UPM Book Series on Music Research, No.1, 2009 (ISSN 2289-3938).

Lies in Music: A Case Study on Qualitative Research in Ethnomusicology

Gisa Jähnichen

Can music lie or do we lie through music? This question seems to go far

beyond scientific goals. The question, however, can never be clearly

answered. Looking into the profile of research work accomplished at

universities around the world, we rarely see seriously operating projects on

ethics addressing this question out of the range of psychological or

philosophical studies, namely presented as quantitative research outcomes,

statistically supported and effectively implemented into scientific journals

under the headline “Miscellaneous” or “Curiosities”.

If music can tell us something and we are under definite circumstances able

to understand it; if music can be seen as a non-verbal mean of gaining

knowledge in terms of collecting strategies and summarizing life

conceptions, there must be a high possibility that music can lie respectively

that we do lie through music as well as we are used to it with the help of

other communication tools.

Some Preconditions

How does music lie and how do we know about? These key questions

should be examined. Rather than being surprised or full of doubts about

music that may lie or not, this paper is to show the many possibilities

offered through qualitative research in musicology, a type of research that is

still hardly developed in Malaysia.

Music has much to do with truth and with lie since it is often

misunderstood as a universal expression crossing borders globally, unifying

feelings and dreams, being well understood through its very nature of

coordinated sound, Therefore music can be distributed as well as

acculturated in any place at any time. Needless to say, that those

misunderstandings were meanwhile in many cases widely discussed,

initially in the field of ethnomusicology, and now as part of basic

knowledge in cultural studies, anthropology and other disciplines.

1

2 Gisa Jähnichen

The slogan “Music does not know borders” sounds nice, however, it is one

of the simple lies we love to believe in. To make music borderless it needs

much more than listening to a performance, watching a video recording,

even reproducing musical sound. As well as syllables of a strange language

do not become more understandable through their repeated intonation,

music becomes not more true through pure reproduction of its sound as far

as its historical, social and cultural environment remains unknown to

anyone involved in its production.

Jürgen Elsner From the view point of an outsider writes – though quite

generalizing – about the meaning of an unknown music1:

“Unknown music is meaningful for itself and may additionally have a

meaning for me, as far as I can make it accessible to myself. These are two

different levels, two different approaches referring two one and the same

tonal phenomena, to one and the same musical culture, but represent

different agents, strategies and aims of the acquisition and evaluation of the

perceived…”

The quality of the meaningful process as well as the meaningful acquisition

is therefore not the same, but different. The methods used by the carriers of

musical culture – within and in continuation with their cultural tradition –

are at the beginning strongly concentrated on reasons that depend on

themselves and their community.”

That we all have to study languages in order to be able communicating

between different cultures and that it also includes various dialects,

different social levels of language usage and the whole complex of specific

terminologies is an unquestioned fact. On the other hand, it is still subject of

discussion if research music or motion would be really necessary. Missing

statistical support, which proves its urgency, but first of all the supposed

invisible effect on economic outcomes since any type of performing arts is

merely seen as a minor production add rather than a feature of human

behaviour of importance to social organisation, makes it difficult to

progress though knowing the well-known insight:

Once the last bird will be shot and eaten, we won’t die for hunger -

But we will become mad for missing the bird’s sound! (Proverb).

1 Jürgen Elsner: Vom Sinn fremder Musik. In: Musik im interkulturellen Dialog. Ed. by Max

Peter Baumann. Berlin, IITM 1996, p. 69.

Lies in Music 3

Still having a lot of birds symbolising musical diversity in its multilingual

and multi-motional sense, we should start to care about them. And we

should learn to know, in which way music might be able lie; a quality that

needs a high level of understanding its essence.

A Case from the South Seas

Stories form the South Seas are supposed to be somehow untrue. Stories

from the South Seas, it is said by maritime people, do not care much about

the true facts since due to the distance of space and time between the story

that happened and the audience that listen to cannot be examined. That

applies seemingly not only on seamen and traders but also on musicians.

Most of those stories are produced far from the spot they are placed, thus

they influence space and time as well as some subsequent thoughts among

people around the world.

In this study, I want to take a case up to be examined in a more serious way.

It is a kind of music, which found its lovers everywhere, even on the

smallest Pacific Island, and a funny musical instrument that is mainly

related to it: the ukulele.

Many entries in dictionaries and encyclopaedias, which obviously copied

from each other without reconfirmation, favour the following quite simple

explanation about the ukulele’s origin and development. I quote the newest

digital version of

The NEW GROVE Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2005:

“…A small guitar-like instrument. It is derived from the virtually identical

machete da braҫa brought to the Hawaiian (then the Sandwich) Islands by

immigrants from Madeira. There is no string instrument native to Hawaii

other than the ‘ūkēkē, a mouth bow. Three Portuguese instrument makers

arrived in 1870: Manuel Nuñes, who opened the first shop in 1880, and his

associates Augusto Dias and José do Espirito Santo, who opened their own

shops in 1884 and 1888 respectively. The instrument rose swiftly to

popularity among the native population: in 1886 ukuleles were used to

accompany hula dancers at King Kalakaua’s jubilee celebration, and the

Hawaiian Annual of the same year reported that ‘of late they have taken to

the banjo and that hideous small Portuguese instrument now called the

“taro-patch fiddle”. The ‘taro-patch fiddle’ is a large ukulele which appears

to be derived from the machete da rajao.”

4 Gisa Jähnichen

Fortunately today, we can prove such statements with the help of

documents, from which a large part is essentially immaterial data such as

audio recordings preserved on various carriers and accessible in several

archives and private collections. Another part consists of real things that

still can be seen in museums, storage rooms of companies or state offices.

Inorder to find out how being able to know if music lies, this study focus on

the sources of knowledge, which are compiled in a qualitative way rather

than in a quasi-statistic way. The methodological conception of the study is,

therefore, of the same weight as the facts collected in order to highlight the

case of the ukulele.

