Charles John Wall

Charles John Wall was born in Dublin, Ireland, on December 23, 1827.  He married Elizabeth Evans (Miller) Wall; they had 10-children: Thomas E Wall; Emily Wall; Charles Wall; William Albert Wall; Henry Wall; Walter (Walt) Eugene Wall; Arthur Frederick Wall; Alford Wall; Ormand E Wall and Alice Wall

In 1880, the family came to Honolulu by way of California.  Wall (and some of his children) left some important legacies in Hawaiʻi.  Charles was an important nineteenth century Honolulu architect, some of the buildings he designed are still here; several have been lost, but not forgotten.

Charles J Wall participated, or led the design of ʻIolani Palace, Kaumakapili Church, Lunalilo Home and the Music Hall/Opera House.

ʻIolani Palace

The design and construction of the ʻIolani Palace took place from 1879 through 1882; three architects were involved: Thomas J Baker, Charles J Wall and Isaac Moore. The Baker design generally held in the final work.

A quarrel broke out between Baker, Samuel C Wilder (Minister of the Interior) and the Superintendent of Public Works.  Shortly after the cornerstone was laid on December 31, 1879; Baker apparently ended his connection with the Palace.

He was succeeded by Wall, who had recently arrived in the Islands and was “employed to make the detail drawings from the first architect’s plans.”

According to the March 31, 1880 Hawaiian Gazette, Wall had “skillfully modified and improved” some of the objectionable features of the original design.  (Peterson)  Wall was succeeded by Isaac Moore after about nine months.

ʻIolani Palace was the official residence of both King Kalākaua and Queen Lili‘uokalani. After the overthrow of the monarchy, ʻIolani Palace became the government headquarters for the Provisional Government, Republic, Territory and State of Hawai‘i.

During WWII, it served as the temporary headquarters for the military governor in charge of martial law in the Hawaiian Islands.  Government offices vacated the Palace in 1969 and moved to the newly constructed capitol building on land adjacent to the Palace grounds.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on ʻIolani Palace:

Kaumakapili Church

Starting in 1837, "the common Hawaiian folk of Honolulu" started petitioning Rev. Hiram Bingham, head of the Hawaiian Mission, to establish a second church or mission in Honolulu (Kawaiahaʻo being the first.)

It started as a thatched-roof adobe structure erected in 1839 on the corner of Smith and Beretania Streets.  The adobe building was torn down in 1881 to make way for a new brick edifice.

King Kalākaua took great interest in the church and wanted an imposing church structure with two steeples.  His argument was, "...that as a man has two arms, two eyes, two ears, two legs, therefore, a church ought to have two steeples."

The cornerstone for the new church was laid on September 2, 1881 by Princess Liliʻuokalani (on her birthday.)  Seven years later the new building was completed.

It was an imposing landmark, first of its kind, and visible to arriving vessels and land travelers.  It was dedicated on Sunday, June 10, 1888.  In January, 1900, disaster struck.  The Chinatown fire engulfed the entire building leaving only the brick walls standing.

On May 7, 1910, the congregation broke ground for the third church building.  It was dedicated on June 25, 1911, the same day in which the 89th Annual Conference of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (ʻAha Paeʻaina) was hosted by the church.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on Kaumakapili Church:

Lunalilo Home

The coronation of William Charles Lunalilo took place at Kawaiahaʻo Church in a simple ceremony on January 9, 1873. He was to reign as King for one year and twenty-five days, succumbing to pulmonary tuberculosis on February 3, 1874.

His estate included large landholdings on five major islands, consisting of 33 ahupuaʻa, nine ‘ili and more than a dozen home lots. His will established a perpetual trust under the administration of three trustees to be appointed by the justices of the Hawaiian Supreme Court.

Lunalilo was the first of the large landholding aliʻi to create a charitable trust for the benefit of his people.  The purpose of his trust was to build a home to accommodate the poor, destitute and infirm people of Hawaiian (aboriginal) blood or extraction, with preference given to older people.

In 1879 the land for the first Lunalilo Home was granted to the estate by the Hawaiian government and consisted of 21 acres in Kewalo, near the present Roosevelt High School.

The construction of the first Lunalilo Home at that site was paid for by the sale of estate lands. The Home was completed in 1883 to provide care for 53 residents. An adjoining 39 acres for pasture and dairy was conveyed by the legislative action to the Estate in 1888.

After 44 years, the Home in Kewalo (mauka) had deteriorated and became difficult and costly to maintain. The trustees located a new 20-acre site in Maunalua on the slopes of Koko Head.

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on Lunalilo:

Music Hall – Opera House

In 1881, a Music Hall was built across the street from ʻIolani Palace, where Ali‘i regularly joined the audiences at performances. Queen Lili‘uokalani is even said to have written her own opera.  (Ferrar)  It was built by the Hawaiian Music Hall Association.

The building was first called the Music Hall, but shortly after its transfer to new owners, the name was changed to the Royal Hawaiian Opera House.  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Despite its name, the Opera House was not primarily a venue for classical entertainment. Many of its bookings were melodramas and minstrel shows, two very popular forms of theater at the time.  Then, it was the first house to show moving pictures in Hawaiʻi.

