The principal island of the Hawaiian archipelago (formerly called the Sandwich Islands) in the North Pacific Ocean. Since 1959 the name has denoted the 50th state of the USA, and includes all the islands in the archipelago, of which seven are inhabited; the two main cities are Honolulu (on Oahu) and Hilo (on Hawaii). The state is well known for its cultural pluralism; the music now most widely identified as Hawaiian is a blend of simply harmonized European-style melody, Hawaiian language (or mixed Hawaiian and English) texts, and a distinctive performance style; there has also been a reawakening of interest in the styles of chant and dance attributed to the period before European contact (see Polynesia, §II, 4). The most extensively performed types of music in modern Hawaii are continental American popular music, Pan-Pacific pop and Western art music, discussed below.
Western music was introduced in 1778 with Captain James Cook’s discovery of the islands. Native Hawaiians willingly assimilated Western music; by 1816 King Kamehameha I (c1793–1819) had a band of Western instruments. In the middle years of the century musical life became more varied. The strongly European outlook of Kamehameha IV (1854–63) and Kamehameha V (1863–72) created a climate favourable to Western music that persisted among the aboriginal royalty for the rest of the century, manifested in their frequent attendance at events involving Western music and drama, and occasionally in an even more active role: Kamehameha IV acted as stage manager for a local presentation of scenes from Il trovatore and Martha in 1861, while Queen Emma sang in the chorus; likewise, Princesses Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Miriam Likelike sang in the chorus of HMS Pinafore in 1881. The Amateur Musical Society, founded in 1853, was active in presenting concerts of vocal music for 40 years. The first opera presented in the islands was Donizetti’s La fille du régiment, staged by professional singing actors in 1854. Nearly 40 operas and operettas were performed more or less complete in 19th-century Hawaii, some by local amateurs, but most by itinerant opera companies, which assumed financial risks in coming to the islands. After one of these groups, the DeFolco Opera Company, failed in 1916, opera and operetta were seldom performed until the founding of Hawaii Opera Theatre in 1960. The 1925 performance of Prince of Hawaii, an operetta by a part-Hawaiian, Charles E. King (1874–1950), an intimate of Hawaiian royalty, was an important contribution to a small body of specifically Hawaiian music dramas.
In 1872 Henry Berger (1844–1929), who had been trained in Berlin, was appointed as educator, composer, conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Military Band and director of music to the royal family, a position he held until 1915. Berger set King Kalākaua’s (1874–91) text Hawaii ponoi as the national anthem (later the state song). Royal patronage of and participation in music ended with the deposition of Queen Lili‘uokalani after her brief reign (1891–3). The opening of the Hawaiian Opera House in 1896 was the occasion for a gala performance of Il trovatore, the orchestra directed by Berger. The prima donna and stage director was Hawaii-born Annis Montague (1846–1920), who had had an international career as an opera singer; she was the daughter of early lay missionaries to Hawaii, Amos and Juliette Cooke; many of the Hawaiian royalty, including Lili‘uokalani, learned music from Juliette at the Chiefs’ Children’s School in the 1840s.
Early immigrants from Europe (especially those from the British Isles, Germany, Scandinavia and Portugal’s Madeira Islands), from Puerto Rico and from Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Okinawa and the Philippines) introduced their own musical traditions which their descendants have retained in varying degrees. More recently Vietnamese, the Lao, Pacific Islanders (especially Samoans and Tongans) and black Americans (mostly military personnel and their dependants) have added their own musics to those already represented.
Small orchestras were active during 1881–4 and 1895–1902; a more permanent group, the Honolulu Symphony Society, was founded by a group of Honolulu businessmen in 1902. Its performing contingent, the Honolulu SO, continues to perform. Initially the orchestra was composed mostly of amateurs. The most important of its early music directors was the British composer Fritz Hart (served 1931–49), who had also conducted the Melbourne SO. Under the Hungarian composer-conductor George Barati (1950–67) the Honolulu SO became fully professional; following him as directors were Robert LaMarchina (1967–78) and Donald Johanos (1979–93). Because of a wage dispute, the orchestra’s 1993–4 season was cancelled. Many professional orchestra musicians left the islands during the work stoppage; the Honolulu Symphony Society came to an agreement with the musicians late in 1994 and concerts were resumed in 1996 under the Chinese-Canadian Samuel Wong. The Honolulu Symphony Society has attempted to appeal to a broader audience base in its recent seasons.
