Aloha mai kakou. In this video I like to talk about music of Hawaii, specifically the importance of Mele and Mele'oli. So this is the overview of my presentation.
The first is to recap of Hawaiian history and then we'll talk about what is Mele and what is Mele'oli. And lastly we'll go over some important native Hawaiian musical instruments and localize the musical instruments. Okay, so let's begin with the big picture, the history that shaped Hawaiian music.
The first people to arrive in Hawaii were Polynesians, bringing their own culture, language, and tradition. 1778. Captain James Cook arrived the island of Kauai. He named the island Sandwich Island in honor of his patron, the fourth Earl of Sandwich. By 1810, King Kamehameha I, who is from the Big Island, united all the major islands, forming the Kingdom of Hawaii.
About a decade after unification, American Protestant missionaries arrived. So this is important for music history. They taught Hawaiians how to read and write and also use western musical notation, introducing choral singing and hymns. In 1830, Queen Ka'ahumanu, a favorite wife of Kamehameha I, who had converted to Christianity, she banned public performances of hula in accordance with Christian values.
The overthrow of Hawaiian kingdom in 1893 and subsequent annexation led to significant political and cultural changes, including efforts to suppress the hula and Hawaiian language. In the early to mid 20th century, these suppressive policies continued, but by the 1960s and 1970s, A cultural renaissance sparked renewed pride in Hawaiian language, Mele and Hula. So what is Mele?
Well, Mele means song and poetry. Before written language, Hawaiians depend on oral traditions. Mele played a central role in preserving history, genealogies, myth. honoring a li'i and celebrating love and places. Mele have many different themes.
It can be serious, it can be sacred, it could be genealogical, place-based or romantic. Many mele have a different metaphor or kauna which means a hidden meaning. Sometimes only the composer truly knows the hidden message of that particular mele. Logogenic. I wonder if my picture is blocking this.
I'm gonna put it over here now. Logogenic, the term means word-driven. In Hawaiian music, the text or lyrics are most important.
Without words, there is no mele. That's the chant. And without the words, there is no hula.
So I have some music examples to play for you today. So first of all, mele can be divided into two categories. One is mele-oli, the other is mele-hula.
So today we're only focusing on mele-oli. Oli is a chant that is performed without any musical instruments and there's no dances either. Mele Hula on the other hand is usually accompanied by musical instruments and has dances. So I would like to play a music example of Mele Oli for you. Once you listen, feel free to pause the video and reflect what you've noticed about his timbre.
Texture, pitch, and rhythm. Things that we learned about last week. Okay, so here it is. Uvahine ita ua ulale nai, aiki hai puaka makahalai.
Noho anaina okel anui, ka anaina pua veu veu ilani uri. Ua huri hewa kuahine, ua moe hewa ike kavelu. Okay, so this is my analysis of the characteristics of this particular example. In terms of timbre, this was a male, chanted by a male chanter.
There was no musical instruments used. You can notice the chanter uses a lot of natural voice and deep vibrato. In terms of texture, remember texture is about different lines of melody.
So this one there was only one melody so it is considered a monophonic. In terms of pitch, it is very narrow range. Mostly syllabic with just a few number of pitches. It has a lot of sustaining pitches or tones. A note can hold for a long, for a few beats at a time.
Yeah, sustaining tone. In terms of rhythm, it is very much speech-like. There isn't a specific meter or pause. There was no...
significant dynamic changes. So this is an example of how to use what we have learned from week 2 and analyze a music example. Next, I would like to go over some musical instruments.
So for musical instruments, There are two types of instruments. One is native Hawaiian musical instruments. And then there's another group called localized instruments. That means that they come from elsewhere and later were brought to Hawaii and then localized. So these are native Hawaiian musical instruments.
I'm going to talk about them one by one so you have a chance to look at them again. So these are called, this instrument is called a pahu, pahu drum. So the base of a pahu drum is made of hollowed out section of a coconut tree trunk or a ulu tree trunk. So on the top left corner, that's a bright fruit. Yeah, ulu is a bright fruit tree.
