154 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull, as 



Here, again, is a piece of song that to the author's ear bears much 

 the same resembhmce to the original that an oiled ocean in calm 

 would bear to the same ocean when stirred by a breeze. The fine 

 dimples which gave the ocean its diamond-flash have been wiped out. 



VI — Song for the Hula Pele 



Arranged bv H. Berger 



Presto — Ko^ i-honua 





Is it our ear that is at fault ? Is it not rather our science of musical 

 notation, in not reproducing the fractions of steps, the enharmonics 

 that are native to the note-carving ear of the Chinaman, and that 

 are perhaps essential to the perfect scoring of an oli or mele as sung 

 by a Hawaiian? 



None of the illustrations thus far given have caught that fluctu- 

 ating trilling movement of the voice which most musicians inter- 

 viewed on the subject declare to be impossible of representation, while 

 some flout the assertion that it represents a change of pitch. One is 

 reminded by this of a remark made by Pietro Mascagni : « 



The feeling that a people displays in its charactei-, its habits, its nature, 

 and thus creates an overprivileged type of music,, may be apprehended by a 

 foreign spirit which has become accustomed to the usages and expressions 

 common from that particular people. But popular music, [being] void of any 

 scientific l)asis, will always remain incomprehensible to the foreigner who seeks 

 to study it technically. 



AVlien we consider that the Chinese find pleasure in musical per- 

 formances on instruments that divide the scale into intervals less 

 than half a step, and that the Arabian musical scale included quarter- 

 steps, we shall be obliged to admit that this statement of Mascagni 

 is not merely a fling at our musical science. 



Here are introduced the words and notes of a musical recitation 

 done after the manner of the hula by a Hawaiian professional and 

 his wife. Acquaintance with the Hawaiian language and a feeling 

 for the allusions connoted in the text of the song would, of course, 

 be a great aid in enabling one to enter into the spirit of the per- 

 formance. As these adjuncts will be available to only a very few 



« The Evolution of Music from the Italian Standpoint, in the Century Library of Music, 

 XVI, 521. 