Both the Honolulu Symphony Society and Hawaii Opera Theatre perform at the Neil Blaisdell Center Concert Hall (cap. 2107). The Opera Theatre became fully independent in 1980 and produces three operas in its annual season. The Honolulu Chamber Music Series brings nationally and internationally known chamber groups to Honolulu. A second chamber music series features three groups of Honolulu SO players: the Galliard String Quartet, the Spring Wind Quintet and Honolulu Brass. Other musical organizations are the Hawaii Youth Symphony, the Oahu Civic Orchestra, the Maui SO and its Chorus; the Royal Hawaiian Band in Honolulu and on the island of Hawaii the Hawaii County Band and West Hawaii Band. The Oahu Choral Society performs with the Honolulu SO; other choruses include the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, the Kauai Chorale and the Gleemen of Honolulu, a group which dates back to the 19th century. A recently established Hawaii International Jazz Festival is becoming an annual feature of musical life in the islands. The Hawaii Music Educators’ Association, associated with the Music Educators National Conference, is active in the state.
The most noted composer of Western art music born in the islands is Dai-Keong Lee (b 1915), of Chinese descent, who came into national prominence with orchestral works in the 1940s. Composers and teachers formerly at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa are Neil McKay (b 1924), Allen Trubitt (b 1931) and Armand Russell (b 1932). Two Japanese-American composers born in Hawaii, Byron Yasui (b 1940) and Takeo Kudo (b 1942), and the Virginia-born American Donald Womack (b 1966) teach at the university. Living in Kona is Jerré Tanner (b 1939). All these composers have written numerous instrumental and vocal works, including some that have blended Western music with elements from the musics of other cultures, especially Polynesian or Asian, found in the islands.
The University of Hawaii (founded 1907) has campuses at Hilo and Mānoa, Honolulu; the Music Department at Mānoa offers the PhD degree in ethnomusicology, musicology, composition and music education. Courses in music are also given at the University of Hawaii Hilo campus, Brigham Young University, Oahu, Chaminade University and at the community colleges.
Hawaiian Almanac and Annual (Honolulu, 1875–1924); continued as The Hawaiian Annual (Honolulu, 1925–40); continued as Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual and Standard Guide (Honolulu, 1941–7)
N.B. Emerson: Unwritten Literature of Hawaii; the Sacred Songs of the Hula (Washington DC, 1909/R)
H.H. Roberts: Ancient Hawaiian Music (Honolulu, 1926/R)
D. Kahananui: Music of Ancient Hawaii (Honolulu, 1962)
K. Wong: ‘Ancient Hawaiian Music’, Aspects of Hawaiian Life and Environment (Honolulu, 1965), 9
G. Daws: Shoal of Time (Honolulu, 1974)
D. Barrèrre, M.K. Pukui and M. Kelly: Hula: Historical Perspectives (Honolulu, 1979)
G.S. Kanahele, ed.: Hawaiian Music and Musicians: an Illustrated History (Honolulu, 1979)
J.H. Hopkins: The Hula (Hong Kong, 1982)
E. Tatar: Nineteenth-Century Hawaiian Chant (Honolulu, 1982)
G.H. Lewis: ‘“Da kine” Sounds: the Function of Music as Social Protest in the New Hawaiian Renaissance’, American Music, ii/2 (1984), 38–52
D.E. Hall: ‘Early Symphonic Music Organizations in Honolulu and Their Conductors’, Hawaiian Journal of History, xx (1986), 172–87
D.W. Bandy: The History of the Royal Hawaiian Band 1836–1980 (thesis, U. of Hawaii at Mānoa, 1969)
D.E. Hall: ‘Fritz Hart and the Honolulu Symphony’, Hawaiian Journal of History, xxix (1995), 163–78
D.E. Hall: ‘Opera in 19th-Century Hawai‘i’, Hawaiian Journal of History, xxxi (1997), 71–96
DALE E. HALL