And traditionally, the membrane is made of shark skin. Pahu is considered a sacred instrument only to use to accompany sacred hula. So the next instrument is called the ipu, if it's one-gourd, or ipu-heke, if it's double-gourd.
It has a small number of rhythmic patterns and often used by the kumu hula, who is the teacher. Both pahu and ipu hake are used by the teacher or the kumu. This is a picture of what ipu look like. It is also the name of the plant. This instrument is called puniyo.
It is made of a small coconut shell. It is usually used by hula dancers. It is a knee drum.
So it's tied on the knees of hula dancers, often played by, struck by an object. So in the picture, you see these little ropes here. So you would use, the hula dancer would use the rope to struck the membrane. The membrane is made traditionally, again traditionally, is made by calla fish, calla fish skin. A very large kala fish it has to be.
And kala fish is also known as unicorn fish. These are two musical instruments. One is the Ohihanuihu.
This is a nose flute. To play the nose flute, you have to cover one nostril and then breathe gently using the other nostril. This is how to play a nose flute.
The nose flute is made of bamboo. Another instrument made of bamboo is called Puili. It's a split bamboo rattles. So you will play the puili by gently play against one another.
It's like a rattle. Also used by hula dancers. These are called iili-ili and uli-uli.
So iili-ili are handheld pad bowls played like a cassonets. And on the picture on the right is uli-uli. which is a handheld feather rattles. The feathers are chicken feathers, made of chicken feathers.
And there are small seeds in the little gourd shaker on the bottom, so as the hula dancers help them and shake them, they will create a really gentle sound. There are also localized musical instruments. These again are instruments that were brought to Hawaii.
and now become very popular. So I'm going to talk about three different instruments. One is the ukulele on the left, sledge-key guitar, and lastly steel guitar.
Ukulele came with the Portuguese immigrants in 1878. Even though it's such an iconic musical instrument, people tend to associate ukulele to Hawaiian music, but it was actually a localized instrument. it was brought by Portuguese immigrants. It has four strings and it's much smaller than a guitar because it's a much smaller instrument it has a narrower range compared with a guitar.
Oftentimes ukulele can provide harmony and rhythmic support for the main melody although some virtuoso may use ukulele to play the melody as well, in addition to playing harmony and rhythm. This is a slag key guitar. It looks just like a regular guitar.
It was introduced by Mexican cowboys who came to Hawaii to teach Hawaiians how to raise cattle. Hawaiian style guitar playing emerged in the early 90s. 1950s basically by loosening the strings to create a different tuning to the standard guitar tuning.
Sometimes these loosened strings, these new tuning are kept as a family secret. Something really unique about slide key guitar is that you can play melody while also maintaining a rhythmic bass so you can do a lot more. Traditionally, a slide key guitar would accompany a vocalist, either is the musician himself or someone else. This is the older style. Although more common now, you will see slide key guitar played as a solo instrument or played in a contemporary ensemble setting.
So the last one is steel guitar. This is if we're using Horbasto and Sachs classification system, steel guitar will categorize as electrophon because it uses electricity. So something really unique is that the left hand, you will use a steel bar to slide over the strings to create this voice, a voice-like sound.
And meanwhile, you'll... right hand will be plucking the strings. Often times, a steel guitar will alternate with a singer.
Say the singer will sing the first verse and the steel guitar will be the voice to sing the second verse because its ability to connect the notes so smoothly unlike a pluck string instrument like a guitar. So some takeaways and reflections. I want you to think about how have historical events shaped Hawaiian music over time?
And why are Mele and Mele'oli key to preserving Hawaiian identity? So these are some questions for you to think about. And I also have optional activity for you to do. Is that find, try find a Mele that describe.
or reference the place where you live in Hawaii. So say if you live in Waikiki or Diamond Head or Kaimuki, so try to find a Mele that talks about that place. And listen to it and read the translation if you have to and explore what it reveals about that place, its history, whether it's natural features like rain, the wind, and some cultural significance.
and see what you can learn from the Mele about your home. Thank you so much for listening. A hui hou!