Author Archives: Ella Yarris

Aloha ‘Oe: A Story of Stolen Sovereignty

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While looking through the Library of Congress’ National Jukebox collection, one song that caught my eye was “Aloha Oe.” Specifically, it caught my eye because the composer listed was Lili’uokalani, who I  know as the last sovereign monarch of Hawaii, and who was removed from power by a coup orchestrated by the US government. Queen Lili’uokalani is a fascinating historical figure; she worked tirelessly for the sovereignty of the Hawaiian people even during her imprisonment after the overthrow. She was also a prolific composer and poet, mainly writing in the style of mele ho’oipoipo, which are love songs that incorporate nature metaphors. Looking through translations of songs she wrote, I think that some undoubtedly would fit into any collection of protest songs. 

“Aloha Oe” is one of Lili’uokalani’s most well known songs… Some people may recognize this tune from “Lilo and Stitch” or Johnny Cash’s recording. The version below (sorry, you have to click to view on YouTube) was recorded by four famous Hawaiian musicians and was used in a TV special about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. The lyrics of this song convey a lover’s goodbye, but it has been interpreted to represent the farewell of a queen to her country; a lament for the loss of Hawaiian sovereignty. 

Haʻaheo ka ua i nā pali
  Proudly swept the rain by the cliffs
Ke nihi aʻela i ka nahele
  As it glided through the trees
E hahai (uhai) ana paha i ka liko
  Still following ever the bud
Pua ʻāhihi lehua o uka
  The ʻahihi lehua* of the vale

Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe
  Farewell to you, farewell to you
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
  The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers
One fond embrace,
A hoʻi aʻe au
  'Ere I depart
Until we meet again

ʻO ka haliʻa aloha i hiki mai
  Sweet memories come back to me
Ke hone aʻe nei i kuʻu manawa
  Bringing fresh remembrances of the past
ʻO ʻoe nō kaʻu ipo aloha
  Dearest one, yes, you are mine own
A loko e hana nei
  From you, true love shall never depart

Maopopo kuʻu ʻike i ka nani
  I have seen and watched your loveliness
Nā pua rose o Maunawili
  The sweet rose of Maunawili
I laila hiaʻai nā manu
  And 'tis there the birds of love dwell
Mikiʻala i ka nani o ka lipo
  And sip the honey from your lips

*A flowering plant, I highly recommend reading more about the cultural context in this handout from the Hawai‘i Forest Institute & Hawai‘i Forest Industry Association. 

The recording I found in the National Jukebox is performed by the Toots Paka Hawaiian Company. The Toots Paka Hawaiian Company was a popular group of the “hula craze” around the 1920’s. Toots Paka was a vaudeville hula dancer, who claimed Hawaiian heritage. Listen to the recording here:

While it is impossible to definitively confirm Toots’s training in hula/ Hawaiian heritage, census records show that she was born Hannah Jones in Port Huron, Michigan, and that she began dancing under the stage name Tootsie Jones. She seemingly got into performing hula when she married one of the performers of the Hawaiian Glee Club, “a group of Kānaka Maoli musicians who were touring the mainland as a novelty band performing both innovative and traditional Hawaiian music and steel guitar shows” (Gentry). The act evolved into “Toots Paka Hawaiian Company,” with their advertising centering around Toots and her physical beauty. In interviews, Toots perpetuates colonial ideas of the unending youthfulness of Hawaiian women and an Edenic image of Hawaii, and she undoubtedly used a caricature of Hawaiian culture to her advantage in building an entertainment career. However, Gentry writes that one of things that makes Toots Paka interesting among vaudeville hula performers is her true proximity to Kānaka Maoli musicians; they performed in the Hawaiian language, and as I mentioned before, Aloha ‘Oe is certainly a meaningful song. In contrast, some performers at this time used a “Hawaiian Ragtime” style and blatantly nonsense lyrics.

The National Jukebox recording has some similarities to the version performed by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and company. They are slow in tempo, use stringed instruments, and harmonies that sound somewhat similar. However, the message and purpose of the songs in context are very different: one recording continues a long tradition of commodification, while the other offers a more reflective view on the injustice that Native Hawaiians have endured. 

Bibliography

“Aloha Oe.” Accessed November 14, 2024. https://www.huapala.org/Aloha/Aloha_Oe.html.

