Folk Songs Hawaii Sings. John M. Kelly, Jr

      Foreword

      The folk music of Hawaii is a living blend of the cultures of people from all over the world, particularly from lands washed by the Pacific Ocean. In addition to informal singing, there are the devoted efforts of both practiced and unpracticed performing groups that keep alive the music of Japan, Okinawa, Korea, China, the Philippines, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

      A number of institutions in Hawaii are increasingly active in the promotion and preservation of the authentic folk music of the Pacific peoples including the University of Hawaii, Bishop Museum, Kamehameha Schools, Laie Church College, and others. Japanese Bon Festival music and dancing attract many thousands of participants during the summer months. Several Ryukyuan groups can at any time assemble one or two score of skilled players of the koto (Japanese harp) for song and dance programs. Nearly every man, woman, and child of Samoan descent can perform countless dances and songs filled with the vigorous clapping and body-slapping movements of their tradition. Filipino fiestas, evenings of music and dances of Micronesia performed by Micronesian students, Hawaiian hula and song contests, and innumerable pageants, Chinese Narcissus Festivals, and the like keep Hawaii musically active throughout the year.

      Some of these traditions have had to survive great pressures. At the start of World War II many Japanese burned their drums, instruments, and other symbols of their heritage. During the nineteenth century, missionary influences were brought to bear against ancient Hawaiian chants and dances. And the desire to conform to American standards on the part of many incoming peoples, especially among the second-generation youth, tends to weaken their old-country traditions.

      Then, of course, folk songs of agrarian origin do not flourish in a modern commercial-industrial community. A rice-harvest song may seem only quaint to the modern generation when one need only slip behind the wheel, drive five minutes to the super-market and buy a bag of polished, vitamin-enriched rice for the equivalent of scarcely half an hour's work. Times have changed. Finishing the arduous work of planting and harvesting the crops by hand is what made these songs such a joy to sing in the old days.

      Topping all challenges to folk music is that of commercial radio and television, which has made the present generation an audience of non-participating onlookers. Such a condition is the mortal enemy of the "folk process."

      Despite all these obstacles, folk music still lives among all nationality groups in Hawaii, offering resources for performance, education, and entertainment. Unfortunately, only a very small number of the songs, to say nothing of the dances, have been collected, notated, and made available in English—a fact which provides sufficient excuse for the modest collection offered here.

      Folklorists hesitate to define a folk song other than to say that to be genuine it must have been orally transmitted, have variant versions, and be anonymous or at least have several claims to authorship. A few songs in this book, such as "Farewell to Thee" and "Sound of Running Feet," do not strictly fulfill all these requirements. They have been included, however, as cousins to those that do and because they are notably representative of important styles of song literature that enjoy the status of folk song.

      With apologies to purists among folk singers, justification is offered for this set of piano arrangements, all by the present writer, of folk songs originating in cultures where not only was the piano foreign but also all it represents historically in the way of harmony, counterpoint, and sonority. It is simply that the songs become accessible through a familiar medium. It is hoped that further steps will be taken to hear the songs in their native settings through LP recordings now available.

      In Western music the piano is often used to represent a voice, drum, orchestra, or chorus—and just about every other musical instrument as well—with varying degrees of effectiveness. In making the piano arrangements given here, the intention was to give songs that belong to other instruments as friendly a setting as possible for the piano, while at the same time preserving as much as possible the qualities and elements of the native settings. It is hoped the reader will understand the serious limitations involved.

      Harmony is an element of Western music not germane to the old music of Asia. Except where the songs may have been created under Western influences, the attempt has been made here to avoid diatonic chordal accompaniments. Instead, the parts for left hand, added to give sonority and depth, have generally been developed as implied by the melodic structure. In no case has a single note of the original melody been altered for the sake of the accompaniment. If a version seems different from a more familiar one, it is probably due to normal differences existing regionally and chronologically as in all folk-song literature.

      To make the collection appealing to both those with and those without piano technique, accompaniments of varying degrees of difficulty have been included.

      Western notation is not truly adequate for writing Asian melodies. Many in-between tones are heard in performance that cannot be indicated. These inflections and embellishments vary with the performer, as in all folk music, and are a basic feature of Asian music. It is as though the melody as we would notate it were a skeleton around which all performers build the real personality of the song. Notwithstanding this problem, much strength and beauty is found even in the basic outlines of the melodies, which are all that can be given in such a collection as this.