International Education Week: Music & Dance 2021

Below are a list of common terms associated with different aspects of Hawaiian music and dance.

Chants

• Oli

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  The oli, usually unaccompanied solos employ-ing but two or three tones. The oli include all of the mele or chants not composed for dancing.

• Hula chants/Mele hula

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  The hula chants, mele hula, with marked rhythm to accompany the dancer, usually with a range of four or five tones. Instruments were used in most performances to carry the rhythm.

Instruments

• Pū 

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  Shell trumpet or conch shell (pū - to blow or to sound). These large shells are converted into trumpets by sawing off the small end or apex of a triton (Charonia tritonis) or drilling a hole in the flattened apex of the helmet shell (Cassis cornuta). The holes vary from the size of a nickel to a quarter. When blown the resulting sound may carry as far as two miles. The pū was not used as a musical instrument in old Hawaiʻi, but to announce the arrival of personages or to summon people for special events. Today one or several "trumpeters" may announce the opening of pageants. The tone is deep in large shells and shrill in small ones.

• Pahu hula

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  Hula drum or shark skin drum (pahu - drum). The pahu is one of the most important instruments used to accompany the hula. Its deep solemn tones inspire the dancers and stir the emotions of the spectators. The drummer sits before the pahu and may strike (paʻi) the drum head with both hands using the fingers and heel of the hand. By striking different parts of the drum head he produces a variety of sounds. The drummer may use the left hand only on the pahu and hold the fiber (kā) in his right hand to strike the pūniu which may be tied to his right leg above the knee.

• Ipu Heke

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  These drum-like instruments consist of two gourds glued together. The one on the right has a collar cut from another gourd to give it added strength. The drummer, while seated, supports the gourd with the wrist loop and his left hand while he thumps the bottom against the matted floor. He strikes the side or bottom of the lower gourd with his right fingers and palm.

• Uliʻuli

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  Gourd rattle (ʻuli- to rattle). Shot-like seeds of the canna (aliʻipoe) are placed in a small gourd or, in recent years, a tree gourd (laʻamia) or a coconut. A fiber handle, tipped with a disc of feathers, is attached to the gourd. In earlier times some of these instruments were without the decorative feather disc. The dancer traditionally holds one ʻuliʻuli in the right hand and shakes it to produce the rattling sound. The left hand is free to carry out the graceful interpretive motions of the hula. In present day programs the ʻuliʻuli is a common and colorful instrument. Some dancers use one in each hand, a modern innovation, called the haole hula or hula ʻauana.

• Pūʻili 

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  Split bamboo rattle (pū - to sound, ʻili - bark or skin). A piece of bamboo some 20 inches long and one and one-half to two inches in diameter is split into narrow strips or strands except for a section of about five inches at one end which serves as a handle. Bamboo is cut away to leave spaces between the strands. The player or dancer produces a rustling sound when he taps the pūʻili against his or his partnerʼs body, the floor mat, or another pūʻili.

• Ukulele

  From Hawaiian Dictionary and Māmaka Kaiao
  A musical instrument having four strings, played upon with the fingers, said to be so-called because of the leaping of the fingers on the strings.

Hula

• Hula

  From Ulukau: The Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary
  The hula is the folkdance of the Hawaiian people which interprets the words and meanings of the rythmic dance chants called the mele hula. In the commonest form of the hula, the dancerʼs body remains relatively stable, his feet mark the time, and his arms and hands describe or interpret the meanings of the words in the mele hula. In the more exuberant forms the dancers move about entertainingly using the body as well as the feet and hands. Facial expressions vary according to the type of hula being danced.

• Nā Keʻehi I Ka Haʻa - Hula Steps

  From Huapala: Hawaiian Music and Hula Archives
  The first 26 dance steps (nā keʻehi i ka haʻa) from the Hawaiian Dictionary authored by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert.

• Ancient Hula Types

  From Hula Preservation Society
  A list of ancient hula types that includes information about the hula, the general body position, published research and visuals.

Learn more about Hawaiian music.

Books are available for checkout or currently on display at the Learning Commons' main entrance. Videos can be found by clicking on the link to the PrimoSearch catalog. Click on the title to view more information.

Below are online resources about Hawaiian music. Click on the title to view more information.

Learn more about Hawaiian Hula and dance.

Books are available for checkout or currently on display at the Learning Commons' main entrance. Videos can be found by clicking on the link to the PrimoSearch catalog. Click on the title to view more information.

Below are online resources about Hawaiian Hula and dance. Click on the title to view more information.