The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles, ranging from native

Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Hawaii's musical contributions to the music

of the United States are out of proportion to the state's small size. Styles like slack-key guitar are

well-known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of

Hollywood soundtracks. Hawaiii also made a major contribution to country music with the introduction of the steel

guitar.Traditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people have inhabited

the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in

nature, and includes chanting and dance music. Hawaiian music has had an enormous impact on the music of other

Polynesian islands; indeed, music author Peter Manuel called the influence of Hawaiian music a "unifying factor in the

development of modern Pacific musics".

Music festivals and venues

Major music festivals in Hawaii include the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, which brings together

hula groups from across the world, as well as a number of slack-key and steel guitar festivals:

Big Island Slack Key Guitar Festival, Steel Guitar

Association Festival and the Gabby Pahinui/Atta Isaacs Slack Key Festival. April's Aloha Week

is a popular tourist attraction, as is the Moloka'i Music Festival held around Labor Day.

There is also a Hawaii International Jazz Festival,

which was founded in 1993, and holds festivals on Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai.

Hawaii is home to numerous hotels, many of which feature music in the afternoon or evening;

some of the more prominent ones include the Kahala Hilton, the

Sheraton Moana Hotel, the Sheraton Waikiki, the Halekulani, Casanova's and the King Kamehameha Hotel.

Large music venues in Hawaii include the University Theater, which has 600 seats and is the largest venue

on the Big Island. The largest venue and cultural exhibition center on Kauai is the Kauai Community College Performing

Arts Center. The Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena is the largest venue in Honolulu and among the largest

in the state -- other venues for Hawaiian music on Oahu include the Waikiki Shell in Kapiolani Park in Waikiki,

Kennedy Theatre and Andrews Amphitheatre on

the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Blaisdell Center Concert Hall,

the Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, the Red Elephant (a performance space and recording studio

in downtown Honolulu), Paliku Theatre on the campus of Windward Community College and the

Leeward Community College Theatre. The historic Lanai Theatre is a

cultural landmark on Lanai, dating back to the 1930s.

Music institutions and industry Hawaii is home to a number of renowned music institutions in several fields.

The Honolulu Symphony Orchestra is an important part of the state's musical history, and is

the oldest orchestra in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains, founded in 1900[citation needed]. The Orchestra

has collaborated with other local institutions, like the Hawaii Opera Theatre and the

Oahu Choral Society's Honolulu Symphony Chorus, which operates the Hawaii

International Choral Festival. Folk music Hawaiian folk music includes several varieties of chanting (mele)

and music meant for highly-ritualized dance (hula). Traditional Hawaiian music and dance was functional,

used to express praise, communicate genealogy and mythology and accompany games, festivals

and other secular events. The Hawaiian language has no word that translates precisely as music,

but a diverse vocabulary exists to describe rhythms, instruments, styles and

elements of voice production. Hawaiian folk music is simple in melody and rhythm, but is "complex and rich"

in the "poetry, accompanying mimetic dance (hula), and subtleties of vocal styles... even in the

attenuated forms in which they survive today". Hula performance at a ceremony turning over U.S. Navy

control over the island of Kahoolawe to the state.

The chant (mele) is typically accompanied by an ipu heke (a double gourd and/or pahu (sharkskin covered drum).

Somedances require dancers to utilize hula implements such as an ipu (single gourd,

ili ili (waterworn lava stonecastanets),uli uli (feathered gourd rattles), pu li (split bamboo sticks)

or kala au (rhythm sticks). The older, formal kind ofhula is called kahiko, while the modern version is auana.

There are also religious chants called oli; when accompanied by

dancing and drums, it is called mele hula pahu.

In the pre-contact Hawaiian language, the word mele referred to any kind of poetic expression,

though it now translates assong. The two kinds of Hawaiian chanting were mele oli and mele hula.

