In desperation, the Hawaiian monarch turned to the Mexican government forty years later for help on pest-control, since much of Mexico, including the territory that was eventually stolen by the US, was dedicated to cattle ranching. So the Mexicans sent "vaqueros", their cowboys, to help out. The vaqueros taught the Hawaiians cattle-herding techniques, as well as an art that no price tag could be placed on: how to play a guitar.

The Hawaiian cowboys ('paniolo', possibly derived from "hispaņola) adapted the instrument for their own requirements. They loosened or "slackened" the strings to create harmonies more in line with singing than piano keyboards, which were rare. Last night (Friday, 2/12/99) at Symphony Space, under the auspices of the World Music Institute, three "slack key" guitarists played to a sell-out crowd. George Kahumoku Jr., Cyril Pahinui and Rev. Dennis Kamakahi took turns performing, while accompanied by three hula dancers.

The program notes explain the evolution of the style:

"Slack key means that some of the strings are loosened from the standard tuning, with the thumb playing the bass while the other fingers play the melody and improvisation. Slack key guitarists play in a finger picked style, often with a steady rhythm to accompany hula dancing and singing, while tuning their guitars down or up to match the range of the singer. The tradition continues to grow and evolve, and today's players in developing their individual style, draw from family techniques and tunings handed down through the generations.

"Like the chant and the hula, slack key guitar has become another way of telling the story of the Hawaiian people and passing the flame of Hawaiian culture from one generation to the next. Many people were introduced to this music by the late Gabby Pahinui [Cyril's father], the first recognized master of slack key guitar. Called the folk hero of the Hawaiian music world, he inspired a whole generation of musicians and listeners with his performances and recordings, which were the first slack key recordings to get widespread distribution."

There is nothing flashy about the slack key style. The songs are played at medium tempo and are generally addressed to themes of love and nostalgia. The Hawaiian language is among the most beautiful on earth and blends organically with the sweet sounds of the guitar. The slack key guitarist tends to be a modern day version of a troubadour and will find inspiration everywhere, especially on the islands themselves. George Kahumoko Jr. related an anecdote about an inspiration for one of his songs.

He found himself driving down a road on the southern Kona slope of Hawaii's Big Island, when he spotted eleven waterfalls on the side of a mountain. He stopped his car immediately in the middle of the road and stepped out to admire the sight. The next thing he knew a line of cars had stopped behind his and the drivers had joined him on the road. A song came out of this vision.

One of Hawaii's greatest song writers was Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning monarch. She wrote a love song "Ke Anu Mai Nei," that included the Spanish words "Esposa," "Mia Amante," and "Buenos Noches" in homage to the Spanish roots of the slack key style:

"The cold is wind borne (Eia ke ko mai nei e ke anu) Where the chill is swift and icy cold (Hu'ihu hau kololio) The sacred calm of fond remembrance ('O ke ano kapu o ka Hali'a) The betrothed one of the lover. (Ka Marido Esposa a ka ipo)

"Return, return to the uplands (E ho'I, e ho'i i ka uka) O bird that dwells in the lofty realm (E ka manu noho i ka 'iu) Be careful, be watchful (E ao, e ao mai' oe la) The cold blows the wind (Ke ko mai nei e ke anu) My beloved of the peaceful night (Mia amante o ka po la'ila'i) Goodnight to you and I (Buenos noches kaua) My restless companion of the lofty realm (Ku'u hoa kuwili o ka 'iu) The plains so calm in its solitude." ('O ke kula la'I ano mehameha)

The colonization of Hawaii raises all sorts of interesting questions about "civilization". Were the British with their horned pests and their gunpowder more civilized than the Hawaiians they conquered? Consider the poem cited above in contrast to all the works of the cast of royal cretins in Great Britain. Who is civilized and who is savage? A look in the dead-eyed face of Prince Charles should answer that question without hesitation.

How do we measure civilization? Is it the sum total of all the inventions and all the money that is amassed? Or is it equivalent to the quality of peoples' lives? It should be elementary that any society that allows a young unarmed African to be shot 19 times by its centurions is uncivilized. Civilization, above all, should aim for the elimination of organized violence.

Cyril Pahinui explains why slack key songs are generally about the love of people or nature. He says that the Hawaiians used to have constant warfare until the 13th century, when all the chiefs decided that it was irrational to fight. They concluded peace treaties which eliminated war and allowed all Hawaiians to enjoy the bounties of their island. This peace was destroyed when Captain Cook "discovered" the islands in 1778.

Cook, cut from the same mold as Columbus, couldn't understand the islanders. He described a topsy-turvy world where "not only their plantations, which are spread over the country, but also their houses, their clothing were left unguarded without the slightest apprehension." This led Samuel Kamaku to give the Hawaiian take on things: "You foreigners regard the winds, the rain, the land, and sea as things to make money with; but we look upon them as loving friends with whom we share the universe."

The imperialists, first British and then American, both saw Hawaii in the same manner, as a way-station en route to holdings in East Asia. Noel J. Kent has described this precise role in his "Hawaii: Islands under the Influence" (MR Press, 1983):

"Cook's voyage broke Hawaii's millenium of isolation from the world beyond Polynesia: within a few years, a varied assortment of Westerners were touching at the Islands on their way across an increasingly traveled Pacific. Hawaii's role in the late eighteenth-century trans-Pacific trade became that of a provisioning station for the handful of U.S. and English fur traders bound yearly for China. As one merchant wrote with gratitude, 'What a happy discovery these islands. What would the American fur trade be without them to winter at and get every refreshment?' The impact of this early European intrusion was unevenly felt. The foreigners introduced the previously unknown concept of trade for profit in their dealings with the fishermen and agriculturalists: island foodstuffs and primary products--pigs, fowls, fruits, vegetables, yams, firewood--were bartered for simple manufactured iron objects and tools. (In 1795, for example, the going price was 1 English musket for 9 large hogs, while a chisel fetched 6 pigs.) The women quickly learned that their favors would be readily rewarded with the bright calico cloth and trinkets that every sailor had crammed into his sea chest. Some basic cultural beliefs were shaken. And yet the subsistence economy remained viable, with most Hawaiians living much as had their pre-contact ancestors.

"As early as a decade after Cook's landing, then, we can discern the pattern that was to last for the next two centuries: Hawaii as a resource base for the dominant economic-political interests in the Pacific, repeatedly shifting its economic role in reaction to much greater economic transformations originating in the world's economic centers. Thus in the eighteenth century, Hawaiians began to become integrated (in a marginal yet significant manner) in the economic grid that led from the fur-trapping camps of the Pacific Northwest to the entrepots of South China. Provisioning was the first mode of integration into this global economy, and yet when expansion from the center decreed change--in this case, when food production on the Pacific Coast reached the point where it could adequately supply merchant vessels--the trade quickly expired. This pattern was to be repeated with other goods and services throughout the ensuing centuries."

Young Hawaiians were affected by the world-wide radicalization of the 1960s and developed new forms of resistance to the neocolonial status quo. This has taken many different aspects, from radical environmentalism to sovereignty demands. On August 8, 1898 the Hawaiian islands were illegally annexed to the U.S. To protest the annexation, Hawaiian activists organized an Aloha march. They have defined their goals: