STATEHOOD IN HAWAII: REMEMBERING 1959 |
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The Hawaiian lyrics, with one English translation of them, are:
Kaulana nā pua aʻo Hawaiʻi
Kūpaʻa mahope o ka ʻāina
Hiki mai ka ʻelele o ka loko ʻino
Palapala ʻānunu me ka pākahaFamous are the children of Hawaiʻi
Ever loyal to the land
When the evil-hearted messenger comes
With his greedy document of extortionPane mai Hawaiʻi moku o Keawe
Kōkua nā Hono aʻo Piʻilani
Kākoʻo mai Kauaʻi o Mano
Paʻapū me ke one KākuhihewaHawaiʻi, land of Keawe answers
The bays of Piʻilani help
Kauaʻi of Mano lends support
All are united by the sands of KākuhihewaʻAʻole aʻe kau i ka pūlima
Maluna o ka pepa o ka ʻenemi
Hoʻohui ʻāina kūʻai hewa
I ka pono sivila aʻo ke kanakaDo not fix a signature
To the paper of the enemy
With its sin of annexation
And sale of the civil rights of the peopleʻAʻole mākou aʻe minamina
I ka puʻukālā a ke aupuni
Ua lawa mākou i ka pōhaku
I ka ʻai kamahaʻo o ka ʻāinaWe do not value
The government's hills of money
We are satisfied with the rocks
The wondrous food of the landMahope mākou o Liliʻulani
A loaʻa e ka pono o ka ʻāina
[alternate stanza:
A kau hou ʻia e ke kalaunu]
Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana
Ka poʻe i aloha i ka ʻāinaWe support Liliʻuokalani
Who has won the rights of the land
[alternate stanza:
She will be crowned again]
The story is told
Of the people who love the land
Replies
Students needs to be given an opportunity to 'own' their voice and read and understand the turn of events of what people felt deeply in their hearts. The sacrifices that they made on the job and walked off! Those are the true warriors. I still can remember Henry Bergers daughter who was my teacher at Kailua High School. Too young to have an opionion at that time. She would share her stories about her father and the loyalty of the Queen and her land to her students.
I am posting this piece because of our limu at the shoreline are turning into patches of realestates. Will post more on this subject.
Mahalo for reading this citation and forming ones own voice.
AMY KU ULEIALOHA STILLMAN
"Aloha Aina": New Perspectives on
"Kaulana Na Pua"
IN SEPTEMBER 1997, I had the pleasure of spending a day sifting
through the collection of Hawaiian sheet music in the Performing
Arts Division at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. While it
was not my first visit, it turned out to be a particularly fortuitous one.
Initially, I was there to check some things I had found on earlier visits.
One particularly major resource I requested could not be located
by the library staff member retrieving paging requests that morning.
I requested that they search again, but again, the item was not found.
After a lunch break, when another librarian had come to the desk, I
asked that the item be searched yet again. When again the request
came back unfilled, I began to plead desperation to the librarian at
the desk about why it was so important (to me) to see this particular
item, and surely it must be merely misshelved. This librarian was more
accommodating than the person on the morning desk shift; she
picked up the telephone and phoned the pager downstairs in the
stacks. After several minutes of conversation, she told the pager "why
don't you just bring up the entire box and we'll have a look up here."
I tell this story at some length, because this experience sensitized
me to the vicissitudes of historical research when researchers are separated
from resources by restricted systems of access such as closed
shelving. Having worked up to that time only with the division's old
card catalog, I had learned that imagination was required to hunt for
Amy K. Stillman is associate professor of music at the University of Michigan and author
of Sacred Hula: The Historical Hula Ala'apapa (1998).
The Hawaiian Journal of History, vol. 33 (1999)
83
84 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
widely scattered entries filed by composer's name. What I did not
know was that all of the loose pieces of Hawaiian sheet music (as
opposed to published songbooks) were stored in multiple file folders
in one box. When patrons request a song by title, the pager locates
the specific piece of sheet music inside the box and brings only that
piece up to the reading room. Without knowing that there was a box
to hunt through, my previous forays into the library's holdings were
limited by what I could locate, virtually at random, in the card catalog.
Moments later, the box arrived in the reading room. When the
librarian saw the expression of curiosity written all over my face, she
kindly suggested I take the entire box to a seat at one of the front
tables reserved for users of rare materials (where staff can keep a
close watch on users).
