literally: half white) music. In 1903, Albert "Sonny" Cunha composed My Waikiki Mermaid, arguably the first popular hapa haole song (The earliest known hapa haole song, "Eating of the Poi", was published in Ka Buke o na Leo Mele Hawaii...o na Home Hawaii in Honolulu in 1888 [See Kanahele, George S., Hawaiian Music and Musicians pp 71–72]).
In 1927, Rose Moe (1908–1999), a Hawaiian singer, with her husband Tau Moe
Tau Moe
Tau Moe was a singer and musician who formed The Tau Moe Family musical troupe which toured the globe for decades.-Biography:...
(1908–2004), a Samoan guitarist, began touring with Madame Riviere's Hawaiians. In 1929 they recorded eight songs in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Rose and Tau continued touring for over fifty years, living in countries such as Germany, Lebanon and India. They even performed in Germany as late as 1938 when the Nazi raciscm was on the rise and people of a darker color were regarded as inferior people; it is said that they even performed even for Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
himself. With their children, the Tau Moe family did much to spread the sound of Hawaiian folk music and hapa haole music throughout the world. In 1988, the Tau Moe family re-recorded the 1929 sessions with the help of musician and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman.
The 1920s also saw the development of a uniquely Hawaiian style of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, innovated by performers at the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels.
Slack key guitar
Slack-key guitar (kī ho`alu in Hawaiian) is a fingerpicked playing style, named for the fact that the strings are most often "slacked" or loosened to create an open (unfingered) chord, either a major chord (the most common is G, which is called "taro patch" tuning) or a major 7th (called a "wahine" tuning). A tuning might be invented to play a particular song or facilitate a particular effect, and as late as the 1960s they were often treated as family secrets and passed from generation to generation. By the time of the Hawaiian RenaissanceHawaiian Renaissance
The First and Second Hawaiian Renaissance was the Hawaiian resurgence of a distinct cultural identity that draws upon traditional kānaka maoli culture, with a significant divergence from the tourism-based "culture" which Hawaii was previously known for worldwide .-First Hawaiian...
, though, the example of players such as Auntie Alice Namakelua, Leonard Kwan
Leonard Kwan
Leonard Kwan was one of the most influential Hawaiian slack-key guitarists to emerge in the period immediately preceding the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s. He made the first LP of slack key instrumentals, co-wrote the second slack key instruction book, and composed a number of pieces...
, Raymond Kane, and Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music.-Family:...
had encouraged the sharing of the tunings and techniques and probably saved the style from extinction. Playing techniques include "hammering-on", "pulling-off", "chimes" (harmonics), and "slides," and these effects frequently mimic the falsettos and vocal breaks common in Hawaiian singing.
The guitar entered Hawaiian culture from a number of directions—sailors, settlers, contract workers. One important source of the style was Mexican cowboys hired to work on the Big Island of Hawaii in the first half of the 19th century. These paniolo brought their guitars and their music, and when they left, the Hawaiians developed their own style of playing the instrument.
Slack key guitar evolved to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian dancing and the melodies of Hawaiian chant. Hawaiian music in general, which was promoted under the reign of King David Kalakaua as a matter of national pride and cultural revival, drew rhythms from traditional Hawaiian beats and European military marches, and drew its melodies from Christian hymns and the cosmopolitan peoples of the islands (although principally American).
Popularization
In the early 20th century Hawaiians began touring the United States, often in small bands. A BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show called Bird of Paradise introduced Hawaiian music to many Americans in 1912 and the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco followed in 1915; one year later, Hawaiian music sold more recordings than any other style in the country. The increasing popularization of Hawaiian music influenced blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
musicians; this connection can still be heard in modern country. In reverse, musicians like Bennie Nawahi began incorporating jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
into his steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
, ukulele
Ukulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
and mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
music, while the Kalama Quartet introduced a style of group falsetto singing. The musician Sol Ho'opii arose during this time, playing both Hawaiian music and jazz, Western swing and country, and developing the pedal steel guitar; his recordings helped establish the Nashville sound
Nashville sound
The Nashville sound originated during the late 1950s as a sub-genre of American country music, replacing the chart dominance of honky tonk music which was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s...
of popular country music. Lani McIntyre
Lani McIntyre
Lani McIntyre was a Hawaiian guitar and steel guitar player who helped to popularize the instrument, which eventually became a mainstay in American country and western music....
was another musician who infused a Hawaiian guitar sound into mainstream American popular music through his recordings with Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
James Charles Rodgers , known as Jimmie Rodgers, was an American country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
and Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
.