The first were a cappella individual songs, while

the latter were accompanied dance music performed by a group. The chanters were known as

haku mele and were highly-trained composers and performers. Some kinds of chants

express emotions like angst and affection, or request a favor from

another person. Other chants are for specific purposes like naming, (mele inoa), prayer (mele pule),

surfing (mele he'e nalu)and genealogical recitations (mele koihonua). Mele chants were governed by strict rules,

and were performed in a numberof styles include the rapid kepakepa

and the enunciate koihonua.

Music history

Ernie Cruz Jr.

Historical documentation of Hawaiian music does not extend prior to the late 18th century,

when haoles (non-Hawaiians)arrived on the island. From 1778 onward, Hawaii began

a period of acculturation with the introduction of numerous styles

of European music, including the hymns (himeni) introduced by Protestant missionary choirs.

Spanish-speaking Mexicancowboys (paniolos), were particularly influential immigrants in the

field of music, introducing string instruments such as the

guitar and possibly also the technique of falsetto singing, while Portuguese immigrants brought

the ukulele-like braguinha.

Elizabeth Tatar divided Hawaiian music history into seven periods, beginning with

the initial arrival of Europeans and their

musical cultures, spanning approximately from 1820 to 1872. The subsequent period lasted to the

beginning of the 20thcentury, and was marked by the creation of an acculturated yet characteristically

Hawaiian modern style, while European

instruments spread across the islands. Tatar's third period, from 1900 to about 1915, saw

the integration of Hawaiian music

into the broader field of American popular music, with the invention of hapa haole songs,

which use the English languageand only superficial elements of Hawaiian music; the beginning of

the Hawaiian recording industry was in 1906, when the

Victor Talking Machine Company made the first 53 recordings in the state.

By 1912, recorded Hawaiian music had found

an audience on the American mainland. From 1915 to 1930, mainstream audiences outside of Hawaii

became increasinglyenamored of Hawaiian music, though by this time the songs marketed as Hawaiian

had only tangential relations to actualHawaiian music. Tahitian and Samoan music had an influence

on Hawaiian music during this period, especially in their

swifter and more intricate rhythms. The following era, from about 1930 to 1960, has been called

the "Golden Age ofHawaiian music", when popular styles were adapted for orchestras and big bands,

and Hawaiian performers like LaniMacIntire and Sol Hoopii became mainstream stars.

In the 1960s, Hawaiian-style music declined in popularity amid an

influx of rock, soul and pop acts from the American mainland. This trend reversed itself in the

final period of Hawaiianmusic history, the modern period beginning with the Hawaiian Renaissance

in the 1970s and continuing with thefoundation of a variety of modern music scenes in fields like indie rock,

Hawaiian hip hop and Jawaiian.

Queen Lili'uokalani was the last Queen of Hawaii before the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown.

She was also a musicianand composer, best known as the composer of "Aloha 'Oe".

Though she arranged the music for "Aloha 'Oe", and wrote the

lyrics, she appropriated the tune from a Croatian folk song called "Sidi Mara na kamen studencu".

Lili'uokalani was one of many members of the Hawaiian royal family with musical inclinations.

They studied under aPrussian military bandleader, Henry Berger, who was sent by the Kaiser

at the request of Kamehameha V. Berger becamefascinated by Hawaiian folk music, and wrote

much documentation on it. However, he also brought his own musical

background in German music, and heavily guided the Hawaiian musicians and composers

he worked with. As a result, thetraditional Hawaiian music that he documented was a hybrid of native

and German styles, brought both by Berger and Lutheran missionaries.

Makana website

Guitar innovations

Guitars could have come to Hawaii from several sources: sailors, missionaries, or travelers to and from

California. The mostfrequently-told story is that it accompanied the Mexican cowboys

(vaqueros) brought by King Kamehameha III in 1832 in

order to teach the natives how to control an overpopulation of cattle. The Hawaiian cowboys (paniolo)

used guitars in theirtraditional folk music. The Portuguese introduced an instrument called

the braguinha, a small, four-stringed Madeira variant

of the cavaquinho; this instrument was a precursor to the `ukulele.