One outcome of source reviews is the following correction of the dictionary

entry in some of its essential details:

“The ukulele is a small lute that derives from a reductive reconstruction of a

Maderian rajão, a local predecessor of the Iberian guitar -, which was

created in Hawaii (then Sandwich).

Three Maderian cabinet makers arrived there in 1879: Manuel Nuñes, who

opened the first shop in 1880, and his associates Augusto Dias and José do

Espirito Santo, who followed him in the production of those for the local

market produced small lutes and opened their shops in 1884 and 1888

respectively. The instrument was widely offered as a simplified guitar easy

to play, for example through a campaign on the occasion of King Kalakaua’s

jubilee celebration, where hula dancers were accompanied with ukuleles

following an initiative of Princess Liliuokolani.” The ukulele reached its

commercially supported top of popularity as an exotic souvenir from one of

the first holiday destinations of the United States after the Panama-Pacific

World Exhibition 1915 in San Francisco. Following that event, nearly 80% of

the funny instruments were produced outside of Hawaii in US mainland,

some of them of so poor quality that a petition from Hawaii claimed for

removing the misleading stamp “made in Hawaii”.

Being back in history, here is a short report on the way the history of the

ukulele attracted me.

January 2002, I started to review my field recordings and collections from

the Madeira Archipelago under the aspect of lute exportation. An American

friend from Grass Valley, California, asked for help in researches on how

the braguinha, the named machete da braҫa, was transformed into the

ukulele.

Lies in Music 5

He had an interesting interview with an old Hawaiian woman, who is

considered to be the granddaughter of Manuel Nuñes. After that, he was in

doubt about the whole history of the ukulele. We were exchanging some

documents, comparing data thus both extending our research horizon in

this field. Finally we agreed to the mentioned correction of the entry into the

GROVE and we were surprised about the fact that the wrong story could

survive for such a long time in so many dictionaries. Of course, the ukulele

is small, not made for use in high society orchestras of any classical format

or technically refined for any top virtuosity that is required to be recognised

by the conservative academic world. The ukulele has a high potential to be

an identity marker not only for local cultures in the Pacific region but also

for its emotionally supported social connotation alongside the American

West coast.

In search for self presentation in a cultural history, many of the small scale

amateurs and half professional musicians with an interest in historical

education picked up the curios and easily adoptable instrument and are

searching for its true past.

Here are the essential aspects of a more holistic investigation into the

subject:

Social History

Madeira – the wooden island – was untroubled by human civilisation until

their first inhabitants arrived with their imported but socially fragmented

traditions. They quickly adapted the truly challenging life on the island. The

hard working farmers and craftsmen with their families left Portugal for

different reasons and in waves of a few hundred people resettling their

villages along the valleys and the coast line first on Porto Santo and later on

Madeira. From the 15th until the 18th Century the population increased up to

120.000; 20.000 were imported Moorish slaves from North Africa.

In the 19th Century, many Madeirans moved to other places for economic

reasons. Diseases often demolished the vines. In 1848 the odium ravaged

the plants, and by 1853 vine cultivation was almost totally abandoned.

Twenty years later, the phylloxera, which nearly ruined the whole French

wine industry, crippled the vines again.

Agricultural disasters and a hopeless political situation made them leaving

their villages for Guyana, Brazil, Indonesia and Hawaii, from where they

6 Gisa Jähnichen

influenced directly or indirectly many other sites as for example Taiwan,

Indonesia, Indochina and many Polynesian islands. In Guyana they were

outsiders between British, French and Netherlanders, even if they were well

known for their religious festas and their “guitars”, called rajão or “rezzo”.

The Guyanese Portuguese Noel M. Menezes remarks:

“The Madeirean emigrant then did not arrive in British Guyana devoid of

everything but his conical blue cloth cap, coarse jacket, short trousers and

his rajão.”2

Hawaii seemed to be a special location in the history of Madeiran

emigrants. The coincidence which caused the resettlement on the Hawaiian

Islands is a remarkable story.

The doctor and botanist Wilhelm Hillebrand from Westphalia was

seemingly a key person in this business, who can also be made responsible

for some well thought enrichments of the Hawaiian flora and fauna as for

example for introducing the plumeria from the Asian mainland that became

later on the ‘typical Hawaiian flower used in the famous traditional leis’ –

obviously another historical untruth as we can see. Despite these activities

he was instructed by Queen Emma to build the first public hospital in

Honolulu, once the tallest building in town. There, he had best contacts to

the European community and he was recommending farmers and

plantation workers from Madeira3 that he visited a time before, convinced

that those people who can still survive under such difficult conditions for

agricultural production, would bring both the new setllters and the business

men in Hawaii into a win-win situation. Thus a chummy ship-owner from

Bremen was assigned to transport a first contingent of Madeirans to Hawaii.

The following wave of emigration brought servicemen and diverse

craftsmen, too, among them the three cabinet makers, who shortly later

started the ukulele production.

When the plantation business became weak and declined in Hawaii, many

of the still poor Madeirans went to the American West coast, where they

eventually started the business with dairy industry and the respective cattle

2 By Sr. M. Noel Menezes, R.S.M – Stabroek, May 7th. 2000,

http://www.guyanaca.com/special/portuguese.html (last visit: 1 July 2008)

3 Kuykendall, Ralph S.: The Hawaiian Kingdom: Volume 3--The Kalakaua Dynasty, 1874-1893. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press.1967, pp. 123-126. Here is described that Hillebrand initiated the immigration of Portuguese islanders in an arrangement with the shipping company Hackfeld & Co in Bremen, later with Hoffnung & Co. from London.

Lies in Music 7

husbandry that were on the way to flourish around San José and San

Francisco. At least here, the Madeiran emigrants were slightly amused

about the frenetic Americans playing the ukulele, to which they attached a

fateful colonial history in the name of Infante Dom Henrique, the Seafarer

from Portugal.