Gentry, Briand. ““More Hawaiian than Hawaii itself”: The Hula Craze and US Empire in the Progressive Era.” Feminist Media Histories 9, no. 4 (Fall, 2023): 81-107. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fmh.2023.9.4.81. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/more-hawaiian-than-hawaii-itself/docview/3112827257/se-2.

Liliʻuokalani Trust. “Her Story.” Accessed November 13, 2024. https://onipaa.org/her-story.

Toots Paka Hawaiian Company. Aloha Oe. New York, New York, 1914. https://www.loc.gov/item/jukebox-650171/.

 

 

We Insist!

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Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, “We Insist!,” is a great example of a protest album. Max Roach was a jazz percussionist and composer. He wrote “We Insist!” as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, but it was in fact performed for the first time on January 16, 1961, two years earlier than originally planned because of the urgency of sit-ins in the South. This album highlights ongoing racism and injustice towards Black Americans (and South Africans, as referenced in the 5th song of the album), and the fact that despite the Emancipation Proclamation being ratified so long ago, the struggle for Black liberation was no where near over.

I would highly recommend listening to this whole album. It tells a story of the horror of slavery (“Driva’man”), the signing of the Emacipation Proclamation on “Freedom Day”, and the continued struggle for justice into the Civil Rights Movement in the US, as well as around the world. but one piece that I found particularly impactful was “Triptych: Prayer/ Protest/ Peace.” The second movement especially caught me off guard, which I suppose is probably the point and symbolically represents the goal of protest, which is to interrupt the status quo. This movement especially serves as a reminder to those of us whose Civil Rights Movement education has largely romanticized the nature of peaceful protests, especially surrounding the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In truth, even peaceful protests were met with brutal violence, and the struggle was anything but passive and easy.

The cover of “We Insist,” showing three Black men sitting at a counter, being served by a white man, in direct response to student sit-ins, and a visualization of the goal of the artists.

One question that we touched on in class is the efficacy of protest albums. Roach’s goal with this album was to reach a wide audience and spread the message of racial equality. He allowed fundraising organizations to use this album for free to raise money for Civil Rights organizations. However, the album did receive critiques for being too “bitter” for “most tastes.” The tension between commerciality (or maybe universality?) and value as an instrument for social change is certainly in play, but the Freedom Now Suite was lauded for its influence, and was performed at the 1961 NAACP conference and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. Christa Gammage writes:

Jazz embodied the message of the Civil Rights movement and its emphasis on individual expression that serves a group beyond oneself. In order to produce a functional musical piece, each musician must work with one another and listen to the ideas of others. This same expression of democracy is what African-Americans were fighting for in their everyday lives.

 

Biobliography

African American Registry. “Max Roach, Drummer, and Composer Born.” Accessed November 4, 2024. https://aaregistry.org/story/drummer-max-roach-broke-new-ground-in-jazz/.

Gammage, Christa. “‘We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite’—Max Roach (1960).” Library of Congress, 2022. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/We-Insist-Max-Roachs-Freedom-Now-Suite_Gammage.pdf.

“Magnetic Rag”: a comparison

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In class, we compared different recordings Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” both from piano rolls played by the composer himself and from other musician’s renditions of the song. I thought this was an interesting exercise, especially getting to hear the music performed by the composer. Scott Joplin performed other songs on piano rolls as well, one of which was “Magnetic Rag.”

As you listen, follow along with this copy of sheet music from 1922.

Click the image to view the sheet music.

Some things that I wanted to listen for were swung rhythms, articulation, and other stylistic touches that are not represented in the sheet music. The recording from the piano roll does not have swung rhythms per se, but the syncopation does give the music a distinctly swung feel. Something I noticed right away was the change in tempo in the few lines that can be heard on the piano roll but are not indicated in the sheet music. The first four measures are slower, and the section that begins at the first repeat is basically double the speed. Additionally, in the fourth measure, the rests shown in the sheet music cannot be heard in the piano roll.

When the first section after the intro is repeated, the piano roll deviates from the sheet music. Specifically, the right hand is an octave up. This technique is used again in subsequent sections. Throughout the piece, the repeated sections are shorter than in the sheet music. Generally, the performed version has more embellishments than the sheet music (which I suppose is somewhat common). However, I do notice that there is no arranger mentioned on the sheet music, which is often the case today when a new version of a song is published. Overall, there are not many instructions to the performer such as dynamics and articulations, however I’m not sure if that would have been typical of sheet music published at this time.