Within minutes, two things became apparent. First of all, the item
that I requested three times was in the box, but misfiled at the very
bottom rather than where the pager expected to find it, second from
the top. Second, I learned that the sheet music in the box was filed
alphabetically by composer's last name, so someone searching for
songs had to know the composer under whose name the song was
cataloged.1
I happily turned over leaves of sheet music like a child in a candy
store. Because this collection resulted from submissions for copyright
registration, there was an unusually large amount of very early
Hawaiian sheet music published in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
And halfway through the box, in the fifth file folder, I came upon the
focus of this article: an unassuming sheet titled simply "Aloha Aina
(song)," published by Armstrong and Bacon, and sold at Model
Music Store, at 735 Market St. in San Francisco. I turned the page
and read the opening lines: "Kaulana na pua o Hawaii, kupaa mahope
o ka aina. . . . " The notice at the bottom of the page read "Copyrighted
1895, by j . s. LIBORNIO." What I had happened upon was
original published sheet music for the nationalist mele Idhui song
known in the present as "Kaulana Na Pua." For historical interest as
well as illustration purposes, the sheet music is reproduced with this
article (Fig. 1).
There are many things to be learned from this particular piece of
sheet music. Some insights relate to the history of the song itself.
FIG. I. Published sheet music of "Aloha Aina" ("Kaulana Na Pua") found in the collections
of the Library of Congress.
86 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
Other insights entail revisions in what we can know about Hawaiian
music in the late 1800s. Still other insights lead to caveats for those
who would undertake historical research.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF THE SONG
The song "Kaulana Na Pua" is highly revered in the Hawaiian community
in the 1990s. It is understood to be a song protesting the 1893
overthrow of the monarchy. Its composition is credited to Ellen
Kekoaohiwaikalani Wright Prendergast, a close friend of Queen Lili-
'uokalani, and the song was sung by members of the royal band then
known as the "Royal Hawaiian Military Band."2 A history of the song
was chronicled in detail in the 1993 article "Kaulana Na Pua: A Voice
for Sovereignty" by Eleanor C. Nordyke and Martha H. Noyes, who
canvassed published literature for references to the song and interviewed
several musicians as well as a granddaughter of Ellen Prendergast.
3 The history they presented was one based on recollection in
the absence of resources from the 1890s. The emergence of the
sheet music published in 1895 casts new light on the song's lyrics and
its tune. The sheet music also problematizes matters of authorship.
Regarding the song's lyrics, Nordyke and Noyes point to an 1895
printing of the lyrics of the song under the title "Mele Aloha Aina
(Ai-Pohaku)" in a collection of nationalist mele Idhui songs titled Buke
Mele Lahui. While an earlier article had brought about awareness of
that collection,4 subsequent research has established that many of
the songs in that book were collected from earlier printings in at least
six different pro-royalist Hawaiian-language newspapers—Hawaii
Holomua, Ka Lei Momi, Ka Leo 0 Ka Lahui, Ka Makaainana, Ko Hawaii
Pae Aina, and Nupepa Ka OiaioP
The "Mele Aloha Aina" song first appeared in Hawaii Holomua on
March 25, 1893, under the title "He Inoa No Na Keiki O Ka Bana
Lahui" (A Namesong for the Children of the National Band). The
lyrics were reprinted by popular demand in the newspaper Ka Leo 0
Ka Lahui on May 10, 1893, under the title "He Lei No Ka Poe Aloha
Aina" (A Wreath for the Aloha Aina People), with a different order
of lines in the third and fourth stanzas, and followed two days later
by a corrected version, along with the following explanation:
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON "KAULANA NA PUA" 87
Mamuli o ka nui o na noi ia makou e hoopuka hou ia aku ke mele o
ka poe Aloha Aina, ke hooko ia aku nei ko oukou makemake; a o keia
ana ke kope pololei loa o keia Mele i loaa mai ka Lede nana i haku keia
mele.
(In view of the large amount of requests to us to republish the song of
the Aloha Aina people, your desires are now fulfilled; this is the correct
copy of this song, obtained from the lady by whom this song was
composed.)
The published sheet music provides new insights into the melody
of this song.
In the 1895 sheet music, the text that is set under the music follows
the order of text printed on March 25,1893, in Hawaii Holomua.
The corrected May 12 version is the one that is edited and translated
in the most authoritative and widely consulted source in the present,
Na Mele 0 Hawai'i Nei: 101 Hawaiian Songs by Samuel H. Elbert and
Noelani Mahoe.6
Regarding the song's tune, the 1895 sheet music contains the
exact melody known and sung in the present. This puts to rest earlier
musings that demonstrate the perils of relying solely on oral history.