The building was of brick 120 by 60 feet on the ground floor and walls forty feet high and twenty inches thick. The front door was ten feet wide, opening into a vestibule 16 by 27 feet. The seating capacity of the house was 671 persons. The stage was forty feet deep and provided with a complete set of scenery, traps and all necessary paraphernalia. (Hawaiian Star, February 12, 1895)

"Originally there were two (private) boxes. One on the right of the stage looking out was regarded as the property of the late King Kalākaua, who had subscribed liberally to the stock of the Association.  The box on the opposite side was owned by the present proprietors, Messrs. Irwin & Spreckels. About two years ago two boxes wore opened above those mentioned for letting to whomever first applied for thorn on any occasion.”  (Daily Bulletin, February 12, 1895)

Click HERE for a Link to additional information on the Opera House:

Wall died at Honolulu on December 26, 1884.

The image shows some of Wall’s designs - ʻIolani Palace, Kaumakapili Church, Lunalilo Home and the Opera House.  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Leo Kiʻe Kiʻe

The earliest mention of the yodel dates back to the 4th-century, when Roman Emperor Julian complained about the wild, shrieking songs coming from the mountain people to the north.

The earliest written record where a yodel is mentioned by name is found in a collection entitled Bicinia Galca, Latin Germanica, from 1545, where it was described as "the call of a cowherd from Appenzell."

Many experts agree that yodeling was used by those living in the Central Alps as a method of communication between herders and their stock or between Alpine villages, with the multi-pitched "yelling" later becoming part of the region's traditional lore and musical expression.

Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register (or “chest voice”) to the “head register;” making a high-low-high-low sound.

In Hawaiʻi, in 1793, the first cattle were given as gifts to the King.  This was followed shortly thereafter (in 1803) with the first gifts of horses.

Three decades before the American West was running cattle, in 1832, King Kamehameha III brought Spanish cowboys (paniolo, from español, meaning Spanish) from California to train Hawaiians in horse and cattle handling.

The paniolo who came to the Big Island from southern California may also have brought their yodeling. There is no concrete evidence to support this claim, though Mexican singers do use falsetto. Robert Sonomura wrote in his 1973 study of falsetto in Hawaiʻi that “the best of the early Hawaiian falsetto singers came from the island of Hawaiʻi.”  (Kanahele)

Records indicate Band Master Henri Berger used yodeling in his voice instructions.  Later, Theodore Richards began conducting the Kamehameha School Boy’s' Choir in 1889. Charles E. King wrote in The Friend of Richards “He used many native songs in his work, and it was he who introduced the yodel which is now the rage with Hawaiian singers.” (The Friend, December 1 1928)  By 1890 falsetto seems to have been widely known, often accompanied by yodels.

Many believe the Hawaiian falsetto, in part, was derived through the technique of yodeling – to reach notes out of the singer’s ordinary range, where only the edges of the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to the whole length.

Falsetto singing is defined as the ability to go from a lower register “chest voice” to a higher register “head voice.”  (Kanahele)  (The word falsetto is derived from the Italian falso, ‘false.’)

Many Hawaiian chanters used a certain vocal ornament involving the transition from regular chest voice to falsetto voice. At this transition a characteristic break occurs.  Mele with dialogues between male and female characters were reportedly chanted in two different registers, where the female response was occasionally delivered in falsetto. (Kanahele)

The origin and development of falsetto singing in Hawaiʻi is not clear; it is safe to assume that no single individual can be credited.  (Kanahele)

Hawaiian falsetto is a blend of pre-European Hawaiian chant practices, early hymn singing and the popular European music of the latter half of the 19th century.  (Kanahele)

It wasn’t until a 1973 Hawaiian Music Foundation falsetto concert that the Hawaiian falsetto was coined – Leo Kiʻe Kiʻe (high-pitched voice.)

“As for the word haʻi, Hawaiian speakers and owners of the Kawena Pukui dictionary alike know that the word translates as ‘break,’ and in this context refers to the technique of emphasizing the transition between a singer’s lower and upper vocal registers.”  (Kanahele)

Likewise, many male Hawaiian falsetto singers insist that the aim of falsetto is not to imitate women’s voices.  Likewise, the issue of whether women can accurately be described as “Hawaiian falsetto singers” has been complicated by the unfortunate use of the word haʻi as a gender-specific term for women who sing in a style that would otherwise be described as “female falsetto singing.”

“The modern Hawaiian term for Hawaiian falsetto singing by members of either sex is leo kiʻe kiʻe (it was previously known as leowahine (female voice.)) … Hawaiian female falsetto singers were falsetto singers, not ‘haʻi singers.’”     (Kanahele)

The relevant translation relates to a style in which singers voice a break when moving between their lower register ("chest voice") and upper register ("head voice.")

Hawaiian falsetto singers use this technique to emphasize or add emotional intensity to a phrase or passage, whereas traditional European-American falsetto singers try to eliminate any hint of it.

Saturday, September 21, 2013, Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives will host Huakaʻi, to celebrate the memory and music of Genoa Keawe and her family (Click HERE for tickets.)

Although Aunty Genoa left us in 2008, her music lives on.  Click HERE for a rendition of Alika by Aunty Genoa.

Keawe’s direct protégé is her granddaughter, Amanda Pomaikaʻi Keawe Lyman, the daughter of her youngest son, Eric Keawe.  She and others in the Keawe family will be singing at Huakaʻi.

The image shows Genoa Keawe (2005.)

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