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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 07/18/2007 : 05:36:16 AM
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I was reading a very interesting book, Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost Gods by William Westervelt. At the end of the book there was an appendix that explained various and sundry topics such as the Hawaiian language. hula and meles.
I am certain this excerpt was written from a haole perspective. Please, any of you with direct knowledge of the subject matter, can you please let me know how accurate this information is?
Mahalo,
Wanda
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From the Appendix, Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost Gods by William D. Westervelt, Mutual Publishing, 1998, Honolulu, Hawai`i
MELES
“The history of Hawai`i can be traced only through the ancient meles, poems without rhyme or metre, but strictly accented, often several hundred lines in length, handed down orally from one generation to another. The mele included all forms of poetical composition intended for chanting. They are usually divided into four groups, as the religious changes, prayers and prophecies; the inoas, or name songs composed at birth of a chief recounting heroic deeds of his ancestors; the kanikaus, or dirges for the dead; the ipos, or love songs – All the modern songs are love songs. –
The cadencing consisted of a prolonged trilling or fluctuating movement called i`i, in which the voice went up and down in an interval less than a half-tone. This was used extensively in the oli (a songful expression of joy, or a humorous narrative), which was even more lyric than the mele.
HULA
The modern hula is not the hula of ancient time. The hula combined pantomime, poetry, music and the dance. It was enacted in honor of the goddess Laka and furnished entertainment for the chiefs and their retinues. It included the mysteries of Polynesian mythology and the history of the nation. It was given by trained and paid performers, as it was a difficult accomplishment and required long and rigid training in both song and dance.
Hulas varied in dignity and rank, and the character was influenced by the musical instruments used, which were as follows: the ipu, a drum made of two large pear-shaped gourds of unequal size, joined together at the smaller ends, in which a hole was made to increase the resonance; the pahu, a drum made of coconut wood and covered with shark skin on its upper end, originally used in the heiaus and on rare occasions in the halau; the puniu used with the pahu, a small drum made from a coconut shell and fish skin, which was strapped to the thigh and played with a thong of braided fibres; the uli`uli, a small gourd filled with seeds; the puili, bamboo sticks splintered into fine divisions at one end and given a rustling sound like the wind; the laau, two pieces of resonant wood; the ili`ili, two pebbles used like castanets; the ukeke, something like a jew’s harp – the strings being plucked with ribs of grass; the conch shell or trumpet; the pua, a small gourd; and the ohe, or nose flute.
The `ukulele, a small guitar having only four strings, now used, was introduced in the time of Kalakaua and is modern. It affords, however, an effective accompaniment for the deep, rich quality of the Hawaiian voices.
The halau was a flat-topped open structure covered usually with coconut leaves specially erected for the performance of the hula and to which leis and awa were brought as emblems of light-heartedness and joy. In every halau there was a bower of green leaves which were supposed to be the abode of the presiding deity. The devotees of the hula worshipped many gods, but the goddess Laka was the patron to whom special prayers and offerings were made,”
Excerpt from an article by Helen G. Cadwell – Thrums Annual, 1916
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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