This is not to say that oral history is unreliable; rather, it demonstrates
vividly that oral history reflects beliefs and conceptualizations at the
time of telling that serve to explain and make sense of things. Such
explanations are put together with whatever resources are available,
and the explanations are narratives that connect those available
resources in comprehensible ways.
Through a series of interviews, Nordyke and Noyes documented
an oral history of the song's melody as recalled in 1993:
The melody that Mrs. Prendergast composed in 1893 was never written
for publication, and several versions may have been sung. . . .
According to Lorna Prendergast-Dunne, granddaughter of Mrs. Prendergast,
the original notation for the music was lost.
After World War II . . . Eleanor Prendergast carried her mother's
lyrics to the Honolulu music studio of Hawaiian musicians Mrs. Maddy
K. N. Lam and Mrs. Milla Leal Peterson Yap. "Maddy accepted the lyrics
of 'Kaulana Na Pua,' recited the words, sat down at her piano, and composed
a gentle, rhythmic, cheerful mele," said Mrs. Yap in January 1993,
88 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
recalling the visit of Ellen Prendergast's daughter to their studio in the
early 1950s [Milla Yap, personal communication].
. . . Maddy Lam completed the piece and filled out the necessary
copyright forms in the name of Ellen Prendergast. Eleanor Prendergast
was surprised that Maddy Lam's name was not listed as the composer,
but Maddy was the type of person who did not seek credit,"
explained Mrs. Yap.7
This story is corroborated by a handwritten copy of the song "Kaulana
Na Pua (Chant of the Islands)," also in the collection of Hawaiian
sheet music at Library of Congress. This handwritten copy is
located in the seventh folder of sheet music by composers whose
names fall between M and Z. It is credited as follows: "Words & Music
by Ellen Prendergast." The copyright notice at the bottom of the
page announces "Copyright 1955 by Eleanor Prendergast," and a
second line "Copyright 1961 by Aloha State Music, P. O. Box 5331,
Honolulu 14, Hawaii (ASCAP)." The sheet contains only a melody and
letter chord symbols representing the harmonization; the first stanza
of lyrics are set beneath the melody, while the second through fourth
stanzas are typed in blocks below. This particular setting was included
in a songbook titled Authentic Tunes from the Tropics and Tahiti, Book 8,
published by Criterion Music Corporation of New York. Criterion registered
a copyright in 1967 on that printing and renewed the copyright
in 1983.8 Even though authorship of words and music was credited
to her mother, Ellen Wright Prendergast, the copyright was
evidently registered in Eleanor Prendergast's name. The document
was then filed under "Prendergast" in the box of Hawaiian sheet
music at the Library of Congress.
It is apparent that no one in the 1950s knew of the 1895 sheet
music publication or its survival in the Library of Congress. Little wonder:
the 1895 sheet music was registered and filed under a different
name, using a different song title. Without seeing or knowing about
the sheet music, who was to know in 1950 or 1993 that an 1895 melody
for the song still existed? In its absence, the oral history provided
a narrative that filled in the blanks for narrator and listener alike. In
this case, there was no available or known notation of the melody of
"Kaulana Na Pua" and a recollection instead that a highly respected
musician provided a musical setting for the song decades later. Thus
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON "KAULANA NA PUA" 89
it appears instead that Maddy Lam was recalling a melody heard or
learned earlier, rather than composing a melody anew, and what she
provided to Eleanor Prendergast was a transcription of the melody,
which was then registered with the Copyright Office and subsequently
published by Criterion Music Corporation.
What of the matter of authorship? Ellen Wright Prendergast's composition
of the song is undisputed. While the first appearance of the
lyrics in Hawaii Holomua on March 25,1893, does not contain an attribution
of authorship, both printings in Ka Leo o ka Lahui on May 1 o
and May 12, 1893, credit the lyrics to "Miss Kekoaohiwaikalani, Puahaulani
Hale." This is the pen name under which Ellen Prendergast
published at least six other pro-royalist poetic compositions in newspapers
in February and March, 1893.9 The location of "Puahaulani
Hale" further substantiates the identification of "Miss Kekoaohiwaikalani"
as Prendergast; "Puahaulani Hale" is reported as a "family
song Ellen wrote for her home, which was named by King Kalakaua,
at a house warming party in 1884."10
The credit line in the May 12, 1893, printing of the lyrics for "Kaulana
Na Pua" also contains a date: February 10, 1893, barely one
month after the overthrow of the monarchy. The story of the song's
genesis, related by Prendergast's daughter Eleanor, is widely known
and retold in many sources. Prendergast received a call from a group
of "all but two members of the Royal Hawaiian Band on strike," having
refused to sign oaths of allegiance to the new government; they
declared "We will be loyal to Liliu. We will not sign the haole's paper,
but will be satisfied with all that is left to us, the stones, the mystic
food of our native land."11 The band members asked Prendergast to
compose a "song of rebellion," and she worked their sentiments into
the third and fourth stanzas of the song.