Steel-string guitars also arrived with the Portuguese in the 1860s and slack-key had spread across

the chain by the late1880s. A ship called the Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on August 23, 1879,

bringing Portuguese field workers from Madeira. Legend has it that one of the men,

João Fernandes, later a popular musician, tried to impress the Hawaiians by

playing folk music with a friend's braguinha; it is also said that the Hawaiians called the instrumen

t `ukulele (jumping flea)in reference to the man's swift fingers. Others have claimed the word means

gift that came here or a corruption of ukeke lele

(dancing ukeke, a three-string bow).

Late 19th and early 20th century

In the 1880s and 90s, King David Kalakaua promoted Hawaiian culture and also encouraged

the addition of newinstruments, such as the ukulele and possibly steel guitar; Kalakaua died

in 1891, and so it is highly unlikely he would haveheard it . Kalakaua's successor, his sister

Lili'uokalani, was also a prolific composer and wrote several songs, like "Aloha 'Oe", which remain popular.

During thisperiod, Hawaiian music evolved into a "new distinctive" style, using the derivatives

of European instruments; aside from thewidespread string instruments, brass bands like the

Royal Hawaiian Band performed Hawaiian songs as well as popular

marches and ragtimes. In about 1889, Joseph Kekuku began sliding a piece of steel across the strings

of a guitar, thusinventing steel guitar (kila kila); at about the same time, traditional Hawaiian music

with English lyrics became popular —this was called hapa haole. Vocals predominated in Hawaiian music

until the 20th century, when instrumentation took a

lead role. Much of modern slack-key guitar has become entirely instrumental.

From about 1895 to 1915, Hawaiian music dance bands became in demand more and more.

These were typically stringquintets. Ragtime music influenced the music, and English words were

commonly used in the lyrics. This type of Hawaiianmusic, influenced by popular music and with lyrics being

a combination of English and Hawaiian (or wholly English), is

called hapa haole (literally: half white) music. In 1903, Albert "Sonny" Cunha composed

My Waikiki Mermaid, arguably

the first popular hapa haole song (The earliest known hapa haole song, "Eating of the Poi",

was published in Ka Buke o naLeo Mele Hawaii...o na Home Hawaii in Honolulu in 1888.

In 1927, Rose Moe (1908 - 1999), a Hawaiian singer, with her husband

Tau Moe (1908 - 2004), a Samoan guitarist, began

touring with Madame Riviere's Hawaiians. In 1929 they recorded eight songs in Tokyo. Rose

and Tau continued touring for over fifty years, living in countries such as Germany, Lebanon and India.

They even performed in Germany as late as1938 when the Nazi raciscm was on the rise and people

of a darker color were regarded as inferior people; it is said that

they even performed an event for Adolf Hitler himself. With their children, the Tau Moe family did much to

spread the sound of Hawaiian folk music and hapa haole music throughout the world.

In 1988, the Tau Moe family re-recorded the 1929 sessions with the help of musician and

ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman.The 1920s also saw the development of a uniquely Hawaiian style of jazz,

innovated by performers at the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels.

Slack-key guitar (ki ho`alu in Hawaiian) is a fingerpicked playing style, named for the fact that the

strings are most often"slacked" or loosened to create an open (unfingered) chord, either a major chord

(G or C, sometimes D) or a major 7th.

(The latter are called "wahine" tunings.) A tuning might be invented to play a particular song or facilitate

a particular effect,and as late as the 1960s they were often treated as family secrets and

passed from generation to generation. By the time ofthe Hawaiian Renaissance, though, the example

of players such as Auntie Alice Namakelua, Leonard Kwan, Raymond

Kane, and Keola Beamer had encouraged the sharing of the tunings and techniques and probably

saved the style fromextinction. Playing techniques include "hammering-on", "pulling-off", "chimes"

(harmonics), and "slides," and these effects

frequently mimic the falsettos and vocal breaks common in Hawaiian singing.

The guitar entered Hawaiian culture from a number of directions—sailors, settlers, contract workers.

One important sourceof the style was Mexican cowboys hired to work on the Big Island of Hawai'i

in the first half of the 19th century. These paniolo brought their guitars and their music, and when they left,

the Hawaiians developed their own style of playing the instrument.

