Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 36

Granting, then, as we must, the accuracy of Captain King's statement, the conclusion to which the author of this paper feels forced is that since the time of the learned doctor's visit to these sh.o.r.es, more than one hundred and twenty-eight years ago, the art and practice of singing or cantillating after the old fas.h.i.+on has declined among the Hawaiians. The hula of the old times, in spite of all the efforts to [Page 153] maintain it, is becoming more and more difficult of procurement every day. Almost none of the singing that one hears at the so-called hula performances gotten up for the delectation of sightseers is Hawaiian music of the old sort.

It belongs rather to the second or third rattoon-crop, which, has sprung up under the influence of foreign stimuli. Take the published hula songs, such as "_Tomitomi_," "_Wahine Poupou_" and a dozen others that might be mentioned, to say nothing about the words--the music is no more related to the genuine Hawaiian article of the old times than is "ragtime"

to a Gregorian chant.

The bare score of a hula song, stripped of all embellishments and reduced by the logic of our musical science to the merest skeleton of notes, certainly makes a poor showing and gives but a feeble notion of the song itself--its rhythm, its mult.i.tudinous grace-notes, its weird tone-color. The notes given below offer such a skeletal presentation of a song which the author heard cantillated by a skilled hula-master.

They were taken down at the author's request by Capt. H.

Berger, conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Band:

IV--Song from the Hula Pa'i-umauma Arranged by H. BERGER [Music]

The same comment may be made on the specimen next to be given as on the previous one: there is an entire omission of the trills and flourishes with which the singer garlanded his scaffolding of song, and which testified of his adhesion to the fas.h.i.+on of his ancestors, the fas.h.i.+on according to which songs have been sung, prayers recited, brave deeds celebrated since the time when Kane and Pele and the other G.o.ds dipped paddle for the first time into Hawaiian waters.

Unfortunately, in this as in the previous piece and as in the one next to be given, the singer escaped the author before he was able to catch the words.

V--Song from the Hula Pa-ipu Arranged by H. BERGER [Music]

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Here, again, is a piece of song that to the author's ear bears much the same resemblance to the original that an oiled ocean in calm would bear to the same ocean when stirred by a breeze. The fine dimples which gave the ocean its diamond-flash have been wiped out.

VI--Song for the Hula Pele Arranged by H. BERGER [Music]

Is it our ear that is at fault? Is it not rather our science of musical notation, in not reproducing the fractions of steps, the enharmonics that are native to the note-carving ear of the Chinaman, and that are perhaps essential to the perfect scoring of an oli or mele as sung by a Hawaiian?

None of the ill.u.s.trations thus far given have caught that fluctuating trilling movement of the voice which most musicians interviewed on the subject declare to be impossible of representation, while some flout the a.s.sertion that it represents a change of pitch. One is reminded by this of a remark made by Pietro Mascagni:[309]

[Footnote 309: The Evolution of Music from the Italian Standpoint, _in_ the Century Library of Music, XVI, 521.]

"The feeling that a people displays in its character, its habits, its nature, and thus creates an overprivileged type of music, may be apprehended by a foreign spirit which has become accustomed to the usages and expressions common from that particular people. But popular music, [being] void of any scientific basis, will always remain incomprehensible to the foreigner who seeks to study it technically."

When we consider that the Chinese find pleasure in musical performances on instruments that divide the scale into intervals less than half a step, and that the Arabian musical scale included quarter-steps, we shall be obliged to admit that this statement of Mascagni is not merely a fling at our musical science.

Here are introduced the words and notes of a musical recitation done after the manner of the hula by a Hawaiian professional and his wife. Acquaintance with the Hawaiian language and a feeling for the allusions connoted in the text of the song would, of course, be a great aid in enabling one to enter into the spirit of the performance. As these [Page 155] adjuncts will, be available to only a very few of those who will read these words, in the beginning are given the words of the oli with which he prefaced the song, with a translation of the same, and then the mele which formed the bulk of the song, also with a translation, together with such notes and comments as are necessary to bring one into intellectual and sympathetic relation with the performance, so far as that is possible under the circ.u.mstances. It is especially necessary to familiarize the imagination with the language, meaning, and atmosphere of a mele, because the Hawaiian approached song from the side of the poet and elocutionist. Further discussion of this point must, however, be deferred to another division of the subject:

_He Oli_

Halau[310] Ha.n.a.lei i ka nini a ka ua; k.u.mano[311] ke po'o-wai a ka liko;[312]

Naha ka opi-wai[313] a a Wai-aloha; O ke kahi koe a hiki i Wai-oli.[314]

Ua ike 'a.

[Translation]

_A Song_

Ha.n.a.lei is a hall for the dance in the pouring rain; The stream-head is turned from its bed of fresh green; Broken the dam that pent the water of love-- Naught now to hinder its rush to the vale of delight.

You've seen it.

[Footnote 310: _Halau_. The rainy valley of Ha.n.a.lei, on Kauai, is here compared to a halau, a dance-hall, apparently because the rain-columns seem to draw together and inclose the valley within walls, while the dark foreshortened vault of heaven covers it as with a roof.]

[Footnote 311: _k.u.mano_. A water-source, or, as here, perhaps, a sort of dam or loose stone wall that was run out into a stream for the purpose of diverting a portion of it into a new channel.]

[Footnote 312: _Liko_. A bud; fresh verdure; a word much used in modern Hawaiian poetry.]

[Footnote 313: _Opiwai_. A watershed. In Hawaii a knife-edged ridge as narrow as the back of a horse will often decide the course of a stream, turning its direction from one to the other side of the island.]

[Footnote 314: _Waioli_ (_wai_, water; _oli_, joyful). The name given to a part of the valley of Ha.n.a.lei, also the name of a river.]

The mele to which the above oli was a prelude is as follows:

_Mele_

Noluna ka hale kai, e ka ma'a-lewa, Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-Lehua.

Noi au i ke kai e mali'o.

Ane ku a'e la he lehua ilaila-- 5 Hopoe Lehua ki'eki'e.

Maka'u ka Lehua i ke kanaka, Lilo ilalo e hele ai, ilalo, e.

Keaau iliili nehe; olelo ke kai o Puna I ka ulu hala la, e, kaiko'o Puna.

10 Ia hoone'ene'e ia pili mai kaua, E ke hoa, ke waiho e mai la oe; Eia ka mea ino, he anu, e.

Aohe anu e!

Me he mea la iwaho kaua, e ke hoa, 15 Me he wai la ko kaua ili, e.

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VII--_Oli and Mele from the Hula Ala'a-papa_ _Oli--A prelude_ Arranged by Mrs. YARNDLEY [Music:]

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[Music: (_4 times r._)]

[Translation]

_Song from the Hula Ala'a-papa_

From mountain-retreat and root-woven ladder Mine eye looks down on G.o.ddess Moana-Lehua.

Then I pray to the Sea, be thou calm; Would there might stand on thy sh.o.r.e a lehua-- 5 Lehua tree tall of Hopoe.

The Lehua is fearful of man, Leaves him to walk on the ground below, To walk on the ground far below.

The pebbles at Keaau grind in the surf; 10 The sea at Keaau shouts to Puna's palms, "Fierce is the sea of Puna."

Move hither, snug close, companion mine; You lie so aloof over there.

Oh what a bad fellow is Cold!

15 Not cold, do you say?

It's as if we were out in the wold, Our bodies so clammy and chill, friend.

EXPLANATORY REMARKS

The acute or stress accent is placed over syllables that take the accent in ordinary speech.

A word or syllable italicized indicates drum-down-beat.

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