Cultural Aspects

Likewise on the Portuguese mainland, musical life of the common people

on Madeira and Porto Santo was generally divided into 3 spheres:

1. Communal representation, differentiated according to a specific age

setting;

2. Spiritual and/or religious life, differentiated according to specific gender

roles;

3. Entertainment, especially as an important part of the two first spheres

that were closely connected to the festa, which is the most important

public institution related to traditional cultural affairs.

These 3 spheres were practiced all over the world where Portuguese settled.

The emigrants, however, realised their musical life always with a strong

concern regarding their local roots and trusting in their unchangeable

spiritual values. One component of keeping local roots is the dealing with

different types of string instruments.

Figure 1: Simple braguinha and special manufacture of a 3 string braguinha by Carlos

Jorge Pedreiras Rodrigues in Funchal (Photos: Gisa Jähnichen)

8 Gisa Jähnichen

On early 19th century Madeira, two different types of lutes could be always

observed. One is the costly 9-string viola da arame which has little to do

with the Malaysian biola. The Madeiran viola was then an instrument of

craftsmen and merchants, who were well situated and educated although

they were rather amateurs in musical practice. The other type was a small

four-string cavaquinho, which was called braguinha, “small piece of

wood”, an often precious work for ladies and other people of the hierarchy,

but also in some simple versions for farmers and fishermen, quite similar to

the cavaquinho of Lissabon which was an essential melodic instrument in

all entertaining performances.

Figure 2: Manuscript page from the collection of teacher Manuel Joaquim Monteiro

Cabrál (1846). This piece for braguinha alias machete is called Rita Polka

(Reproduction: Gisa Jähnichen).

The braguinha was not only striking due to her small size and dimension; it

was to certain degree competing with the violin from the mainland, which

was occasionally played in noble circles as a replacement. In 1846, the lute

teacher Manuel Joaquim Monteiro Cabrál composed and compiled a

respective score booklet, on which we find the instruction “Arranjadas para

Lies in Music 9

Machete e Guitarra”, the gallant names of braguinha and violão, newly

edited by Manuel Morais. This score booklet proves the social re-

interpretation of the supposed low status of braguinha playing in that

period of time through the context of the publication and the editor’s

dedication.

Most of the emigrants, who were willing to leave Madeira for the reason of

not seeing any other way to improve their living conditions, were down-to-

earth farmers and families of craftsmen, who could afford at the most a

simple rajão. The rajão remained until today a symbol of pastoral harmony

and the pure joy of life. It is still the most used instrument in rural

ensembles and many young musicians start their guitar career with a

Madeiran rajão.

Out of the number of lute makers in the 19th century, only few are known

who were able to produce preciously elaborated braguinhas. Two of them

belong to the Nuñes family, possibly an uncle and his son:

Nuñes, Octavianno João (1812-1870), on record as Octavianno João

Nuñes; Artista de violas francezas, guitarras, rabecas, rabecoes, e

Machetes ; Rua de S. Paulo, No 35 A, Madeira;

Nuñes Diabinho, Joao (approx. 1850-1927), son and successor of

Octavianno João Nuñes.

They did not leave for any other country of the world. Being quite well

situated due to their capability and their achievement, they preferred to stay

unlike some other family members who were working in the same business,

but were far less successful. Manuel Nuñes’ qualities turned out to be of this

less successful nature.

One of Manuel Nuñes’ uncle’s excellent braguinhas alias machetes could be

found in the main storage of the Historical Art Museum of Vienna, Austria.

John King, one of the frenetic ukulele musicians and researchers in the

United States, advises on his website “Nalu-Music” fans and other friends

of the ukulele’s history to visit the prototype of their ukulele’s direct

ancestor. The curator of the museum in Vienna himself got in contact to

these ukulele friends and was discussing a respective special exhibit. He

seems to be a late victim of a very creative lie on the history of the ukulele

since he is convinced about an immediate connection between his original

19th-century braguinha and the ukulele.

10 Gisa Jähnichen

In the late 18th century, the so called violão-type was invented in the

Portuguese mainland. It can be seen as a parallel development to the later

introduced Spanish guitar that was a long time called French guitar due to

its supposed and – as we know now - true origin. This lute type reached

Madeira not until the late 19th century.

Instead, the Madeirans developed the rajão, a unique instrument,

universally convenient, cheaper and stronger than the viola da arame, and

perfectly fitting into the sound of the two other lute types. Local instrument

makers started to produce increasingly the rajão rather than to force people

spending their hard earned income on violas. But not only lute makers,

even other craftsmen as cabinet makers or millworker joint the attractive

business with the rajão. The rajão was preferred by most of the musicians

for its tuning and playing techniques, which allowed various interesting

versions thusbeing able to substitute the other more expensive lutes.

Figure 3: Typical ensemble of lutes today of a group from Santana: 1 braguinha, 2

rajão, 1 viola da arame and 1 violão. Observed at the festa in Arco São Jorge, June 2007

(Photo: Gisa Jähnichen).

Flora-Fox, the meanwhile departed granddaughter of Manuel Nuñes, who

reached Honolulu in 1879, had also one of them, and told in the high age of

104 years my colleague Dan Scanlan from Grass Valley, California, the

following:

“Flora Fox: “I have that ukulele... but a bigger one. My grandfather was the

originator of the ukulele. He made the rajaos [rezzaos]. And then from there

he went to Honolulu. And the Hawaiians couldn’t play that big guitar, so,

he made a small one. That was his idea. I’ve got one hanging in my room.

And I and my sister, we used to entertain quite a bit on different places

singing Hawaiian music. Now, what’s this?”

Dan Scanlan: “This ukulele is made by your uncle [Leonardo].

Lies in Music 11

Flora Fox: “Oh, yes, but what I have is larger than this. How it happened:

He made guitars, but the Hawaiians (didn’t) couldn’t learn to play the

guitar. So he decided to make it small, to make this ukulele.”

