MAKALAPUA- Queen Lili`uokalani’s mele inoa (name chant), original melody offering composed by Starr Kalahiki from Starr Kalahiki on Vimeo.
A friend shared this with me and I just had to show it to you all as well!
This mele inoa (name chant) would have been chanted to Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha on the day of her birth. A melody composed by an Italian composer named Carlo Bosetti was attached to the chant and is the melody we collectively sing today. In 2014, my teacher John Signor and I offered the music of Queen Lili`uokalani on the Leeward Community College stage and it was his thought, that I could offer a gift of melody to her name chant, accompany myself on the harp, and open the show with this intention. I did not have this melody up until the day before opening night when someone texted me and asked if I paid my respects at Mauna Ala, the Royal Mausoleum where she and the rest of our Ali`i are buried. I had not, so I went right away, got permission to go down into the crypt, and sang her prayer, “Ke Aloha o Ka Haku,” in the resonant space of that crypt. I felt a jolt of energy behind the pupil of my eyes, and immediately went to my instrument and composed this. It made it’s debut in #theliliuproject in 2014 and was also featured last October, when #manaolahawaii made it’s debut at New York Fashion week 2017.