Slack key guitar evolved to accompany the rhythms of Hawaiian dancing and the melodies of

Hawaiian chant. Hawaiianmusic in general, which was promoted under the reign of King David Kalakaua

as a matter of national pride and cultural

revival, drew rhythms from traditional Hawaiian beats and European military marches, and drew its melodies

from Christianhymns and the cosmopolitan peoples of the islands (although principally American).

In the early 20th century Hawaiians began touring the United States, often in small bands.

A Broadway show called Bird ofParadise introduced Hawaiian music to many Americans in 1912

and the Panama Pacific Exhibition in San Franciscofollowed in 1915; one year later, Hawaiian music sold

more recordings than any other style in the country. The increasing popularization of Hawaiian music

influenced blues and country musicians; this connection can still be heard in modern

country. In reverse, musicians like Bennie Nawahi began incorporating jazz into his steel guitar,

ukulele and mandolinmusic, while the Kalama Quartet introduced a style of group falsetto singing.

The musician Sol Ho'opii arose during this

time, playing both Hawaiian music and jazz, Western swing and country, and developing the

pedal steel guitar; hisrecordings helped establish the Nashville sound of popular country music.

Lani McIntyre was another musician who

infused a Hawaiian guitar sound into mainstream American popular music through his recordings

with Jimmie Rodgers andBing Crosby.In the 1920s and 30s, Hawaiian music became an integral part

of local tourism, with most hotels and attractions incorporating music in one form or another.

Among the earliest and most popular musical attractions was the

Kodak Hula Show, sponsored by Kodak, in which a tourist purchased Kodak film and took photographs

of dancers and musicians.The show ran from 1937 through 2002. In the first half of the 20th century,

the mostly-young men who hungaround the Honolulu beaches, swimming and surfing,

came to be known as the Waikiki Beachboys and their parties

became famous across Hawaii and abroad; most of them played the ukulele all day long, sitting on the beach

and eventuallybegan working for hotels to entertain tourists.

Popular Hawaiian music with English verse (hapa haole) can be described in a narrow sense.

Generally, songs are sung tothe ukulele or steel guitar. A steel string guitar sometimes accompanies.

Melodies often feature an intervallic leap, such as aperfect fourth or octave. Falsetto vocals are suited for

such leaps and are common in Hawaiian singing, as is the use of

microtones. Rhythm is mostly in duple meter. A musical scale that is unique to Hawaiian music imbues it with its distinct

feel, and so is aptly named the Hawaiian scale.

Hapa website

Modern music

In recent decades, traditional Hawaiian music has undergone a renaissance, with renewed interest

from both ethnicHawaiians and others. The islands have also produced a number of well-regarded

rock, pop, hip hop, soul and reggaeperformers, and many local musicians in the clubs of Waikiki

and Honolulu play outside the various "Hawaiian" genres.

Hawaii has its own regional music industry, with several distinctive styles of recorded popular music.

Hawaiian popular music is largely based on American popular music, but does have distinctive retentions

from traditional Hawaiian music.

The Hawaiian Renaissance was a resurgence in interest in Hawaiian music, especially slack-key,

among ethnic Hawaiians.Long-standing performers like Gabby Pahinui found their careers revitalized;

Pahinui, who had begun recording in 1947,

finally reached mainstream audiences across the United States when sessions on which Ry Cooder played

with him and hisfamily were released as The Gabby Pahinui Hawaiian Band, Vol. 1 on a major mainland

label. Pahinui inspired a legion offollowers who played a mix of slack-key, reggae, country, rock and other styles.

The more traditional players included

Leland "Atta" Isaacs, Sr., Sonny Chillingworth, Ray Kane, Leonard Kwan, Ledward Ka`apana,

Dennis Pavao, whileKeola Beamer and Peter Moon have been more eclectic in their approach.

The Emerson brothers rekindled the classic sound

of Sol Ho'opi'i with the National steel guitar on their vintage 1920's stylings.

George Kanahele's Hawaiian Music

Foundation did much to spread slack-key and other forms of Hawaiian music, especially after a major 1972 concert.