But, why did he know, that the Hawaiian couldn’t learn to play the big

“guitar”? We know that around 1200 Portuguese lived in 1879 on Hawaii,

approximately 900 of them from Madeira and Porto Santo. Until 1912

further 8073 Madeiran reached Hawaii, out of them 2828 men, 1931 women

and 3314 children. Manuel Nuñes wasn’t in the first group, as it is often said

(see Appendix). That the Hawaiian people were not really interested in

playing the Madeiran lutes he learned from his landsmen who arrived

earlier and who used to play the rajão, the viola da arame and the

braguinha for their own pleasure as they usually did on Madeira: in

ensembles accompanying dances and songs. They didn’t come to make

instruments or to mix up with Hawaiians’ culture. They played their rajão

on the fields; therefore it was called “Taropatch”.

Figure 4: Tuning of viola da arame, braguinha, rajão and ukulele. Different numbers

show different string dimensions. (Drawing by Gisa Jähnichen).

12 Gisa Jähnichen

Manuel Nuñes, a nephew of the viola- and rabeca-maker Octaviano João

Nuñes and specialized in rajão-making didn’t try to teach Hawaiians these

instruments. He wasn’t a musician either. What he did was the following:

he watched the true musical interests and the time Hawaiians are willing to

spend on new experiences. He found out that they may need an easily to

play instrument as a solo instrument or for accompanying short structured

songs. The complicated sound conception of a three-layered ensemble of

different instruments with their various timbral functions as in Madeira

could not work well. Therefore, he had an unusual business idea which he

elaborated together with his two other friends Augusto Dias and José do

Espirito Santo, both good cabinet makers and prospective specialists in

rajão production. They opened their shops and - as a special marketing trick

- they arranged meetings with the king’s family to introduce their creation.

In short, they were cool businessmen and speculated on being believed.

A view on the different tunings, peg positions and string dimensions of the

Madeiran lutes gives Flora Fox right: the ukulele is a rajão on which one

string is missing. In order to prevent a bulky impression, the instrument

was diminished step by step.

Many dictionaries and articles point out that the small braguinha was the

ancestor of the Hawaiian ukulele. That is understandable because of the

similar shape and dimension. The following report, written 1980 in

Honolulu4 is also going in this way:

“The first large contingent of Portuguese immigrants arrived in Hawaii

aboard the sailing ship Priscilla in September, 1878. It is not known whether

any of the 120 passengers aboard the Priscilla brought a braguinha to

Hawaii. Within a year of the arrival of the Priscilla, a second major

contingent of Portuguese settlers arrived in Hawaii aboard the bark

Ravenscrag. Historians are certain that at least one braguinha was present

aboard the Ravenscrag when she sailed into Honolulu harbour on August

23, 1879. Aboard the Ravenscrag were five men who are closely identified

with the ukulele in Hawaii. Augusto Dias, José do Espirito Santo and

Manuel Nuñes were craftsmen able to build fine musical instruments by

hand. João Luiz Correa and João Fernandes were musicians who knew how

to play a number of stringed instruments, including the braguinha.”

4 John Henry Felix, Leslie Nunes and Peter F. Senecal, The Ukulele: A Portuguese Gift to

Hawaii, Published by the Authors, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1980.

Lies in Music 13

As we know now, the braguinha was rather an additional instrument

played together with the viola da arame. Only the five-string rajão could

substitute the braguinha as well as the viola da arame due to its special

sound function. An important indicator is the fact that the rajão was often

played by men as a solo instrument substituting the whole ensemble.5 That

was one of the reasons to create this instrument. At this time, the second

half of the 19th century, the popularity of the rajão was partly caused by this

gendered sound function. Therefore, it seems to be logically that the rajão

was the most favourite instrument that was brought to Hawaii “with the

purpose of making big business”.

We do also know that the viola da arame, rajão and braguinha were already

present on Hawaii and they were played in Madeiran families, descendants

of sailors, who arrived long before the Priscilla starting from the year 1790.

Therefore the Madeiran lutes could not be surprising or completely new to

the public.

I believe Ernest Kaai6 who already noted 1916: “The ukulele is not an

invention but rather a creation.” Unfortunately nobody noticed the

significance of his remark.

As a special marketing event, the ukulele makers arranged meetings with

the king’s family, especially with the princess Liliuokolani, to promote their

new creation. Liliuokolani was herself very interested in music and

composed in her lifetime more than 250 songs that were accompanied with

the ukulele. Her possibly most famous work is the song „Aloha Oe”, which

became finally a movie song hit. To make an interesting side step: The use

of Aloha Oe in movies correlates surprisingly with time periods of an easing

of tension in the United States’ economic policy. However, Manuel Nuñes

and his friends were very clever in advertising their idea and kept the

history of their creation in the dark to fit well into the needs of their time

which looked for histories and traditions in order to compensate for

industrial developments.

The main costumers were the rich as well as the poor Hawaiians. So, Nuñes

and his friends made ukuleles of different sizes and material. Even the

5 In a full ensemble viola and especially braguinha were played by women, too, who seem

to have a stronger sense for joint music practice.

6 Ernest K. Kaai, The Ukulele and How it’s Played, Hawaiian News Co., Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii, 1916.

14 Gisa Jähnichen

string sets were made simpler and cheaper than on the Madeiran islands,

which seemed to be an important point to the costumers.

The viola da arame needs 7 or 8 differently dimensioned strings, the

braguinha 4 and the rajão 3 or 4. The ukulele needs only two different sizes;

cheap versions use only one size.

Easily to play and to tune, the ukulele became the bestseller of all kinds of

Portuguese lutes in the history. But the question is: When does an

instrument begins to be another instrument? Why do we call it “a

Portuguese lute”?

