MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF ANCIENT HAWAII

Abstract

HAWAIIAN music-what do these words bring to your mind? Probably a picture of flowered-shirted natives sitting around, strumming ukuleles or to the gliding tones of the steel guitar. The melodies themselves have an appealing charm, a certain melancholy that catches at the throat, and a peculiar novelty that gives them a character all their own. Who can hear the wistful strains of Aloha Oe without feeling the sweet sorrow of parting? This is the music that is generally accepted as genuine Hawaiian song. But, to be truthful, Song of the Islands is no more real Hawaiian music than Old Black Joe is real African Negro music. In the first place, previous to the coming of the missionaries, the Hawaiians did no singing, in the ordinary sense of the word. There was not even a word for singing in the Hawaiian language. The modern Hawaiian term himeni comes from the English word hymn. The rendition of hymns by the missionaries gave the Hawaiians their first idea of melody. A few salty chanties picked up from sailors off the whaling vessels added a nice touch of variety. Then, in 1879, four Portuguese immigrants, who in the old country had been in the business of making musical instruments, decided to try their hand at it in From Portugal they brought a viola, a rajao, and a braga. These stringed instruments seemed to suit progressive Hawaiian needs exactly, and quickly became renamed guitar, taro-patch fiddle, and ukulele, respectively. The stage was still not quite set for My Little Grass Shack in Kealakaku, Hawaii. Hawaiians were still using their fingers for stopping the strings on the guitar. It remained for a Hawaiian schoolboy to make the most significant contribution of Hawaii to music, the introduction of an entirely new technique in the method of playing stringed instruments. It was about the year 1894, that Joseph Kekuku, a student of the Kamehmeha School for Boys in Honolulu, had his brilliant idea. He, like many other boys in the school, was very fond of strumming a guitar, particularly when he