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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
 Posted - 03/22/2008 : 05:19:26 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by hapakid
As far as the major/minor alternating keys, you hear it in the classic Johnny Noble arrangement of the Hawaiian War Chant, or Kaua I Ka Huahua'i, which a few guys still perform today. Sometimes it is major-to-relative minor and sometimes it minor-to-major in the same key.
There are a few of this type of song:
Ka Hua I Ka Huahua`i
Wahine Hololio
E Lili`u E
Mahai`ula
Hula (seldom heard, composed by Bina Mossman)
Kipikoa
Moku Kia Kahi
He`eia
Waimea Fantasy/Pu`u Ohu
But it should also be pointed out that many of the chants were in a minor tonality, as well. The chants that contain only two notes are based on a root and a perfect fifth. But many which have three notes are based on the root, the fifth, and either a minor third or a minor seventh. (Of course, that probably makes them some mode that I am not thinking of, but the ear is hearing minor - not major.)
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Join me for the history of Hawaiian music and its musicians at Ho`olohe Hou at www.hoolohehou.org. |
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kuulei88
Akahai
USA
75 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2008 : 03:46:41 AM
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Hi Wanda:
The version that Mapu uses is the recording by Na Palapalai. There is an earlier recording of that arrangement by Joe Kahaulelio and the Ho'oheno Serenaders. The arangement alternates verses between the major key and it's [warning--technical musicspeak] relative minor key. Translation: If you're in C major, you go to a minor; if you're in G major, you go to e minor; if you're in F major, you go to d minor; if you're in B major, you go to g# minor (yikes!!!). The trick is that when you're in minor, the second line of each verse returns to major, then bounces back to minor for the third line.
So:
l1: c - g - c - - -
l2: c - g - c - - -
l3: c - g - c - - -
l4: c - g - c - - -
vamp: D7 - g - c - E7
next verse:
l1: a - E7 - a - - -
l2: c - g - c - E7 -
l3: a - E7 - a - - -
l4: c - g - c - - -
vamp: D7 - g - c - - -
repeat entire sequence for next two verses.
As far as which came first, chant or song, the song title appears in 1890s lists of modern hula tunes, but there are recordings from 1923 and 1935 of it chanted. There are some who claim that it was a chant that John Pi'ilani Watkins set to music in the 1950s or 1960s when he choreographed the routine that Vicky Takamine learned from him and taught to Mapu.
aloha,
amy k.
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amy k |
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hwnmusiclives
`Olu`olu
USA
580 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2008 : 08:13:52 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by kuulei88
The arrangement alternates verses between the major key and it's [warning--technical musicspeak] relative minor key. Translation: If you're in C major, you go to a minor; if you're in G major, you go to e minor; if you're in F major, you go to d minor; if you're in B major, you go to g# minor (yikes!!!). The trick is that when you're in minor, the second line of each verse returns to major, then bounces back to minor for the third line.
So:
l1: c - g - c - - -
l2: c - g - c - - -
l3: c - g - c - - -
l4: c - g - c - - -
vamp: D7 - g - c - E7
next verse:
l1: a - E7 - a - - -
l2: c - g - c - E7 -
l3: a - E7 - a - - -
l4: c - g - c - - -
vamp: D7 - g - c - - -
With all due respect, a quick listen to the Joe Kahaulelio version bears out a slightly trickier chord sequence than Aunty Amy suggests here. It is regrettably not as simple as bouncing back and forth between the major and its relative minor. The Joe Kahaulelio version - and the Brothers Cazimero and Na Palapalai versions based on it - actually skip to the relative minor's major - in this case, from a min to A maj - as well as to the subdominant of the original major - or, in this case, F (the subdominant of C). So while Aunty Amy has written this...
l1: a - E7 - a - - -
l2: c - g - c - E7 -
l3: a - E7 - a - - -
l4: c - g - c - - -
vamp: D7 - g - c - - -
...what has actually been recorded in these versions is this...
l1: a min - E7 - a min - - -
l2: C maj - G7 - C - E7 -
l3: A maj - E7 - A maj - - -
l4: F maj - C7 - F maj - - -
vamp: G7 - C7 - F maj
- - - - D7 - G7 - C maj
Getting from F maj back to C maj is the trickiest part of the song since it takes two vamps in two different keys to get there: a vamp in F maj and then a vamp in C maj. This may, in fact, also be the most beautiful harmonic element in the song.
I mean this correction with the utmost respect as I know that one or more of you are trying to reconcile the chords we are jotting down with the recordings you are listening to.
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Join me for the history of Hawaiian music and its musicians at Ho`olohe Hou at www.hoolohehou.org. |
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