The original rajão was called taropatch fiddle for a long time. After the

Hawaiians accepted the ukulele and were coming in closer contact to the

Spanish guitar through some people who later developed the Hawaiian

steel guitar they were longing for a bigger sound. Therefore, a new kind of

taropatch was created, which directly derived from the ukulele7. It was a

double string ukulele in the same tuning but with a slightly larger body. It

was “created” with the same spreading of deception, which was repeated

for many years in seriously made reports:

“This instrument had 8 strings, arranged in four pairs. It, like its sister the

ukulele, used gut strings. The taro-patch was actually the ancestor of the

ukulele in Hawaii. It is said to have been derived from a guitar-like

instrument brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese sailors”.

Many bands on Hawaii as well as in California, the next aim of the

Madeiran-Hawaiian settlers, adopted the new taropatch after the San

Francisco World Fair in 19158. Later they also transferred the taropatch

tuning on the banjo.

Hawaiian refugees, craftsmen and farmers were quickly assimilated in the

United States, but as well as on Hawaii, they brought their Portuguese way

of life and their cultural thinking with them. The big boom of ukulele and

taropatch began under the leadership of a few businessmen such as

Leonardo Nuñes, the son of Manuel Nuñes, who co-operated with non-

Portuguese singers and musicians. Later on, even Elvis Presley became a

great friend of the ukulele.

7 Mike Longworth, Martin Guitars: A History, Omnibus Press, London, U.K., 1975

8 Hawaiian Music and Musicians, ed. by George S. Kanahele, The University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu 1979, p. 406.

Lies in Music 15

Now, in the 3rd Millennium, one can find more than 1000 rich collections of

ukuleles, taropatches, banjukes and of all other uke-like instruments in the

United States, that are waiting for their heroic history of adventures as

originally Portuguese instruments traveling around the world.

Musical Aspects

What could be a good lie in music without musical aspects?

It is quite possible to create historical looking instruments and legends

around their being as the case shows. But it is very difficult to understand

why the three instrument makers as Nuñes, Dias and do Santo were really

forced to be tricky.

Portuguese festas have always their locally bounded musical repertoire.

This repertoire needs special musical skills that have their roots in the song

and dance tradition of the Portuguese mainland as well as of the Portuguese

islands in the Atlantic Sea.

Europeans are familiar with terms puntoado and rasgado. These are

playing techniques that everybody who knows lutes and guitars and their

respective historical development has heard about. Madeiran musicians are

acquainted with two other very important concepts of “varejemento”,

which deserve a closer look. The first is a kind of synchronic playing of

dancing patterns. It causes a somehow limping rhythm and can rarely be

transcribed into European music notation using conventional methods. The

second concept is a kind of metric separation in dance patterns.

The following example regarding the first concept was recorded by Ernesto

Veiga Oliveira and Benjamim Pereira (1960) when there were not yet any

spectrographic tools. In any case, if one would like to transcribe the piece

„Cana verde” into a simple five-line system, we may have to resign soon.

Obviously, the rhythmic structure is ‘un-thinkable’. Domingo Morais, a

colleague of Oliveira tried very much but he could not make it for a very

basic reason: he did not consider the relation between musical rhythm and

the rhythmic dynamics of the danced steps.

The single beats are as long as the respective steps. Only this observation

delivers a solution for this problem and we cannot find it as long as we have

not seen how the piece was danced and how the musicians were following

the dancers (Figure 5 and 6).

16 Gisa Jähnichen

The other feature of separating dance patterns is very common on the small

island Porto Santo, which is part of the Madeiran Archipelago. Normally,

the string instruments have to play the main structure. However, the

dancers are constructing another rhythmical shape overarching this main

structure.

Hearing this strange somehow limping music on the Portuguese lutes, the

Hawaiians had to give up. Therefore, the repertoire was, as I assume, the

main problem for introducing Madeiran lutes into the Hawaiian society.

The new instrument had to have not only another shape than the common

rajão; it had to play other music. And it did. Finally, the opening of the

repertoire respectively the ignoring of its traditional festa context seems to

be the most important move of the ukulele creators. Therefore, the young

“entertainment industry” could pick up the ukulele and the modern

taropatch so quickly.

Figure 5: “Cana Verde” recorded by Ernesto Veiga Oliveira and Benjamim Pereira

(1960) and transcribed by Domingo Morais

Lies in Music 17

Figure 6: Rhythmic relationship according to the smallest joint unit; an unthinkable

rhythmical structure, when isolated from motional patterns of dance steps (Graphics:

Gisa Jähnichen).

However, in the same manner as Nuñes, Dias and do Santo sold their

creations as Portuguese originals, the created instruments were integrated

into the early American musical life as local sound colours of Hawaii.

Professional ukulele-players as July Paka, William Ellis and especially

Ernest Kaai explored the solo capability of the ukulele, a function, which

their originators purposely intended by functionally choosing the rajão as

the prototype. Additionally there was a need for “De-Hawaiianizing its

repertoire”, therefore the repertoire rapidly changed again in the 30ies and

40ies, when ukulele playing started to be outmoded compared to other

professional entertaining music.

Now, half a century later, we can observe a revival of the ukulele

movement, especially in the United States including Hawaii. Many clubs

and insider groups are not only practising music, they also do researches

into the history of their beloved musical instrument and they collect data

about their historical ‘heroes’ like Arthur Godfrey, Jesse Kalima, Frank

Austin, Kazunori Murakami, Kahauanu Lake und Herbert Ohta.

Searching for the history of the subject matter of their interests, a group of

extremely motivated amateurs set up a meeting between Madeirean

originals and their descendants on Hawaii and in the United States in 1998.

Their joint concerts took place in Funchal and Lisboa.

They played together the ancient Madeiran Mourisca, a dance, which draws

on the mixed culture between Portuguese and Moorish people on the

Madeira and Porto Santo. In a recording of the event, one can hear the

rhythmical difficulties between the Madeiran limping style and the straight

efforts of the American ukulele-players.

Dan Scanlan, the colleague who motivated my research, expressed his

dreams in the song “O luto filho” about the relationship between braguinha

and ukulele closing with the words “sharing future history”.