Don Ho (1930-2007), originally from the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kaka'ako,

was the most widely knownHawaiian entertainer of the last decades of the 20th century.

Although he did not play "traditional" Hawaiian music, Ho

became an unofficial ambassador of Hawaiian culture throughout the world as well as on the American mainland.

Ho's styleoften combined traditional Hawaiian elements and older 1950s and 1960s-style crooner music

with an easy listening touch.

Loyal Garner also embraced Hawaiian elements in her Vegas-style lounge act and in the songs she recorded.

A third notable performer, Myra English, became known as the "Champagne Lady" after recording the

song "DrinkingChampagne" by Bill Mack in 1963 became her signature song in Hawaii, and she

achieved considerable commercialsuccess both locally and abroad.

Jawaiian

Jawaiian is a Hawaiian style of reggae music, a genre that evolved in the late 1960s and early 70s in Jamaica.

Reggae hasbecome popular across the world, especially among ethnic groups and races that

have been historically oppressed, such asNative Americans, Pacific Islanders, Maori, and

Australian Aborigines. In Hawaii, ethnic Hawaiians and others in the state

began playing a mixture of reggae and local music in the early 1980s, although it was not until the late

1980s that it becamerecognized as a new genre in local music. By the end of that decade, it had come to

dominate the local music scene, as wellas spawning a backlash that the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

compared to the "disco sucks" movement of the late 1970s.

Reggae culture as a whole began to dominate Hawaii, as many locals can be seen sporting Bob Marley memorabilia,

andlots of merchandise has been emblazoned with red, yellow, and green, which are the colors of the

Ethiopian flag, a knownsymbol of Rastafarianism

Musicians

Some notable current jazz musicians in Hawaii include Gabe Baltazar (saxophone), Adam Baron (drums),

David Choy(saxophone), Rich Crandall (piano), Dan Del Negro (keyboards), Pierre Grill

(piano/keyboards/trombone), Bruce Hamada(bass), DeShannon Higa (trumpet), Jim Howard (piano),

Steve Jones (bass), John Kolivas (bass), Ryan Kunimura(saxophone), Noel Okimoto (drums/percussion/vibes),

Michael Paulo (reeds), Rene Paulo (acoustic grand piano) RobertShinoda (guitar), Tennyson

Stephens (piano), Betty Loo Taylor (piano), Tim Tsukiyama (saxophone) and Abe Lagrimas Jr.

(drums/ukulele/vibes). Among the greats on the local jazz scene who have since passed on

are Richard Kauhi, Ernie Washington, Paul Madison

and Trummy Young. Kauhi was born in Hawaii, the others settled in Hawaii after successful

careers on the US mainland.Notable jazz vocalists in Hawaii include Jimmy Borges, Rachel Gonzales,

Azure McCall and I. Mihana Souza. Although

Hawaiian vocalist Melveen Leed is known primarily for singing Hawaiian and "Hawaiian country"

music, she has alsoearned good reviews as a jazz singer.

The most visible jazz group in Hawaii as of November 2007 was the Honolulu Jazz Quartet consisting

of Baron (drums),Del Negro (keys), Kolivas (bass) and Tsukiyama (sax).

There are frequent performances by the two University of Hawaii jazz bands.

Jake Shimabukuro website

Ukulele

Well known ukulele recording artists include the late Eddie Bush, Benny Chong, Kelly "Kelly Boy" DeLima,

TroyFernandez, Canadian virtuoso James Hill, Raiatea Helm, Daniel Ho, slack key guitarist Ledward Kaapana,

the late JesseKalima, Eddie Kamae, David Kamakahi, the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, the late Moe Keale,

Ken Emerson, Bob Brozman, Pat Cockett, Kirby Keough, Gordon Mark, Herb "Ohta-san" Ohta,

Herb Ohta Jr., Brittni Paiva, Lyle Ritz, Bruce

Shimabukuro, Jake Shimabukuro, Bill Tapia, Byron Yasui, Abe Lagrimas Jr., and Uluwehi Guerrero.