This sheet music is from 1922, while Scott Joplin made the piano rolls in 1916. The song “Magnetic Rag” was composed in 1914, so there is a significant amount of time between the creation of the piano roll and the publishing of the sheet music. Importantly, Joplin sadly died the year after the piano rolls were taken, and unless this is a reprint of other sheet music, he would not have seen this version. I think this is example is an interesting look at the variable aspect of this music, and it makes me wonder again about the issue of “authenticity” in music… it is useful to consider which version of the music is “more authentic.” I think it is very possible that Joplin has performed this piece differently at different times, and I would be interested to see the original version that Joplin wrote and how it compares to subsequent publishings.

Scott Joplin. “Magnetic Rag.” Jack Mills, inc., 1922. https://digital.library.yorku.ca/node/1095584.

Josephine Baker: Success Across the Pond

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Among the most famous Black performers of the vaudeville era is Josephine Baker. According to an article in the newspaper “Plaindealer” from Topeka, Kansas, she had a career as a chorus girl in America, but her career really took off when she brought her unique dancing to Europe. The focus of this article is the raging success of Black American performers with European audiences, even while they remained unknown in the US.

One thing I found notable about the description of Baker in this newspaper article was the focus on her appearance, which is brought up multiple times. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

“… it has been said that she was the greatest drawing card in the old world. Tall and slender, a teasing, tantalizing brown, she has swept the men completely off their feet.”

This quote, describing the color of her skin alone as “teasing,” illuminates to me how there is an element of exoticism in Baker’s success. The writers don’t describe her as just beautiful, but as if the way she looks is a mischievous invitation. This is quickly confirmed upon doing a quick search of the act that she became famous for in Paris, which involved her dancing in just a short skirt of bananas and a beaded necklace, and is very uncomfortable to watch due to its undeniably racist and objectifying nature. I am reminded of Lott’s “Love and Theft,” and the idea of fascination with Black bodies as motivation for minstrelsy. Not only is she admired for her skill, but also as a spectacle.

Despite the dehumanizing themes of Baker’s performances that disturb us looking back, the benefit to her is obvious. The newspaper article writes:

“From poverty and obscurity in the United States, Josephine ‘Black Bottomed’ her way to fame and wealth abroad […] She toured country after country until her name blazed forth on every newspaper”

In light of this success, Baker’s choice to become a French citizen in 1937 makes sense. Even after her success in France and across Europe, Baker was met with negative press upon her return to the US. The newspaper article from “Plaindealer” closes with a thought on why this might be. According to the author, America is bereft of opportunity for Black performers, even if their talent is recognized. In Europe however, opportunity and recognition converge to allow Black performers to reach their true potential in front of receptive audiences.

Jeffers, Beda. “Is Europe Haven for Sepia Theatrical Stars?” Plaindealer, vol. XLV, no. 43, 15 Nov. 1930, p 1-2. URL.
Josephine Baker. “Biography – The Official Licensing Website of Josephine Baker.” Accessed October 16, 2024. http://www.cmgww.com/stars/baker/about/biography/.

Public Reception of the Fisk Jubilee Singers

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The Fisk Jubilee singers are hailed as key pioneers of “concert spirituals”, arrangements of African-American spirituals meant for the stage. They were extremely successful in their earliest years, around the 1870s: they were invited to perform at the White House, Queen Victoria commissioned a floor-to-ceiling portrait of the original members as a gift, and they raised enough funds on tours in the US and Europe to build the first permanent building at Fisk University.

Jubilee Hall at Fisk University, funded by the Fisk Jubilee Singers tour

To investigate the public’s opinion of the Jubilee Singers, I looked to an article in The Aldine, a monthly arts magazine printed in New York during the 1800s. At first glance, the review (from March of 1873) is complimentary. However, upon closer reading, some misconceptions about the Fisk Jubilee Singers become apparent. This article is evidence of how, while the Fisk Jubilee Singers were extremely successful and popular, the public’s perspective during the 1870’s still upheld racist ideas that are often applied to musics outside of the European canon.

The first thing I would like to highlight to this point was that the author claimed the Singers’ skill was natural talent.

“They have art; but it is the product of a rich natural gift, polished by natural taste and discrimination […] A musical voice seems to be a characteristic endowment of their race,”

This idea that musical talent is passed down rather than taught can be historically seen associated with many non-European musical traditions, including African percussion and Appalachian banjo music (as we discussed in class). This tactic “others” the music, and fails to recognize the hard work of the musicians. In this case, although the author is complementing the Jubilee Singers, they also say that the group lacks “cultivation” and “scientific instruction,” a Eurocentric value judgement which reveals the problematic side of this claim.