18 Gisa Jähnichen

“I sit into the little shop

To “Oficina” de Carlos Jorge

an ancient braguinha on his wall,

yes, it’s sunshine far, far away.

Oh luto filho, foreign of the distant sea,

Oh luto filho, sharing future history.”

The Madeiran musicians were not really happy about the enthusiastic

world travellers that claimed to be adopted as wild children. The hisstory as

told by them was not true. Finally, it was time to say good bye to the

romantic imagination, although it was seemingly not so easy to everybody.

Dan Scanlan himself wrote in a paper presented at a conference on

alternative music movements in Long Island (2005):

„It can be said that the braguinha is the father of the ukulele. But it is also

true the rajão is the mother of the ukulele. The ukulele took the physical size

from its father, but got its attitude, personality and tuning from the rajão”.

Figure 7: Carlos Jorge Pedreiras Rodrigues in his workshop with his new “invention”:

a rajinha, just in case we cannot accept the history… (Photo: Gisa Jähnichen).

Many things could be manipulated such as the number of strings, their

tuning, theshape of the body, the tuning pegs, or the wood used. That could

have been purposely or by accident. However, the music itself, the very

Lies in Music 19

subject of “re-interpretation”, turned out to be the deciding clue in order to

discover the lie. What happened then?

Carlos Jorge, the man celebrated in the song of Dan Scanlan, “created” a

Braghijão (Figure 7). His friend Mario André, the leading braguinha player

of the mentioned curios reunion concerts, started to explore some ukulele-

like sound versions, as it can be seen in a unique recording from June 2007.

Eventually, here begins another new story, which can become a true story,

but – as all things in the world – can also turn into another nice tale if

external circumstances call for.

To conclude the case study, the princess Liluokolani is quoted: “E onipa‘a i

ka ‘imi na‘auao”, which means “Be persistent in your striving for

knowledge!”

* * *

The methods used in this study show that even qualitative research

approaches need some quantitative support. For this paper I analysed:

22 scientific articles in encyclopaedia and journals

5 Works of so called “grey” literature

14 Published statistics and bills of lading from different shipping

companies

38 processed audio recordings, 6 of them are so called „rare

recordings”,

7 original video recordings made in 1996, 2001 and 2007

uncounted internet entries and discussion forums

83 private drawings and photos and

22 personal interviews.

All these different documents and sources were brought together in a

digital way, a technical act that goes on the account of a new borderless

culture of thinking in wide multi-disciplinary connections far away from a

narrow perception of regional or subject-matter competencies.

Out of these sources and using methods of narrative analysis as well as

historical and discursive methods I could analyse this possibly amusing

story of a creation with some lies in its history. We do know about that story

because of being able to refer back to many non-verbal, non-written,

20 Gisa Jähnichen

essentially audiovisual documents that linked previously isolated research

results with each other. That seems to be an innovative application of

qualitative research methods.

Not avoiding philosophy: we are going to exchange certain unlimited

accessible and self-networking data about real existing things that create

new real existing things in practice through applying our virtually gained

knowledge. This method is much faster and more effective than all other

previous analytical methods. In result, a new culture of scientific thinking is

inevitable. We know that those data are losing their nature of being things

although they still remain written - at least digitally. We also know that we

are caring more about preservation of knowledge represented through

virtually collected data rather than the preservation of the physical carrier,

which still remains to be a thing.

Especially in the field of ethnomusicology, when researching about

performed arts using sound and motion, audiovisual data accessible in a

virtual way are the only chance to enable us in “re-materialising” the event

as real time acts, described as music, dance or theatre. Those data represent

and shape our knowledge when scientifically processed and brought into a

meaningful historical and cultural context. All other approaches would

make any researches on sound and motion in the future “source-less”, and

thus ethnomusicology would be reduced to a science living from hand-to-

mouth becoming the “bird” that faces its hunter.

Coming back to the question if music can lie, we can summarize: Yes, music

can lie, because man can lie. We cannot prevent lying and inventing history,

however, we could try to prevent the loss of sources and proofs for it.

References

Almeida, Carlos (1992): Portuguese Immigrants: The Centennial Story of the Portuguese

Union of the State of California. Second edition. San Leandro, Calififornia,

Supreme Council of U.P.E.C.

Canticos evangelicos: Nova colecção de psalmos e hymnos (1902). Ed. By Hawaiian Missionary

Board, Hawaii, Typografia Lusitana,.

Felix, John Henry/ Leslie Nuñes and Peter F. Senecal (1980): The Ukulele: A Portuguese Gift

to Hawaii. Published by the authors. Honolulu, Hawaii.

Freitas, Joaquim Francisco (1992) :Portuguese-Hawaiian Memories. Reprint of 1930 edition.

Newark, California, Communications Concepts.

Lies in Music 21

Holmes, Lionel, and Joseph D'Alessandro (1990): Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento

Area. Sacramento, California, Portuguese Historical and Cultural Society.

Kaai, Ernest K. (1916): The Ukulele and How it’s Played. Hawaiian News Co., Ltd.,

Honolulu. Hawaii.

Kanahele, George S. (1979) (ed.): Hawaiian Music and Musicians. The University Press of

Hawaii, Honolulu.

Kopitsch, Franklin; David Tilgner (1998) (ed. In cooperation with ’Verein für

Hamburgische Geschichte’): Hamburg Lexikon. Hamburg, Zeise.

Kuykendall, Ralph S. (1967): The Hawaiian Kingdom: Volume 3 -The Kalakaua Dynasty,

1874-1893. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press.

Longworth, Mike (1975): Martin Guitars: A History. Omnibus Press, London, U.K.

Meier, Ursula H. 2005): Hawaii’s pioneer botanist Dr. William Hillebrand, his Life and Letters.

Honolulu, Bishop Museum Press.

Meyer, Jürgen (1971): Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945. Norderstedt: Egon

Heinemann.

