May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To celebrate here are 4 influential composers who blend their native music and cultural identities into classical music.
Queen Lili’uokalani (1838-1917)
Queen Lili’uokalani was the last monarch of Hawaii before the United States annexed the islands in 1898. She was adopted into another family of royal lineage, a common practice to strengthen alliances among chiefs in Native Hawaii, which established her claim to the throne. Lili’uokalani was a talented haku mele (music composer), saying “to compose was as natural to me as to breathe.” In 1866, she was asked to compose Hawaii’s national anthem, “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi”, which was used for the next twenty years.
Lili’uokalani became queen in 1891. She worked to restore power to the Hawaiian people and monarchy after American businessmen began taking control. She fought annexation throughout her reign and argued against the racist representation of herself and people in the US. Some of her supports tried to start an armed revolt in 1895, which led to Lili’uokalani being placed under house arrest and forced to surrender her throne. While under house arrest, Hawaiian newspapers began publishing her songs, including those that were smuggled out of house arrest. “Aloha ‘Oe”, was one of these songs, originally composed in 1878 by Lili’uokalani, but was transcribed during her house arrest.
Many of her pieces were preserved and collected in “The Queen’s Songbook”. The book is a collection of 55 compositions that took decades and hundreds of volunteer hours to compile. The book is still available and being printed today.
“Aloha ‘Oe” is arguably Lili’uokalani’s most popular piece, if not the most popular Hawaiian composition. The lyrics tell the story of two people in love parting ways.
Zakir Hussain (1951-2024)
Zakir Hussain was an Indian tabla player and composer, and is considered “a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement”. He began his professional career at the age of 12, playing with some of India’s greatest classical musicians and touring internationally. His tabla performances have helped elevate the status of the tabla in both India and globally. Some of his collaborations include performing with Shakti, CrossCurrents, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer, and Herbie Hancock.
In addition to performing, he has composed music for numerous films, major events, and orchestra. He composed three concertos, the last of which was the first concerto for tabla and orchestra. He has received numerous awards for his music and performances, including the National Endowment for the Arts’s National Heritage Fellowship and several Grammys.
Nilo Alcala (b. 1978)
Nilo Alcala is an award-winning composer whose works have been performed throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America. He was the first Filipino composer to be commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and have a piece premiered at Walt Disney Concert Hall. He also received the Copland House Residency Award, the first Filipino-American featured in Musical America Worldwide, and was awarded The American Prize for a major choral work.
Alcala’s works range from film scores to orchestral and chamber works, but he is most well-known for his choral works. Ceremonial Burning is one of his choral works. It was inspired by Wendell Berry’s poem “Autumn Burning”. According to the publisher, “The droning harmonies and eerie melodic lines transport both singers and audience to a completely different frame of mind, transforming a concert hall into a mysterious space of possibility.” It is for SATB choir, with alto and tenor soloists, and percussion.
Tan Dun (b. 1957)
Tan Dun is a world-renowned composer, conductor, and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador. His music is known for blending the boundaries of Western and Eastern music, multimedia performance, and classical music. Dun has received a Grammy Award, Oscar/Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, and Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2019, Tan Dun was named Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
One piece that highlights Dun’s blending of Eastern and Western music is his Grammy-nominated piece Concerto for String Orchestra and Pipa. This piece is derived from Tan Dun’s theater piece “Ghost Opera”, inspired by Chinese peasant culture that Dun grew up with. This concerto is four movements long, played without pause between the movements. The piece contains elements of minimalism, American dance rhythms, Bach quotations, and Chinese elements with the pipa solo. The pipa is a “Chinese lute”. It has a large, pear-shaped body and a short neck, and the strings are plucked.