A second comment of note in this article can be found when the author is discussing the songs that the Fisk Jubilee Singers perform.

“They are clearly not the product of civilization, and yet an instinct seems to have taught their makers to follow strict musical laws. Wild and irregular as many of them seem on first hearing […] the strangest phrases can be correctly expressed in musical notation.”

When the author refers to “musical laws” and upholds musical notation as the “scientific” way to do things, they imply that this is the right and true way to express music. This reminds me of how transcriptions of Native American music were thought to be sufficient by their creators, but when the transcriptions are compared to audio recordings, there are large discrepancies. In both cases, the European musical framework is assigned more value. In fact, the author says that the way spirituals follow “musical laws” despite their creators lack of formal musical education is proof that these laws are “what the ear requires,” a claim which is ill-conceived in multiple ways.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an inspiring success story, and they still perform today as one of the most acclaimed choirs in the country, often serving an ambassador role internationally. However, this review makes it clear that even in their success, the Jubilee Singers were not exempt from discrimination and bias in the public eye.

“MUSIC.: THE JUBILEE SINGERS.” The Aldine, A Typographic Art Journal (1871-1873), 03, 1873, 67, https://www.proquest.com/magazines/music/docview/124830318/se-2.

Fisk Jubilee Singers. “Our History.” Accessed October 2, 2024. https://fiskjubileesingers.org/about-the-singers-2/our-history/.

Protest music in the Native American Civil Rights Movement

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Singing is a common cornerstone of nonviolent protest. I’m sure most of us can think of songs with messages of social change and justice. However, the idea of protest music takes on a whole new meaning when the simply act of making music is rebellion, regardless of content. For many Native Americans, this aspect of culture has been banned, punished, and forcibly erased throughout America’s history of colonization. In exploring articles from the journal “Akwesasne Notes,” I have found a few examples of protest music in the context of the Native American civil rights movement as nonviolent resistance, an expression of identity, and a method to raise awareness.

The first newspaper article, written by Linda Champagne of the New York City Martin Luther King Jr. Institute of Nonviolence in June of 1990, details a days-long attack on a barricade that was put up around Akwesasne, the Mohawk nation, during sovereignty disputes between factions and involving the government. It was striking to me that even in the face of bombs and gunfire, survivors of this attack turned to music as nonviolent resistance. The author writes,

“The automatic weapon fire began to increase sometime before midnight. The women who were leaders in nonviolence were trying to decide what action they might take that would be helpful. The firing was too close to risk any show of bodies as a statement of nonviolent interaction in recent weeks, starting singing a song (…) ‘We are gentle angry people and we are singing for our lives.'”

The context of this situation is complex — anti-gambling groups and the Warriors society were at odds and the police got involved with an occupation of sorts– but the role of music as nonviolent protest is apparent.

The second article I found covered a protest at Mt. Rushmore National Park in August of 1970 against the government’s ongoing treaty violations with the Sioux people, including failure to pay for land acquisition and the creation of the Mt. Rushmore sculpture on a sacred site. Of the role of singing and dancing, the article reads,

“In addition to the occupancy, the singing and dancing protest program was continued in the area of the upper parking lot Sunday, with tourists being handed statements of it’s purpose and also being invited to join in the dancing or to support the movement through donations.”

This example reveals how singing and dancing can be a way to build bridges and invite people to experience Indigenous culture. In this scenario, tourists could be drawn in by the art and may be more likely to learn about and support the movement. Song and dance are peaceful, yet this expression of identity and resistance despite profound injustice is powerful, especially considering the painful erasure and disrespect that is symbolized in the Mt. Rushmore monument: the faces of four white men carved into a scared site on stolen land, hailed as a shrine to democracy.

Champagne, Linda. “Under Fire at Akwesasne.” Akwesasne Notes 22, no. 2 (June 1990). https://www.indigenoushistoriesandcultures.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/akwesasne-notes-vol.-22-no.-2/7027307?item=7027309.
“Indians Continue Protest at Mountain.” Akwesasne Notes 2, no. 6 (August 31, 1970). https://www.indigenoushistoriesandcultures.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/akwesasne-notes-vol.-2-no.-6/7025433?item=7025457.
Lieberman, Paul. “‘Great Law of Peace’ Lost in Indian Gambling Feud.” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1990. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-05-27-mn-517-story.html.