Did you see last week Monday’s post on Welo Hou? It is funny how mele written by someone from a long time ago can stir up personal memories, both good and bad. Thomas Lindsey’s “Honesakala” is timeless. Does anyone know which Thomas Lindsey this was.
MS SC Roberts 2.2, p. 3. “Honesakala”
Ua meha ka leo o ka ale o ka moana
Ua mea ka leo o ke kai
Ua meha ka leo o ke kanaka
Ua meha ka leo o ka manu noio o ke kai
Ua meha ka leo o ka Aama kua lenalena o ka pali
Ua meha ka leo o ka Opihi makaiauli
Ua meha ka leo o ka Hee pali
Ua meha ka leo o ka Amakihi holo kahakai Continue reading
On the first page, first column of our paper of today, our readers saw the “Canoe Song,” [Mele Waa] of Chief Lunalilo. Continue reading
[Hardly anything is legible in this article! If there was not also an announcement in the Kuokoa, we would not have this information. Oftentimes information is found in only a single issue of one newspaper. We need to rescan all the illegible pages of newspapers now while we can.]
(Lahui Hawaii, 11/16/1876, p. 2)
Ka Lahui Hawaii, Buke II, Helu 47, Aoao 2. Novemaba 16, 1876.
The Bulletin acknowledges the receipt of the music and words of two hula kuis—”Ipo Lei Manu” and “Pua Melekule”—the first ever printed. They have been copyrighted by Mr. W. F. Reynolds of the Golden Rule Bazaar, in both the Hawaiian Islands and the United States. A few copies arrived by the last steamer, which can be had at the Bazaar at fifty cents a copy.
[One year after the death of King Kalakaua, the mele gets copyrighted by someone who obviously did not compose it, as so often happens to Hawaiian music. What is interesting is that I have not found any public performances in Hawaii of this song until after 1924.]
Might it be “Ka Ipo Lei Manu,” generally credited to Queen Kapiolani?
It seems the Welo Hou blog has been up since November of 2017, with posts every Monday. If you are a mele person, or a history person, or are from Hawaii nei, you should check it out and start a dialogue! This is its opening post from last year [click anywhere below to link to the blog]:
Welo Hou: Building Connections to the Helen Roberts Mele Collection
FOR 1881!
“While the rain is still in the sky, clear the fields below.”
“Time and tide wait for no man; we need to be prepared.”
Therefore, O Friends of
“The Greatest Prize of the Hawaiian Nation.”
Make ready for the benefits of the
KUOKOA
carried and place before you for the new coming year. Continue reading
A petition was put before the Board of Supervisors [Papa Lunakiai] of Maui on this past Monday, May 15, and it was about the obvious truth of the sad acknowledgement by the kamaaina of Hawaii, about the quiet decline of the Hawaiian language.
This document was sent from Molokai, one of the bastions of the old Hawaiians, and the document was written in the Hawaiian language, and it is something important taken and considered by the members of the board, the press, and others who went to observe the meeting. Continue reading
GEORGE K. DWIGHT
George K. Dwight, a Honolulu boy, who left here in December to join the gas and flame corps of the American army, died last Sunday, Jan. 27, in a hospital at Annapolis, Maryland. Continue reading
nupepa 