On the 1895 sheet music, the song is attributed to "J. S. Libornio."
Given the undisputed attribution of the song to Ellen Prendergast,
why does the Libornio attribution merit discussion?
Jose Libornio was a musician in the Royal Hawaiian Military Band.
When the monarchy was overthrown in 1893, members of the band—
who were considered members of the military—were required to sign
oaths of allegiance to the new government. A group of band members
quit in protest on February 1, 1893, rather than swear their allego
THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
giance. These musicians formed a second band that was named the
Hawaiian National Band; Jose Libornio, respectfully referred to in
newspaper reports as "Prof. Libornio," was its director. This royalist
band existed for several years alongside the government band, which
continued to be led by renowned bandmaster Henry Berger.12
In May and June, 1895, the Hawaiian National Band undertook a
trip to California to raise money in support of efforts to restore the
monarchy. Libornio went ahead in mid-April to make preparations;
the band members, dubbed "the stone-eating children of the National
Band" (na keiki ai pohaku O ka Bana Lahui) left Honolulu on May 8
aboard the steamer Australia.13 A series of reports on the band's activities
and their reception in California were published throughout May
and June in two pro-royalist newspapers, Ka Leo 0 Ka Lahui and Nupepa
Ka Oiaio; interestingly, the English-language (and pro-American)
newspaper Pacific Commercial Advertiser was silent on this subject. The
relevance of this trip for the topic at hand is this: the presence of
Libornio and the Hawaiian National Band in California in 1895 provides
a rationale for publication of the sheet music "Aloha Aina"
("Kaulana Na Pua") in San Francisco in that year.
What makes it even possible to consider whether or not Libornio
may have had a hand in the musical composition of the song? Two circumstances:
(1) Libornio was part of the group of band members
who broke away from the government band in 1893 and was likely
present at Prendergast's house on the 1893 afternoon when Prendergast
wrote the lyrics, and (2) Libornio, a skilled musician, was known
as a composer. Libornio was close to members of the royal family;
pencilled in the top corner of another piece of sheet music, "Mai
Poina Oe Ia'u," is the following note: "Composed by Prof. J. S. Libornio,
Director-Royal Court Orchestra for Her Majesty Queen Liliuokalani
of Hawaii."14 The back cover over the sheet music of "Aloha
Aina" lists ten other song titles as "Compositions of J. S. Libornio."
One of them, "Queen Liliuokalani March," is identified as Libornio's
composition in a report of the 1895 tour in California:
Ua mele mai la lakou i keia mele ma ka himeni maoli ana Liliuokalani
March i hakuia e Prof. Libornio, a ua nui ka hauoli o ke anaina no keia
leo mele, a ua pakolu a pa-ha ka wa i kahea ia ai lakou e mele mai i ua
mele 'la.15
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON KAULANA NA PUA gi
(They sang at this concert the native song "Liliuokalani March" composed
by Prof. Libornio; the audience was greatly entertained, and
they called three or four times for encores of this song.)
Further consideration of the question of authorship requires a
detour through copyright practice. That detour illuminates a very
important distinction between poetic and melodic composition in
nineteenth-century Hawaiian music practices that, in turn, offers
greater nuance in approaching then-prevailing practices of authorship.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON HAWAIIAN MUSIC AND
DANCE IN THE LATE 1800s
From the start of commercial sheet music publication in Hawai'i,
Hawaiian composers and publishers registered works for protection
under United States copyright law. Registration required submission
of a copy of the work to the U.S. Copyright Office, located in the
Library of Congress. After the Copyright Office processed a music
registration, it then passed the work to the Music Division for addition
to its collections.
Two provisions in the copyright law are relevant for illuminating
Hawaiian practices in the late nineteenth century. First, for musical
works, the composer of the music score is privileged over the lyricist;
lyrics are subordinated in importance as merely an accompanying
accoutrement.16 While lyrics are original works of authorship and
thus copyrightable in their own right, a musical work that is the joint
effort of a musical composer and a lyricist will be registered with the
name of the musical composer appearing first. This weighting of
music composer over lyricist extended to the Library of Congress's
cataloging system, in which musical works are filed under the name
of the musical composer (s), and lyricists could easily have gone unrecognized.