In the 1920s and 30s, Hawaiian music became an integral part of local tourism
Tourism in Hawaii
Hawaii is the name of several islands and are among the numerous Pacific Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Of these, the islands which have significant tourism are: Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and Lānai....
, with most hotels and attractions incorporating music in one form or another. Among the earliest and most popular musical attractions was the Kodak Hula Show, sponsored by Kodak, in which a tourist purchased Kodak film and took photographs of dancers and musicians. The show ran from 1937 through 2002. In the first half of the 20th century, the mostly young men who hung around the Honolulu beaches, swimming and surfing, came to be known as the Waikiki Beachboys and their parties became famous across Hawaii and abroad; most of them played the ukulele all day long, sitting on the beach and eventually began working for hotels to entertain tourists.
Popular Hawaiian music with English verse (hapa haole) can be described in a narrow sense. Generally, songs are sung to the ukulele or steel guitar. A steel string guitar sometimes accompanies. Melodies often feature an intervallic leap, such as a perfect fourth or octave. Falsetto vocals are suited for such leaps and are common in Hawaiian singing, as is the use of microtones. Rhythm is mostly in duple meter. A musical scale that is unique to Hawaiian music imbues it with its distinct feel, and so is aptly named the Hawaiian scale.
The Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 introduced Hawaiian steel guitar to mainland country music artists, and by the 1930s country stars Hoot Gibson and Jimmy Davis were making records with Hawaiian musicians.
The influx of thousands of American servicemen into Hawaii during World War 2 created a demand for both popular swing rhythm and country sounds. The western swing style, popular on the mainland since the 1930s, employed the steel guitar as a key element and was therefore a natural evolution. Beginning in 1945, the Bell Record Company of Honolulu responded to the demand with a series of releases by the western swing band Fiddling Sam and his Hawaiian Buckaroos (led by fiddler Homer H. Spivey, and including Lloyd C. Moore, Tiny Barton, Al Hittle, Calvert Duke, Tolbert E. Stinnett and Raymond "Blackie" Barnes). Between 1945 - 1950 Bell released some 40 sides by the Hawaiian Buckaroos, including a set of square dance numbers.
Modern music
In recent decades, traditional Hawaiian music has undergone a renaissance, with renewed interest from both ethnic Hawaiians and others. The islands have also produced a number of well-regarded rockRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
performers, and many local musicians in the clubs of Waikiki and Honolulu play outside the various "Hawaiian" genres. Hawaii has its own regional music industry, with several distinctive styles of recorded popular music. Hawaiian popular music is largely based on American popular music
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
, but does have distinctive retentions from traditional Hawaiian music.
Hawaiian Renaissance
The Hawaiian Renaissance was a resurgence in interest in Hawaiian music, especially slack-key, among ethnic Hawaiians. Long-standing performers like Gabby PahinuiGabby Pahinui
Charles Philip "Gabby" or "Pops" Pahinui was a slack-key guitarist.Gabby was born Charles Kapono Kahahawaii Jr. and later hānai-ed into the Pahinui family as Charles Philip Pahinui and raised in the Kaka'ako area of Honolulu in the 1920s...
found their careers revitalized; Pahinui, who had begun recording in 1947, finally reached mainstream audiences across the United States when sessions on which Ry Cooder
Ry Cooder
Ryland Peter "Ry" Cooder is an American guitarist, singer and composer. He is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in roots music from the United States, and, more recently, his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.His solo work has been eclectic, encompassing...
played with him and his family were released as The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1 on a major mainland label. Pahinui inspired a legion of followers who played a mix of slack-key, reggae, country, rock and other styles. The more traditional players included Leland "Atta" Isaacs, Sr.
Leland Isaacs Sr.
Leland "Atta" Isaacs, Sr. was a Hawaiian slack-key composer known for his C major Tuning , and for his work with Gabby Pahinui.-External links:* http://www.dancingcat.com/skbook1-history.php...
, Sonny Chillingworth
Sonny Chillingworth
Edwin Bradfield Liloa Chillingworth, Jr., known as Sonny Chillingworth, was an American guitarist. Widely influential in Hawaiian music, he played slack-key guitar and is widely regarded as one of the most influential slack key guitarists in history.-Life:Chillingworth was born in Oahu in Hawaii,...
, Ray Kane
Ray Kane
Raymond Kaleoalohapoinaʻoleohelemanu Kāne , was one of Hawaii's acknowledged masters of the slack-key guitar. Born in Koloa, Kauaʻi, he grew up in Nanakuli on Oʻahu's Waiʻanae Coast where his stepfather worked as a fisherman....
