Re: Hawaiian Opera

Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 12:15:08 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.opera
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In article <email-address-deleted>, Mike Richter <email-address-deleted> wrote:
[quoting out of order]
> "The Queen's Songbook" has dozens of her songs, but she did *not* write
> an
> opera. Rather, there have been several operas written about her
I didn't realize that operas had been written about her. That makes one
more thing she has in common with Princess Magogo, another heiress to a
figurehead monarchy in a country where outsiders gradually took over the
government, whose true talent lay in music rather than politics.
> Lydia K.P. Kapa'ahea, later known as Queen Lili'uokalani, *was* a
> talented
> composer. Her works include "Aloha 'Oe," a kind of Hawaiian anthem.
The Queen was indeed a fine musician, and "Aloha Oe" is indeed included
among her works. She is the author of the song's lyrics, and it's likely
that she arranged the music, but the tune is not original with her.
There were several musicians in the Hawaiian royal family (in addition to
adopted son Charles E King), all of whom studied with Henry Berger, a
Prussian military bandmaster. Berger came to Hawaii when King Kamehameha V
asked the Kaiser to send someone to help set up a music program in the
islands. Berger was the officer chosen, and after his four-year term was
up, he quit the military and moved back to Hawaii where he became a honored
citizen and favorite court musician for nearly half a century.
Berger was fascinated with Hawaiian music, and took it upon himself to
document it. Like so many colonial ethnomusicologists, Berger's methodology
was terribly muddled. Not only did he insinuate his own style upon the
natives in an effort to teach them about music, or to write out their
compositions more "correctly", but he also borrowed heavily from Hawaiian
tunes in creating his own compositions. Nearly every original manuscript of
early Hawaiian music is in Berger's hand, and it's a difficult puzzle to
sort out what is his and what is someone else's.
What we think of as traditional Hawaiian music is actually a hybrid style,
combining indigenous Hawaiian music with German music -- not just any
German music, but specifically the sort that a trained military bandmaster
would bring: a certain amount of the classics, definitely, but also quite a
bit of the popular music of the time. The hybridization process had already
begun earlier in the century, with Lutheran missionaries who taught
musically inclined Hawaiians to sing their German hymn tunes. Berger merely
solidified the process.
The melody of "Aloha Oe" clearly derives from an old Croatian folk song
"Sidi Mara na kamen studencu". Exactly how this tune came to be adapted by
Liliuokalani is a topic of speculation, but the leading theory is that
Berger knew the tune from a popular 19th century Austrian song "Die Träne",
which is adapted from the same melody.
Liliuokalani is commonly credited as the composer of "Aloha Oe", but it's
very difficult to disentangle her work from Berger's. The original draft is
written in Berger's hand -- which might mean that it's her composition and
he transcribed it, or it's his music and he credited to her as a gesture,
or the two of them collaborated in some way. Berger and the Queen had a
very close relationship. They were intimate friends for most of their
lives; she was his star pupil; and some historian have suggested, quite
seriously, that earlier in their lives the two had a love affair.
Opera has an early history in Hawaii, though it was initially performed for
a haole audience only. There is documentation of a "Daughter of the
Regiment" performed there in 1854. In the fall of 1871, a touring company
produced several large-scale productions, some of which were attended by
Kamehameha V. Berger was brought to the kingdom the very next year. Berger
frequently promoted opera in his position as conductor of the Royal
Military Band.
Berger's successor was Charles E King, probably Hawaii's most renowned
composer. King was only one-quarter Hawaiian by blood, but he was the
godson of Queen Emma (Kamehameha IV's queen) and was raised on the royal
estate, where he was taught music by Liliuokalani. Some of King's
compositions are believed to be adaptations of works by Berger. King wrote
an operetta, titled "The Prince of Hawaii" in English, but written to a
Hawaiian libretto. The best-known song from the operetta is "Ke Kali Nei
Au", better known as the "Hawaiian Wedding Song".
> Lili'uokalani played the piano, organ, ukulele, guitar and zither, and
> was
> an expert in sight-reading music. She composed from age 21 to her death,
> including the time she was overthrown and imprisoned by the American
> military-missionary-business junta ruling the islands.
That junta's leader -- who deposed the Queen, served as the first and only
president of the Hawaiian republic, and ultimately secured annexation to
the United States -- was named Sanford B. Dole. A descendant of his, also
named Sanford B. Dole, is a leading classical composer in San Francisco
today.
mdl