The second provision in the copyright law that helps to illuminate
Hawaiian practices is that which allows for independent registration
of "derivative works" for musical works. This means that someone
who creates a unique arrangement of a preexisting work is entitled
to register a copyright for the arrangement.17 In this way, many
92 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
arrangers registered copyrights for songs known to have been
authored by other people. In the 1890s, the name of the arranger
frequently appeared in the top right corner of the first page of music,
in the same location as—but quite often instead of—the name of the
composer. This has led to widespread perceptions of "theft"—of
someone taking songs by others and putting their own name on as
arranger; in fact, arrangers were simply exercising their right to claim
credit for the arrangement as provided by copyright law. One particularly
bald example: in the Library of Congress collection, Johnny
Noble, a prominent dance-band conductor, composer, and publisher,
copyrighted a handwritten copy of an arrangement of a song titled
"Na Pua O Hawai'i." The words and music were attributed to a Kaleiopu,
with the credit "Arranged by Johnny Noble" directly underneath;
the copyright notice at the bottom of the page reads "Copyright 1934
by Johnny Noble." The melody and lyrics are none other than "Kaulana
Na Pua"! Other examples abound. Among the earliest published
songbooks, the compilers also served as arrangers of much of the
material included therein, and they then attached their names to the
songs, as they were entitled to do under copyright practice. When
names of separate composers were not given, the arranger's name
was used to file the copyrighted score in the Copyright Office and in
the Library of Congress.
In the case of the 1895 sheet music of "Kaulana Na Pua," these two
provisions allow for at least two possibilities. The first is that J. S.
Libornio may have been the composer of the tune, limiting Ellen
Prendergast's role to composer of the poetic text. The second possibility
is that Ellen Prendergast is the composer of both the poetic text
and the tune and that J. S. Libornio had registered a copyright for
the arrangement that was published in San Francisco in 1895. If we
interpret the sheet music literally, the composer's attribution at the
beginning of the score is clear: "ByJ. S. Libornio" and not "arranged
byj. S. Libornio." This compositional claim is reinforced on the back
cover of the sheet, which lists ten song titles, "Aloho [sic] Aina-Hula"
among them, as "Compositions of J. S. Libornio." The entry in the
Copyright Office catalog reads under Title "Aloha Aina. ByJ. S. Libornio"
and under Proprietor "J. S. Libornio."18 These indications
appear to make clear Libornio's intention to claim authorship of the
song and not simply claim authorship of a derivative arrangement.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON KAULANA NA PUA 93
That Libornio may be the composer of the melody is rendered possible
by understanding a widespread practice of the late 18oos. With
poetic repertoire intended for performance as hula, the work of poets
was separated from the work of musicians and choreographers. Poets,
many of whom were members or close associates of court circles in
Honolulu, were responsible for poetic composition and also maintaining
collections of poetic texts. Available evidence has it that once
a poetic text was completed, it was then given to a choreographer or
a musician for its musical setting. Among the numerous sources that
contain poetic texts, especially for performance as hula, almost none
include musical notation, because the matter of melodic settings was
undertaken instead by performers. For example, individual members
of a set of seven or eight poetic texts composed in honor of Queen
Kapi'olani have been associated with three different melodies, performed
by three different singers recorded in the 1920s and 1930s.19
None of the nineteenth-century sources of the song texts includes any
indication of associated melodies; musical transcriptions are included
only in twentieth-century collections of repertoire collected in fieldwork
from people who were primarily performers.20 This argues that
melodic setting was the prerogative of a composer of music who was
often—though not necessarily always—the choreographer and usually
distinct from the poet. Among poets who were members of the
nobility, while many composed music for secular parlor songs known
as mele Hawai'i, Lili'uokalani appears to have been an exception in
having composed—and notated—melodies for her hula repertoire.
As a musician, J. S. Libornio possessed the skills to compose such
a melody as in "Aloha Aina." He was a leader among the defectors
who left the Royal Hawaiian Military Band. The group approached
Ellen Wright Prendergast to set their sentiments of loyalty and allegiance
to Queen Lili'uokalani into poetic expression, because Prendergast
was known as a poet. If Prendergast was primarily a poet, it is
entirely possible that she gave out the poetry to be set to a melody by
someone else—in this case, J. S. Libornio.