, Leonard Kwan
Leonard Kwan
Leonard Kwan was one of the most influential Hawaiian slack-key guitarists to emerge in the period immediately preceding the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s. He made the first LP of slack key instrumentals, co-wrote the second slack key instruction book, and composed a number of pieces...
, Ledward Ka`apana, Dennis Pavao
Dennis Pavao
Dennis Pavao , was one of several Hawaiian musicians who, during the 1970s, led a Hawaiian music renaissance, reviving Hawaiian music, especially "ka leo ki'eki'e," or Hawaiian falsetto singing. Along with his cousins, Ledward and Nedward Kaapana, Pavao started the group Hui Ohana. Hui Ohana...
, while Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music.-Family:...
and Peter Moon
Peter Moon (musician)
Peter Moon is a ʻukulele and guitar player.-Career:Peter Moon was born on the island of Oʻahu to Wook and Shay-Yung Moon. From the late 1950s through the 1960s, he gained musical inspiration, insight, and knowledge; playing as a Maile Serenader with Gabby "Pops" Pahinui in the 1960s. Later, in...
have been more eclectic in their approach. The Emerson brothers rekindled the classic sound of Sol Ho'opi'i with the National steel guitar on their vintage 1920s stylings. George Kanahele
George Kanahele
George Hueu Sanford Kanahele was a native Hawaiian activist, historian and author.-Life:George Hueu Sanford Kanahele was born October 17, 1930 in Kahuku on the island of Oahu of Hawaii....
's Hawaiian Music Foundation did much to spread slack-key and other forms of Hawaiian music, especially after a major 1972 concert.
Don Ho
Don Ho
Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.-Life and career:Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako, but he grew up in Kāneohe on the windward side of the island of Oahu...
(1930–2007), originally from the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kaka'ako, was the most widely known Hawaiian entertainer of the last decades of the 20th century. Although he did not play "traditional" Hawaiian music, Ho became an unofficial ambassador of Hawaiian culture throughout the world as well as on the American mainland. Ho's style often combined traditional Hawaiian elements and older 1950s and 1960s-style crooner music with an easy listening touch.
Loyal Garner
Loyal Garner
Loyal Garner was an Hawaiian musician and de facto leader of the Hawaiian singing group Local Divas. Her hits included "Shave Ice" from the album Island Feelings and "Blind Man in the Bleachers" from her eponymous debut.-Death:Nicknamed the "Lady of Love", Loyal E...
also embraced Hawaiian elements in her Vegas-style lounge act and in the songs she recorded. A third notable performer, Myra English
Myra English
Myra English was a popular performer and celebrity in Hawaii, USA, known as "The Champagne Lady" of Hawaiian music. In 1968, she zoomed to the top of the local record chart with her hit, Drinking Champagne...
, became known as the "Champagne Lady" after recording the song "Drinking Champagne" by Bill Mack
Bill Mack
Bill Mack is one of the most recognizable voices in country music radio. For many years, Mack was best known as the host of The Country Roads Show, the overnight country music show on WBAP, a clear channel station in Fort Worth...
in 1963 became her signature song in Hawaii, and she achieved considerable commercial success both locally and abroad.
Jawaiian'
Jawaiian is a Hawaiian style of reggaeReggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
music. Reggae music is a genre that evolved in the late 1960s and early in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. has become popular across the world, especially among ethnic groups and races that have been historically oppressed, such as Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, Pacific Islanders, and Australian Aborigines. In Hawaii, ethnic Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
and others in the state began playing a mixture of reggae and local music in the early 1980s, although it was not until the late 1980s that it became recognized as a new genre in local music. The band Simplisity has been credited by Quiet Storm Records as originators of the Jawaiian style. By the end of the 1980s, Jawaiian came to dominate the local music scene, as well as spawning a backlash that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin was a daily newspaper based in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii...
compared to the "disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
sucks" movement of the late 1970s.
Reggae culture as a whole began to dominate Hawaii, as many locals can be seen sporting Bob Marley memorabilia, and lots of local merchandise and souvenirs have been emblazoned with the red, yellow, and green colors of the Ethiopian flag, a known symbol of the Rastafari movement
Rastafari movement
The Rastafari movement or Rasta is a new religious movement that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, which at the time was a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black descendants of slaves. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia , as God...
. The Rasta colors have also become a symbol of local pride.
