By Elizabeth Tatar with an introduction by Ka`upena Wong. Hula Pahu are sacred chants and ritual movements performed with pahu, the sharkskin-covered drum. In the second volume of this authoritative two-volume study, Elizabeth Tatar attempts to trace the origins and document the history of this vital Hawaiian tradition. In his introduction, renowned chanter Ka`upena Wong speaks of hula pahu as a "still-living tradition which may yet regain some of its early importance, as more and more Hawaiians search for their cultural roots." Because of its origins in legendary times, its religious connections, and its powerful sounds, the pahu is of singular importance in Hawaiian culture. In this thoroughly engrossing study, Elizabeth Tatar sets out to reconstruct the earliest vocabulary of Hawaiian chant and drumming. She surveys the evidence for the mythological origins of the pahu, identifies similary sharkskin-covered drums elsewhere in Polynesian, and discusses the physical attributes of the drum itself. Tatar goes on to examine systematically nine different pieces, including text variants and transcriptions of performances. Her main focus is on Hawaiian concepts of time, which include temporal irregularities in otherwise metric performances. She concludes that time is "not based on equidistant, mathematically measurable pulse, but rather on immeasurable polychronic cycles of nature." 1993/2004, Softcover, 358 Pages, 10" x 7". |
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