The possibility of having separate composers of the poetic text and
the melody does cast light on a significant difference between United
States practice, which privileges composer of the music, and Hawaiian
practice, where emphasis is placed on the composer of the poetic
text. In Hawai'i in the late nineteenth century, recognition of the poet
94 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
exceeded recognition of a composer of melody. Indeed, in much hula
practice, the same text could be set simultaneously to multiple tunes
by different composers. Yet under United States copyright practice, a
poet's authorship was subordinated to authorship of the music, and
frequently arrangers who registered copyright for their arrangements
did not even credit a lyricist. Examples of this situation are not difficult
to locate in published Hawaiian songbooks and sheet music.
It is equally possible that J. S. Libornio simply arranged the music
published in the sheet music. Among the ten songs listed on the back
cover of "Aloha Aina" is "Maui Girl Waltz," which was published as
sheet music in 1897 by Wall, Nichols in Honolulu, with the credit
"Arr. by I. Libornio."21
It is tantalizing to see included in the list of Libornio's compositions
the song "Ipo Lei Manu-Hula." This is the song that begins "He
mana'o he aloha, no ka ipo lei manu." It is widely known that the
poetic text was composed by Queen Kapi'olani for her husband King
David Kalakaua (r. 1874—1891) but that he died in San Francisco
before hearing it. While that song text was published in the newspaper
Ka Leo 0 Ka Lahui on February 2, 1891, and reprinted in the
Buke Mele Lahui of 1895, and sheet music was published in 1892
(copyrighted by the publisher, W. F. Reynolds of Honolulu), no composer's
name was ever associated with this song other than Kapi'olani's.
It is suggestive to think that Libornio, as a musician close to
members of the court, might have composed the melodies to both
"Ipo Lei Manu" and "Aloha Aina" (as well as other songs, including
those listed for sale as his compositions), but because Hawaiian practice
of the time recognized poets, it was only outside Hawai'i that
continental practice, reflecting copyright practice, brought forth
claims of the composer of the music.
Of the other titles listed as compositions of J. S. Libornio, three—
"Aloha Alii Polka," "Sweet Memories Waltz," and "Hortense Polka"—
are not extant in published songbooks or sheet music. The "Queen
Liliuokalani March" discussed above was arranged by Heinrich Berger
and published in his "Mele Hawaii" sheet music series; Berger's claim
is clearly as arranger, thus not contesting the attribution of composition
to Libornio. Two of the other songs do potentially raise questions
of attributed authorship. "A Song to Hawaii" is credited toj. D.
Redding in at least two different songbooks, Charles E. King's Book of
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON "KAULANA NA PUA" 95
Hawaiian Melodies of 1923 and Jack Ailau' s collection Buke Mele Hawaii
(n.d.); it is possible that Libornio's claim is actually as arranger. Likewise,
the song "Pua Melekule" is attributed in the Buke Mele Lahui of
1895 to "K. H.," which is identified in Charles E. King's Book of Hawaiian
Melodies of 1916 as "Katy Harvey"; again, the possibility exists that
Libornio's claim is as arranger.
It is ironic that despite the reemergence of the published sheet
music for "Kaulana Na Pua" (as it is known in the present), the question
of authorship cannot be answered definitely. In following Hawaiian
practice, Ellen Prendergast's authorship of the poetic text remains
undisputed because it is substantiated in multiple sources; and
indeed, from a Hawaiian perspective, the poetic text is by far the most
important component of a song. Less definitive is whether or not
Jose Libornio might have had a hand in the composing the tune. Yet
regardless of whether or not that question can ever be resolved, this
case offers an opportunity to reflect on the clashing of two different
systems of privileging authorship. This in turn highlights the necessity
to approach the interpretation of potentially ambiguous claims
of authorship—original vs. derivative—with greater nuance.
One other aspect of the song "Kaulana Na Pua" illustrates again
the fact that understandings about this song reflect present rather
than past times. Nordyke and Noyes quote a passage from an interview
that took place with imprisoned counterrevolutionaries in 1895,
conducted by Dr. Nathaniel B. Emerson. According to one of the
prisoners, the singing of the song on the first anniversary of the resignation
of band members, on February 1, 1894, had an incendiary
effect on those in attendance:
One who heard the band boys sing it on the anniversary of their defiance
said it had on the Hawaiians the effect of the "Marseillaise" on the
French—"exciting and exasperating." The hula ku'i business (stamping,
heel-twisting, thigh-slapping, dipping of knees, doubling of fists)
almost drowned out the words, but the fierce loyalty was written in
every shining face. Over and over they beat out the rhythm, thumping
their drums and miming their scorn of the "paper of the enemy," of
the "heap of government money."22
This account makes it clear that hula was being performed as the
song was being sung; moreover, it was the Westernized hula ku 'i with
96 THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
lower-body motifs such as heel twisting and stamping introduced in
the 1870s and 1880s that was performed to this song.23 In subsequent
decades, the song has come to have sad associations of lost sovereignty
for Hawaiians. As a result, Hawaiians had come to believe that
it was inappropriate for the hula to be performed to the song, for
doing so would detract from the aura of solemnity the song carried.