Jazz
Musicians- Some notable current and retired jazz musicians in Hawaii include Gabe Baltazar (saxophone), Henry Allen (guitar), Adam Baron (drums), Vic Castellini (Drums), David Choy (saxophone), Rich Crandall (piano), Dan Del Negro (keyboards), Pierre Grill (piano/keyboards/trombone), Bruce Hamada (bass), DeShannon Higa (trumpet), Jim Howard (piano), Steve Jones (bass), John Kolivas (bass), Ryan Kunimura (saxophone), Noel Okimoto (drums/percussion/vibes), Michael Paulo (reeds), Rene Paulo (acoustic grand piano)was a forerunner of recording Hawaiian music in the jazz venue in the early 1960s and is one of Hawaii's legendary music greats, Robert Shinoda (guitar), Arex Ikehara (bass), Phil Bennett (drums), Aron Nelson (piano), Tennyson Stephens (piano), Betty Loo Taylor (piano), Tim Tsukiyama (saxophone) and Abe Lagrimas Jr. (drums/ukulele/vibes).
Henry Allen (virtuoso on all three instruments) had left Hawaii in the early 1950s to go L.A. and work with Richard Kauhi and Alec Keack, who left the islands to pursue a career on the mainland as they were far ahead of their time back here in Honolulu. Henry moved to Maui in 1971 thus establishing himself in all the show rooms in the hotels and produced many jazz concerts over the years with the likes of Shorty Rodgers, Bud Shank, Lonne Smith, Gary Grant, Jay Leno Horns,(Chuck Findley, Ralph Moore, Slyde Richard Hyde) Gabe Baltazar and a series for Lana'i, called Jazz Under the Stars, of which the famous Howard Rumsey of the Hermosa Beach Light House fame was a part. Henry is not only a jazz guitarist, but Master artist of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar for which he is world-renowned, and recognised by the state and governor as such.www.henrykallen.com, guitarmaui@aol.com Henry is currently as of July 29, 2008, producing jazz CDs and is author of two published books on music, "Learning to play the Hawaiian Steel Guitar" and Ukulele, Pila Li'i Li'i. Henry is now considered one of Hawaii's "Living Treasures".
Among the greats on the local jazz scene who have since passed on are Richard Kauhi, Ernie Washington, Paul Madison and Trummy Young. Kauhi was born in Hawaii, the others settled in Hawaii after successful careers on the US mainland.
Notable jazz vocalists in Hawaii, both current and retired include Jimmy Borges, Rachel Gonzales, Azure McCall, Joy Woode and I. Mihana Souza. Although Hawaiian vocalist Melveen Leed
Melveen Leed
Melveen Leed is an American singer. After winning the title of "Miss Molokai" she begin singing in the mid-1960s and has released a number of records in the genres of Hawaiian, Country, and Jazz music....
is known primarily for singing Hawaiian and "Hawaiian country" music, she has also earned good reviews as a jazz singer.
The most visible jazz group in Hawaii as of November 2007 was the Honolulu Jazz Quartet consisting of Baron (drums), Del Negro (keys), Kolivas (bass) and Tsukiyama (sax).
There are frequent performances by the two University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
jazz bands.
Locales
- Regular venues to hear jazz in Honolulu include:
- Ward Rafters http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=3810+Maunaloa+Ave,+HOnolulu,+hi&ll=21.276458,-157.798176&spn=0.015116,0.042057&t=h&om=1, a residential home in Kaimuki (3810 Maunaloa Ave.) converted into an indoor stage with performances every Sunday afternoon
- The Honolulu Club http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=+932+Ward+Ave,+Honolulu,+Hawaii&ll=21.302509,-157.85079&spn=0.007557,0.021029&t=h&om=1: Robert Shinoda's rotating group is featured here. In the 1990s this group played regularly at the Music Union building.
- Jazz Minds http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=1661+Kapiolani+Blvd.+Honolulu,+Hawaii&ll=21.292133,-157.838259&spn=0.007557,0.021029&t=h&om=1: DeShannon Higa's gr00ve.imProV.arTiSts plays here, as well as other groups. Higa also formerly appeared regularly at the Music Union building in the late 1990s.
- 39 Hotel http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=39+N+Hotel+St,+Honolulu,+HI+96817&ll=21.311575,-157.862839&spn=0.007556,0.021029&t=h&om=1: Regular location of the Newjass Quartet.
Links
Ukulele
The ukuleleUkulele
The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....
was introduced to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
by the Portuguese immigrants near the close of the 19th century. The Portuguese brought small guitar-like instruments with them. These small guitars are called the cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
. The instrument became a very popular one in Hawaiian culture, and a majority of Hawaiian songs involve the ukulele. In Hawaiian, ukulele literally means "flea (uku) jumping (lele)." It was named as such because when plucked, the high pitch of the strings brings to mind the image of a jumping flea. There are currently four sizes of ukulele; soprano, concert, tenor and baritone.