Morais, Manuel (1979) (Ed.): Cândido Drummond de Vasconselos : Colecção de Peças para

Machete (1846). Funchal, Casal de Cambra 2003. Kludas, Arnold, and Herbert

Bischoff, Die Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Bd. 1: 1847-1906. Herford,

Koehler.

Menezes, Sr. M. Noel: Some preliminary thoughts on Portuguese emigration from Madeira to

British Guiana. R.S.M – Stabroek, May 7th. 2000. Online access:

http://www.guyanaca.com/special/portuguese.html

(last visited 25 May, 2008).

Pap, Leo (1976): The Portuguese in the United States: A Bibliography. New York, Center for

Migration Studies.

Reyes, Luis I. and Ed Rampell (1995): Made in Paradise, Hollywood's Films of Hawai'i and

the South Seas. Honolulu, Mutual Publishing.

Rony, Kohar, and Iêda Siqueira Wiarda (1998): The Portuguese in Southeast Asia: Malacca,

Moluccas, East Timor. Hamburg, ABERA.

Scanlan, Dan: Cool Hand Uke's Partial History of the Ukulele. In: Online-Journal “Cool

Hand Uke”.

http://www.coolhanduke.com/history.html (last visited 25 May, 2008).

22 Gisa Jähnichen

Appendix

This is a selection of rare material and snippets in other literature on ukulele as compiled in March, 2008.

Chuck “Frets” Fayne about “The Ukulele - A Visual History”, compiled by Jim Beloff (accessible through: www.fleamarket-music.com; last visited 25 May 2008):

“Thanksgiving 1995 will be remembered as a high-water mark in the ongoing history of the ukulele. During the three-night television broadcast of The Beatles Anthology documentary, the ukulele received an unusual amount of visibility. Paul McCartney referred to John Lennon's mom, who played the uke, and offered that “to this day, if I ever meet grownups who play ukuleles, I love 'em.” Later on, George Harrison is shown playing “I Will” on a uke as well as a never-recorded tune. All of this attention coming from a musical group who made every kid in the world wants to play guitar. Could it be possible that, somehow, the ukulele was “cool” again?

For many of its fans, the ukulele has never been out of style. For players and collectors it is the subject of great passion. The inspiration behind this particular homage to the ukulele is twofold: As a uke collector, the first is a desire to have a comprehensive collection of photographs of the finest ukuleles ever made, as well as many examples of the great novelty ukes. The other driving force behind this book is simply that there hasn't been anything like it available to this day. With that in mind, this book is an attempt to pull together the whole story of the ukulele. Inside you will find the history of the uke, its most noteworthy players and personalities, the great manufacturers and a look at the current uke scene. What follows is truly a labor of love. If you have as much fun reading through this book as I had putting it together, I will consider it a job well done.”

This text does not even mention any social or gender aspects, a typical product of freaks. The history of interest, wrong and right interpretation of origin and development, and the social phenomena of “being a freak” is very well illustrated with the following excerpts from different authors:

George S. Kanahele, editor, Hawaiian Music and Musicians, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1979:

“The present-day ukulele was adapted from the Portuguese instrument called the braguinha, which was introduced into Hawai’i in 1878 by the first group of Portuguese immigrants. Oddly enough, no member of the group was able to play it, not even its owner, one Joao de Freitas. It was not until the arrival of the second boatload of immigrants on August 22, 1879, that ukulele history really began, for on board the Ravenscraig that docked in Honolulu Harbor were not only the braguinha but musicians who could play it and craftsmen who could make it.”

Lies in Music 23

Mike Longworth, Martin Guitars: A History, Omnibus Press, London, U.K., 1975:

“Shortly after the ukulele was first made by Martin (1916), they made the taro-patch. This instrument had 8 strings, arranged in four pairs. It, like its sister the ukulele, used gut strings. The taro-patch was actually the ancestor of the ukulele in Hawaii. It is said to have been derived from a guitar-like instrument brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese sailors. This is not well documented and cannot be quoted as fact.”

May Singhi Breen, New Ukulele Method, Robbins Music Corporation, New York, New York, 1950:

“(The ukulele) was first produced in Hawaii, sometime between 1877 and 1879, by a Portuguese cabinet maker, Michael Nunez, who patterned it after a small Portuguese guitar.”

Howard K. Morris, The S.S. Lurline Conservatory of Hawaiian Music, Matson Navigation Co., San Francisco, California, 1937:

“(The ukulele is) an Hawaiian instrumental adaptation of the Portuguese small guitar which was called the ‘Taro Patch’.”

Helen Roberts, Ancient Hawaiian Music, Bulletin 29, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii 1926:

“Up to the time of its introduction by the Portuguese, the only stringed instrument which the Hawaiians had known as a people was the primitive musical bow, the ukeke. The truth of the statement that the Portuguese brought the instrument later known in these islands as the ukulele has been doubted by some, who are under the impression that although it was first made by the Portuguese, its form was not invented until after their arrival, and was the result of a desire for a more convenient size of instrument, which would also be cheaper to make and would on that account sell more readily. This doubt led to further investigation and to the seeking out of an old Portuguese gentleman, Mr. J.A. Gonsalves, known to have come to Honolulu from Madeira among the first Portuguese immigrants. He was twenty years old at the time of his arrival (1879). On the same sailing vessel with him were three men, Augusto Diaz, Z. Santos, and Manuel Nunes, partners in the old home in the business of making musical instruments. They were the first guitar makers in the islands. That all three instruments were made and played in Portugal is proved by the fact that the largest, the guitar, was there called the viola. It had six strings, like the present Hawaiian guitar. The taro patch fiddle, called rajao in its original home had five strings, as it has in Hawaii, while the ukulele, with four strings, had its Portuguese representative in the braga, one of which Mr. Gonsalves brought with him when he emigrated. These statements have been corrobarated by

24 Gisa Jähnichen

Mr. George Nunes, son of Manuel Nunes, who is now dead, as are also Mr. Santos and Mr. Dias.”

