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Re: [ARSCLIST] Royal Hawaiian Troubadours
At 04:43 PM 5/6/2005 -0400, Matthew Barton wrote:
Does anyone have any information about the Royal Hawaiian Troubadours, who
recorded for the American Record Company in 1905? The only reference I can
find to a group of this name (in "Hawaii Music and Musicians"), is a much
later one, and it is not clear if it's the same group. Most of the
recordings have announcements, and on at least one, they are referred to
as the "Royal Hawaiian Students," and "Mauna Loa" is announced as a
"college song." On a few sides, vocal soloists are announced, but the
names do not match any given for the later group.
They seem to have made the first recording of "Aloha Oe."
A friend passes along the following. If you need to contact him directly,
please send me a note privately.
<<"One, Two, Three"
by the **Royal Hawaiian Troubadours**
The band that made this recording for American Records in March of 1905 is
one of the first Hawaiian groups to make records of any sort. The song they
are playing was written by Jack Alau (music) and Sam Kalama (words), and
was republished several times through the years. The sheet-music example to
the left, in fact, comes from ten years later when it was incorporated into
the 1915 Irving Berlin musical "Stop! Look! Listen!" (see the Internet
Broadway Database for more details about that). It's an interesting period
piece. This record measures 10 and 5/8 inches and plays at 68 rpm, allowing
a maximum playing time of 4 minutes. It's got some needle-wear in spots,
but it's in very nice condition for the vintage. (An on-line history of
Hawaiian music, which mentions the Troubadours, can be found at "Surfing
For Life".) (Many thanks to Malcolm Rockwell for filling in missing info.) >>
and, perhaps more helpfully:
http://tinyurl.com/cf939
I know some specialists in Hawaii, let me know if more research is needed.
******************
Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/