Queen Liliuokalani, the last Hawaiian Queen, believed that the name for the ukulele means "The gift that came here". She believed this because of the Hawaiian words "uku" which means "gift or reward" and "lele" which means "to come."
The ukulele can be played with simple strums to elaborate strums and what is called "picking," which is the act of picking the strings to make single sounds. There are multiple ukulele makers. The most popular ukulele maker is Kamaka Ukuleles, Inc.
Well known ukulele recording artists include Eddie Bush, Peter Moon, Benny Chong, Kelly "Kelly Boy" DeLima, Troy Fernandez, Canadian virtuoso James Hill, Raiatea Helm, Daniel Ho
Daniel Ho
Daniel Ho has won five Grammy awards, playing the guitar, 'ukulele and piano, and is a songwriter and producer specializing in Hawaiian music.-Early life:...
, slack key guitarist Ledward Kaapana, Jesse Kalima, Eddie Kamae
Eddie Kamae
Eddie Kamae is one of the founding members of Sons of Hawaii. He is a 'ukulele virtuoso, singer, composer, film producer and primary proponent of theHawaiian Cultural Renaissance.-Biography:...
, David Kamakahi, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Israel "IZ" Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole was a Hawaiian musician.He became famous outside Hawaii when his album Facing Future was released in 1993...
, Moe Keale, Ken Emerson, Bob Brozman, Pat Cockett, David Heaukulani http://www.ukulele-uncle.com, Kirby Keough, Gordon Mark, Herb "Ohta-san" Ohta, Herb Ohta Jr., Brittni Paiva, Lyle Ritz, Bruce Shimabukuro, Jake Shimabukuro
Jake Shimabukuro
Jake Shimabukuro is an ukulele virtuoso known for his complex finger work. His music combines elements of jazz and rock.- History :...
, Bill Tapia, Byron Yasui, Abe Lagrimas Jr., and Uluwehi Guerrero.
The ukulele is mostly recognized as being Hawaiian, even though it is originally based on the Portuguese cavaquinho
Cavaquinho
The cavaquinho is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings. It is also called machimbo, machim, machete , manchete or marchete, braguinha or braguinho, or cavaco.The most common tuning is D-G-B-D ; other tunings include D-A-B-E...
.
‘Ūkēkē
The UkekeUkeke
The ūkēkē is a musical bow made of koa wood, 16 to 24 inches long and about 1½ inches wide with two or three strings fastened through and around either end, tuned to an A major triad. Prior to the introduction of steel strings, gut or sennit were used.The strings were strummed with one hand...
is a Hawaiian musical bow played with the mouth. It's the only stringed instrument indigenous to Hawaii.
'Ohe hano ihu
The 'Ohe hano ihu which means "Bamboo, Breath, Nose" in Hawaiian, or Nose Flute in English, is another type of Hawaiian instrument that has cultural and musical importance. It is made from a single bamboo node with a hole at the node area for the breath and three holes for the notes on the top side of the tube. It was often used in conjunction with chants and songs. The Hawaiians believe that the nose is pure and innocent unlike the mouth which can say many things. So the breath entering and exiting the 'ohe hano ihu is much purer than the mouth. In old times men would use the 'ohe hano ihu as a way to win the affection and love of a fellow woman.Other
The music that is considered popular or "underground" in Hawaii does not necessarily correspond to similar genres in mainland areas of the U.S.A. This is partly a result of Hawaiian music, which appeals to many generations over. Whereas music like heavy metal or punk rock appeals primarily to a more youthful generation, and is not considered as commercially attractive to tourism. Na mele paleoleoNa mele paleoleo
Nā mele paleoleo is a contemporary form of Hawaiian music that cuts and mixes American hip hop with Hawaiian rapping. Known as a form of Hawaiian performance poetry, spoken-word performers of na mele paleoleo are gaining popularity due to rap and hip-hop influences....
is an emerging form of Hawaiian rap.
It is difficult to promote popular acts from the mainland due to its geographical isolation, and the smaller group of people interested in the music.
Links
External links
- Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts (HARA) home of the Na Hoku Awards.
- Live Ukulele: A collection of contemporary and traditional hawaiian songs and tabs.
- Hapa Haole Songs, Island songs written in English
- North Shore Radio Hawaii Stream Hawaiian Music Station
- Territorial Airwaves - Your Source For The History of Hawaiian Music
- Hawaii Music Awards The "People's Choice" awards.
- Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame
- Huapala, Hawaiian Music and Hula Archives
- Taro Patch, An internet and international Slack Key community
- Island Song Lyrics at us.archive.org