Frank Littig, Littig’s New Harmony Self Instructor Chords for Ukulele, Banjuke or Taro Patch Fiddle, Chart Music Publishing House, Chicago, Illinois, 1924:

“The ukulele is a miniature guitar. (It) evolved from the taro patch.”

E.N. Guckert, The Original Guckert’s Chords for the Ukulele, Lyon & Healy, Chicago, Illinois, 1917:

“This little instrument originated among the natives of Hawaii.”

Ernest K. Kaai, The Ukulele and How its (sic) Played, Hawaiian News Co., Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii, 1916:

“As to the string instrument (ukulele), the native Hawaiian originally had what was called ‘UKEKE’ and that was just an ordinary piece of curved wood with two gut strings stretched tightly across with no set tuning in particular. There is hardly any tone on one of these instruments, just simply a monotonous weird sound very much like that of a Jews Harp. But there was one thing however that an expert was capable of doing, and that was to formulate words by the movements of the mouth, lips, and throat. It can be safely said that the UKEKE was the first of a series of stringed instruments which the ingenuity of the younger generation of Hawaiians have modulated to what is popularly known as the UKULELE.” –

George Kia, Self Instructor for the Ukulele and Taro-patch Fiddle, R.W. Heffelfinger, Los Angeles, California, 1914:

“The Ukulele is a native Hawaiian instrument made of Koa Wood.”

N.B. Bailey, A Practical Method for Self Instruction on the Ukulele, Sherman, Clay & Co., San Francisco, California, 1914:

“The ukulele, the typical native Hawaiian instrument of diminutive guitar shape...was first produced in Hawaii about the year 1879 and sprung into such favor that the old Taro-patch fiddle was immediately dethroned in favor of its smaller brother.”

A.A. Santos & Angeline F. Nunes, Original Method and Self Instructor on the Ukulele, Santos-Nunes Studios, Honolulu, Hawaii, ca. 1914:

Lies in Music 25

“The ukulele was introduced into the Hawaiian Islands by Mr. M. Nunes in 1879 A.D.”

Foreword (dated August 19, 1902), Famous Hawaiian Songs, A.R. Cunha, arranger, Bergstrom Music Co., Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii 1914:

“The instruments of the old Hawaiians have succumbed to the onward march of civilization, and today they are very little used in the cities, although in country districts one may often hear their weird sounds. The guitar, the banjo, the mandolin, the ukulele (modification of a Portuguese fiddle), and the flute, have all taken their place and have come to stay.”

George Formby, instrument maker and ukulele-player in an interview 1928 (see www.georgformby.co.uk)

“Now everybody’s got a crazy notion of their own. Some like to mix up with a crowd, some like to be alone. It’s no one elses’ business as far as I can see, but every time that I go out the people stare at me, with me little ukulele in me hand. Of course the people do not understand. Some say why don’t you be a scout, why don’t you read a book? But I get much more pleasure when I’m playing on me uke. Of course I take no notice you can tell, for Mothers’ sound advice will always stand: She said, ‘My Boy, do what I say and you’ll never go astray, if you keep your ukulele in your hand. Yes, Son. Keep your ukulele in your hand.’” -

Frank Littig, Littig’s New Harmony Self Instructor Chords for Ukulele, Banjuke or Taro Patch Fiddle, Chart Music Publishing House, Chicago, Illinois, 1924:

“A few chords strummed on a ukulele, enough to please a few others beside yourself, does more good in this world than the combined efforts of all the financiers and politicians that ever lived.”

Ernest K. Kaai, The Ukulele and How its (sic) Played. Hawaiian News Co., Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii, 1916:

“M. NUNES & SONS Inventor of the UKULELE and Taro Patch Fiddles in Honolulu in 1879” - M. Nunes & Sons ukulele label, ca. 1910 ...”The ukulele is not an invention but rather a creation.”

Major Kealakai, Self Instructor for the Ukulele and Taro-Patch Fiddle, Southern California Music Co., Los Angeles, California, 1912-1914:

“The tone of the ukulele resembles very much that of the harp.”

26 Gisa Jähnichen

Ernest K. Kaai, The Ukulele: A Hawaiian Guitar and How to Play It. Wall, Nichols Co. Ltd., Honolulu, T.H. 1910:

“Some would call the Ukulele an insignificant instrument, and yet we have all there is necessary to make and cover an accompaniment for the most difficult opera written, the harmony is all there, if one would give it a complete and thorough study.”

Preface to Ray Canfield’s Symphonic Ukulele Arrangements, Villa Moret, Inc., San Francisco, California, 1927:

“We feel certain that these ‘Symphonic Ukulele Arrangements’ will do much to dispel the prejudice that the ukulele is good only for the strumming of a few simple chords and will place it where it justly belongs: in the front rank of legitimate musical instruments worthy of serious study.”

Preface to Ray Canfield’s Symphonic Ukulele Arrangements, Villa Moret, Inc., San Francisco, California, 1927:

“By the proper use of a felt pick, you will be able to produce an effect very similar to a pipe organ.”

‘Ukuleles’, sales brochure, Fred C. Meyer & Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ca. 1917:

“QUALITY: You might wonder what really makes the difference in price. Well, the No. 5 at $2.50 is and looks like an ukulele, that’s all we’d care to say about it. The No. 10 at $5.00 is playable and a good ukulele. Those ranging from $7.50 upwards are genuine Hawaiian, made by Hawaiians in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiians make them by hand. They use only native Koa wood. They ‘know how.’ You’ll never regret buying a genuine.”

‘Martin Hawaiian Ukuleles’, sales brochure, C.F. Martin & Co., Nazareth, Pennsylvania, 1917:

“Superior to the genuine Hawaiian instruments in quality and volume of tone.”

Remark

This paper was ‘re-revised’ in September 2014.