Major Differences

        The differences between this Hawaiian mele “Ku Mai Ka Hali’a” and African piece “Waka” are nearly endless, largely due to their very different musical cultures. Singing styles is one major difference – in “Waka”, a chant-singing style is used, which still has pitch but is spoken and chanted more so than sung. It also uses some non-word noises, such as a few grunts and shouts. In the mele, all parts are definitely sung versus chanted, and there is a large use of falsetto. The Hawaiian piece also uses much more wobbly vibrato, where the African piece uses almost none at all. The medium of each piece is another obvious difference. Although both pieces have a male soloist and male chorus, the chorus of the African piece is much larger than the 2-person chorus of the Hawaiian. Not only this, but the instrumental accompaniment is also very different – a ukulele and slap string guitar are used as accompaniment in “Ku Mai Ka Hali’a”, but an assortment of idiophones and membranophones are used in “Waka”. This includes an assortment of bells, shakers, and membranophone drums played with the hands. Harmonies are richer in the Hawaiian piece due to the accompaniment which plays pitched chords, versus the African piece’s accompaniment which cannot create chords and add that same richness of texture. There are many differences between Sub-Saharan African and Hawaiian mele music, but despite these differences, there are still connections between the musical cultures, as I will discuss next.