By 1970, that conception carried the force of an edict. In Na Mele 0
Hawai'i Nei: 101 Hawaiian Songs, a highly respected collection of song
lyrics with translations, the compilers wrote "The song was considered
sacred and not for dancing."24
In 1983, key participants in the production of a community-based
video docu-drama titled "The 'Aina Remains"25 intensified this conception
of sacredness surrounding "Kaulana Na Pua." The central segment
of the video is a costumed reenactment of an 1894 ceremonial
gathering in Uluhaimalama, one of Queen Lili'uokalani's gardens in
Pauoa Valley near downtown Honolulu. While the 1894 ceremony
focused on the planting of a kukui tree, during which participants
sang the song, the 1983 video omitted the song, in deference to
strongly held views of one of the participants, respected hula master
Ma'iki Aiu Lake, that the song's meaning would be lost on audiences
who did not understand its significance.26
CAVEATS FOR UNDERTAKING HISTORICAL RESEARCH
The case of the 1895 sheet music of "Aloha Aina" ("Kaulana Na Pua"),
attributed to Jose Libornio and lying for a century in obscurity in the
Library of Congress, brings to the fore a classic paradox: How are
researchers supposed to find out about resources they don't know
about? In the case of historical resources on Hawaiian music and
dance, the case of "Kaulana Na Pua" demonstrates that a researcher
has to bring together disparate pieces from many different places. It
is not sufficient to rely on published sources: while the song text was
published in a collection in 1895, its initial publication was in two
different newspapers in 1893; while it is attributed to J. S. Libornio,
interrogating the attribution requires understanding how Hawaiians
privileged poets over music composers in a way that United States
copyright practice reversed.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON "KAULANA NA PUA" 97
Of greater concern is the fact that many sources located outside
Hawai'i have yet to be fully mined, and the insights they might offer
have yet to be integrated into what we know already about resources
in Hawai'i. Sheet music collections in libraries across the continental
United States, long considered ephemera and relegated uncataloged
to cardboard cartons in dark basement corners, are finally being cataloged
and made available for consultation. It is possible that more
missing pieces relevant to Hawaiian music and dance will surface,
forcing us to revise cherished notions of stories related to us in their
absence.
Of even greater consequence is the need for persistence as well as
imagination when carrying out research in impersonal institutions. It
comes as a shock to realize that libraries and archives have many treasures
locked away; and until we figure out the questions to ask that will
unlock those treasures, we will continue to face barriers—without
even knowing that barriers stand between us and unknown treasures.
The price of not fully knowing our history is too great to be satisfied
and complacent with only what we know now.
NOTES
1 I was fortunate to have an opportunity in March 1998 to visit the Library of
Congress again, at which time I compiled an inventory of the contents of the
box of Hawaiian sheet music. Copies of the completed inventory are available
at the Hawaiian Collection at University of Hawai'i Library and also at Bishop
Museum Library in Honolulu.
2 The band had a succession of specific titles between 1836 and 1905, when it
was finally named the Royal Hawaiian Band. These names are traced in David
W. Bandy, "Bandmaster Henry Berger and the Royal Hawaiian Band," HJH 24
(1990): 69-70.
3 Eleanor C. Nordyke and Martha H. Noyes, "Kaulana Na Pua: A Voice for
Sovereignty," HJH 27 (1993): 27-42.
4 Amy K. Stillman, "History Reinterpreted in Song: The Case of the Hawaiian
Counterrevolution," HJH 23 (1989): 1-30.
5 For financial support of a project undertaken in 1993—1994 to collect song
texts in Hawaiian-language newspapers published between 1885 and 1895, I
am grateful to the University of Hawai'i Committee for the Preservation and
Study of Hawaiian Language, Art and Culture. I am also grateful to Leilani
Bashum, U'ilani Bobbitt, and Leinani Makekau, through whose efforts more
than four hundred song texts were collected. Texts in the couplet poetic for98
THE HAWAIIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
mat of hula ku'iv/ere gathered into a draft compilation, "Poetic Texts of Hula
Ku'i in Hawaiian-Language Newspapers, 1883—1895," a copy of which is on
deposit at the Hawaiian Collection in Hamilton Library, University of Hawai'i.
