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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
 Posted - 11/06/2007 : 08:06:02 AM
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This is for KD and Sara, mostly, tho' I imagine I'll hear from a few other Hawaiian language stundents as well.
A few years back I needed a title for a book of Hawaiian and Polynesian music arranged for Appalachian dulcimer. Looking in the Hawaiian dictionary, I found two words that seemed to fit nicely:
kukima -- which is the Hawaiianized pronunciation of dulcimer (the one in the Bible.)
polinahe -- a word I've never heard used. According to the dictionary, it refers both to "sweet gentle music" and to something like "narrow waisted."
I figure that is as apt a definition of the instrument as any. (FWI: the dulcimer in the Bible is a completely different instrument. Looks like a small naked piano, played with thin wooden sticks in each hand. The Appalachian dulcimer generally has an long hourglass shape and is fretted.)
I'm finishing up a new edition of the book and (finally) a recording to go with it, and I want to be sure that I'm OK in using the phrase "ke kukima polinahe" to refer to the Appalachian dulcimer.
Any tho'ts?
Thanks in advance.
Mark
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Edited by - Mark on 11/06/2007 08:08:35 AM |
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keoladonaghy
Lokahi
257 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2007 : 12:58:05 PM
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Polinahe is not as common as aheahe, nahenahe, kolonahe and others but is perfectly acceptable. There was a group on Maui that used that name, a husband and wife combo who's name escapes me at the moment. Herb and Dee Coyle, I think. I don't think very many would know the "thin-waisted, broad shouldered" reference in the dictionary.
While it's not in the dictionary, 'Apalakia would be the appropriate transliteration of Appalachian. Ke Kukima 'Apalakia. There are many place names whose names do not appear in the Puku'i/Elbert dictionary, and we tend to transliterate them, except those in other Polynesian languages, of course. |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2007 : 3:20:38 PM
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Thanks KD.
quote:
While it's not in the dictionary, 'Apalakia would be the appropriate transliteration of Appalachian. Ke Kukima 'Apalakia.
Hmm, but you have to admit that "polinahe" is more poetic. And boy howdy, I'm one poetical guy...
So I'll stick with that.
Finshed the mixes this morning, too. |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2007 : 4:02:52 PM
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As many of you may know, Paul and I really like dulcimers. Paul has two which he built himself. Paul belongs to a local dulcimer club and they play around town at senior centers and the like (will play for food). The dulcimer lends itself well to Hawaiian music. Any song that sounds swell on `ukulele also sounds swell on the dulcimer. Good way to blend the hillbilly in me with the love for Hawaiian music. (Just please do not play "Bile dem Cabbage). And, of course, Paul has Mark's book.
I just don't understand all that Ionian and Mixylodlian or whatever da heck that stuff is. Jus' press.
Anyone who will be close to Colonial Williamsburg might be interested in the following (see www.colonialwilliamsburg.org for further information).
At the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum
Cross Rhythms: Folk Musical Instruments
This exhibition features banjos, fiddles, and dulcimers from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Highlights include a piano built into a chest of drawers and a record-playing hippocerous.
An uncommon new exhibition at Colonial Williamsburg’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum creates new harmonies between development of folk music and folk art musical instruments.
“Cross Rhythms” explores the origins of folk music and folk instruments and the people who brought these traditions to the forefront by celebrating the free and often quirky designs of instruments that bring the music to life. With examples of unusual banjos, dulcimers, fiddles and other musical forms, museum guests are invited to reflect on the people who created these instruments and played them. After seeing a phonograph player transformed in the hands of a folk artist, it is an easy stretch to imagine how a backcountry cabinetmaker creates a piano in a chest of drawers.
Exhibition curators John Davis and John Watson have created an exhibit that displays the best of the folk art tradition: whimsy mixed with practicality. “These are some of the most unusual creations,” said Watson, conservator of musical instruments. “Some of the most difficult decisions were to choose which instruments to include in the exhibition.”
“The creativity of these artists can be mind-boggling,” said Davis, senior curator of metals.
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Hula Rider
Lokahi
USA
215 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2007 : 12:02:25 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Mark
Thanks KD.
quote:
While it's not in the dictionary, 'Apalakia would be the appropriate transliteration of Appalachian. Ke Kukima 'Apalakia.
Hmm, but you have to admit that "polinahe" is more poetic. And boy howdy, I'm one poetical guy...
So I'll stick with that.
Finshed the mixes this morning, too.
Don't let KD know, but I like "polinahe," too. But then, I call my motorcycle a "lio hao li`ili`i," and I call my computer my "lolo uila." I don't much like a lot of the transliterated modern names.
Leilehua |
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