"He Mele Lāhui Hawai'i"

The first official national anthem of Hawai'i which was replaced by "Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī".

"...In the early years of the reign of Kamehameha V. he brought to my notice the fact that the Hawaiian people had no national air. Each nation, he said, but ours had its statement of patriotism and love of country in its own music; but we were using for that purpose on state occasions the time-honored British anthem, 'God save the Queen.' This he desired me to supplant by one of my own composition. In one week's time I notified the king that I had completed my task. The Princess Victoria had been the leader of the choir of the Kawaiahao church; but upon her death, May 29, 1866 I assumed the leadership. It was in this building and by that choir that I first introduced the 'Hawaiian National Anthem.' The king was present for the purpose of criticising my new composition of both words and music, and was liberal in his commendations to me on my success. He admired not only the beauty of the music, but spoke enthusiastically of the appropriate words, so well adapted to the air and to the purpose for which they were written.

This remained in use as our national anthem for some twenty years or more, when my brother composed the words of the Hawaii Ponoi...."

--Queen Lili'uokalani from Hawai'i's Story by Hawai'i's Queen.

Website: http://hawaiianhistorian.blogspot.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• hawaii
• hawaiian
• national
• anthem
• liliuokalani
• ponoi
• history
• kanaka
• maoli

[eltiagorico1]

Aloha! Beautiful. Mahalo nui loa! Keiko.