6 Samuel H. Elbert and Noelani Mahoe, Na Mele 0 Hawai'i Net: 101 Hawaiian
Songs (Honolulu: U of Hawai'i P, 1970,) 62-64.
7 Nordyke and Noyes, "Kaulana Na Pua" 37—38.
8 Nordyke and Noyes, "Kaulana Na Pua" 42n38.
9 "He Inoa No Liliuokalani," Hawaii Holomua Feb. 4, 1893; "He Wehi No Liliuololoku
I Ke Kapu," Hawaii Holomua Feb. 4, 1893; "He Wehi No Ka Lahui,"
Ka Leo 0 Ka Lahui Feb. 16, 1893; "He Inoa No Kalaninuiahilapalapa," Ka Leo
0 Ka Lahui March 14, 1893; "He Hooheno No Paulo Numana," Ka Leo 0 Ka
Lahui March 16, 1893; "He Inoa No Kalaninuiahilapalapa," March 21, 1893.
10 Tony Todaro, The Golden Years of Hawaiian Entertainment 1874-1974 (Honolulu:
Tony Todaro Publishing Co., 1974) 301.
11 Ethel M. Damon, Sanford Bollard Dole and His Hawaii (Palo Alto, CA: Pacific
Books, 1947) 317, cited in Nordyke and Noyes, "Kaulana Na Pua" 40.
12 Bandy, "Bandmaster Henry Berger" 70.
13 Ka Leo o Ka Lahui May 6, 1895, 3A: "I keia Poakolu ae . . . e haalele mai ana
na keiki ai pohaku o ka Bana Lahui i ko lakou aina hanau, a niau aku no ka
ipuka Gula o Kaleponi" (This coming Wednesday . . . the stone-eating children
of the National Band will depart their birthland, and sail to the Golden
Gate of California").
14 It is possible that the queen's "Royal Court Orchestra" referred in fact to the
Hawaiian National Band, made up of royalist sympathizers who defected from
the government band.
15 Ka Leo 0 Ka Lahui May 28, 1895, 2.
16 United States Copyright Act, Title 17, sec. 102.
17 United States Copyright Act, Title 17, sec. 103.
18 I am grateful to Carrie Croucher, intern at the Smithsonian Institution, and
to J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Smithsonian doctoral fellow, for checking the Copyright
Office on this matter.
19 Kaahaaina Naihe performed four texts to one melody that was transcribed by
Helen Roberts in 1923-24 but remains unpublished among Roberts's notes
(Roberts Collection of Meles, Bishop Museum Library, Honolulu, Ms. SC 2.1,
pp. 14, 17, 22, 26); Nahaleuli Nahialua performed one text to one melody that
was transcribed by Helen Roberts and published in Ancient Hawaiian Music
(Bishop Museum Bulletin No. 29, Honolulu, 1926), 249-50; James Kapihenui
Palea Kuluwaimaka performed four texts to one melody recorded in
1933 (Bishop Museum Audio Collections, 2.8.2, 2.8.15 and 2.10.4, 2.10.6 and
2.10.12, 2.10.13).
20 For documentation on sources for this set of poetic texts, see Amy K. Stillman,
"Queen Kapi'olani's Lei Chants," HJH 30 (1996): 123.
21 "Maui Girl Waltz" did not appear in the first edition of Charles Hopkins's
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON "KAULANA NA PUA" 99
Aloha Collection of Hawaiian Songs (Honolulu: Wall, Nichols, 1899), but it is
included in an expanded edition published in Boston by Oliver Ditson in 1906,
p. 88.
22 Albertine Loomis, For Whom Are The Stars? (Honolulu: U P of Hawaii, 1976) 86.
23 A movement description of hula ku 'i that includes heel-twisting and stamping
is given in Nathaniel Emerson, Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs
of the Hula, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 38 (Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1909) 250.
24 Elbert a n d Mahoe, Na Mele O Hawai'i Nei 63.
25 Produced by Clarence F. Ta. Ching (Honolulu: Aina Remains Inc., 1983), 28
min.
26 Reshela DuPuis, "Hawaiian Documentary Videos as Political Tools." In The Garland
Encyclopedia of World Music, vol. 9 Australia and the Pacific Islands, ed. Adrienne
L. Kaeppler and J. W. Love (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998) 222.
For an extended discussion of this production, see DuPuis's doctoral dissertation
"Documenting Community: Activist Videography in Hawai'i" (U of Michigan,
1997) 217-97