Na Mele Hawaii: A Rediscovery of Hawaiian Vocal Music

Product Description

It’s an artistic legacy that looks and sounds nothing like a stereotype. Highlighting Victorian parlor songs, missionary hymns and paniolo (cowboy) tunes, and the imprisonment of the last Hawaiian Queen Lili’uokalani, composer of the beloved and timeless Aloha ‘Oe, this exploration of Hawaii s rich cultural history is as revealing and breathtaking as the valleys and gardens of the Islands themselves. Featured in the soundtrack of the HBO limited series, The White Lotus.

Review

One may wonder in what sense this recording constitutes the promised “rediscovery” of Hawaiian vocal music when there are many recordings of Hawaiian song available, but rest assured, this is indeed something new and different, or old and different. The Rose Ensemble, based not in Hawaii but in St. Paul, MN, uncovers a range of music that will be unfamiliar to most listeners, probably even in Hawaii.

The temporal range runs from the 1830s to about the 1910s, just before the Hawaiian craze made the music of the islands internationally popular. Many kinds of music appeared in Hawaii over this long span of time, and the disc samples several of them, not all of which are covered in the rather dense booklet. Sacred and secular music are mixed together but do not clash, and most of the pieces of both kinds are accompanied by a ukulele. All of the music is in the Hawaiian language, and English translations are provided.

Generally the music falls into four categories, two of which are denoted by the name Himeni, or hymn. The first and earliest group consists of the first music written in Hawaiian by missionaries, in the early 1830s. The booklet aptly describes these as chilling in some respects. They did not have music of their own but were sung to existing New England hymn tunes, some of the proper Lowell Mason sort — Mason’s own Missionary Hymn is here, translated into Hawaiian (track 23). Others, however, are sung to music resembling the earlier New England style of William Billings and his contemporaries. Both patterns show up in the first hymns with music written in Hawaii, in the 1840s, and these seem to have, to a greater or lesser degree, the melodic traits now thought of as Hawaiian. There are also pieces called Mele Hula, or Hula Songs; these get short shrift in the booklet but appear to consist of traditional chants, accompanied by percussion. Finally there is the Mele Hawai’i, or Hawaiian song, influenced by American music but with many Hawaiian practitioners, most prominently Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani. It was she who composed the heartbreaking song of farewell and loss that became the most familiar of all Hawaiian pieces, Aloha Oe, very nicely performed here by vocal soloists Heather Cogswell and Kim Sueoka.

But the real virtue here is that this famed song is put into a very powerful context by other pieces that merge traditional themes, both Hawaiian and Christian, with sorrow over the American takeover of Hawaii. You will never hear Aloha Oe quite the same way again after hearing Ke Aloha a ka Haku (The Queen’s Prayer, track 27), written by Lili’uokalani from her prison cell in 1895, and the earlier and later works all have stories to tell as well. Very highly recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in Hawaii, regional American music, or issues of colonialism in general. –AllMusic

The Rose Ensemble is a classical vocal group based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota. By their own definition, they focus on vocal music that explores history, world cultures and various forms of spirituality. They have put their voices to Hawaiian music on their eighth album, with a mix of hula chants, familiar himeni (hymn tunes), and songs by composers such as Charles E. King and Queen Lili’uokalani.

This group has done their homework and beyond. Not only are the vocal performances spot-on beautiful (and beautifully recorded), but the lyrics are enclosed, properly spelled and punctuated, and accurately annotated. A detailed history of music in the Hawaiian Islands runs onto seven pages of the CD booklet, and the information contained within is both scholarly and fascinating.

There are 29 selections on the album, ranging from solo chanting to various sized subgroups of the main eleven-voice ensemble. On some pieces, they are accompanied by ipu, ipuheke, ukulele, guitar, piano and/or string bass. The full page of credits and thanks makes mention of many notable experts who provided assistance, particularly kumu hula Dr. Amy Ku’uleialoha Stillman. The group also spent research time on Kaua’i, the home island of their prominent soprano soloist, Kim Suoeka (from the same family that owns the grocery store in Koloa). –Northwest Hawai’i Times

All 29 selections are 19th Century, and many of them are hymns. There are four or five chants, which I hate. The only chants I like are Gregorian and Anglican. This sounds almost as stupid and stupefying as American Indian chants.

But how beautiful the music is! Hymns were introduced by missionaries in 1820, and the Hawaiians really took to them. The style of our hymnody suited them perfectly, and they adapted the tunes to suit their language. You will recognize a number of English and American hymn tunes from the 18th and 19th centuries. For example, you can t miss “From Iceland’s Icy Mountains” by Lowell Mason, which was quoted by Charles Ives later on, and “I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord.”

There are also a number of songs by Queen Liliuokalani, including the one everyone knows, Aloha Oe , published in 1884. This pure singing of it will amaze you it s gorgeous. The queen was a talented song composer. “Sweet Lei Mamo” may be the most beautiful item here. It is sung by Mark Dietrich, who accompanies himself on the ukulele. It s just perfect the instrument is ideal, and the baritone voice sounds very Hawaiian to me like native singers I have heard in Hawaii. Anyone I play this for is almost in tears by the end.

I guess the Rose Ensemble is branching out! Whoever expected this from an early-music group? But it s very beautiful music, and what little of it is heard is in trashy arrangements, so the Rose Ensemble has done something noble in rescuing this music and letting it be heard by real music lovers like us. Yes, it s all 19th Century in sensibility it may remind you sometimes of Stephen Foster but it s still very Hawaiian; whatever the source, they made it their own. –American Record Guide