When the COVID-19 pandemic put the world on lockdown, it gave a group of Hawaiʻi musicians time to study Queen Liliʻuokalani's songbook and record themselves playing classical instruments.
Liliʻuokalani wasn't just Hawaiʻi's last reigning monarch. She wrote and composed 150 songs and chants in the 1800s, including during her imprisonment at ʻIolani Palace after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
"We spent time and honed the artistic process to which we could really feel almost like a mirror into the past when she was imprisoned," said Joshua Nakazawa of the Mana Music Quartet. "We were quarantined and felt like we were imprisoned in our own environment."
Nakazawa is one of four musicians who performed a series of the queen's songs last week at the Candlelight Concerts at the Cathedral of St. Andrew's.
The Mana Music Quartet consists of cellist Nakazawa, violist Duane Padilla, and violinists Eric Silberger and Mann-Wen Lo. Grammy award-winning violinist Henry Wang filled in for Lo as a guest performer.
Candles cast a dim glow on the string quartet as the audience became captivated by the harmonic songs of Liliʻuokalani's "Aloha ʻOe," "Ka ʻŌiwi Nani," or the beautiful native, and more.
The quartet performed 15 songs at the concert on the week of the late queen's birthday, which is Sept. 2.
Liliʻuokalani was fostered in a diverse musical environment during her royal upbringing. She was exposed to Western and traditional Hawaiian music, and composed in ʻŌlelo Hawai'i and English.
She drew inspiration from Hawaiian chants and songs, an integral part of storytelling in her culture, but was also influenced by classical music. Liliʻuokalani intended her songs to be performed by a choir or on a piano.
Padilla said there was a violin during her time, and a quartet might have played at her house, although there's no documentation.
"This is imagining what a string quartet might sound like in her time. But also in our time, too," he said. "That story of Hawaiian music has been forgotten."
Padilla said the hidden meanings are the most challenging part of interpreting the queen's songbook.
On the surface, the lyrics of "Kuʻu Pua I Paoakalani" suggest that the queen is reminiscing on a field of flowers, but Padilla said another interpretation is that she was receiving flowers from a man when she was imprisoned at Washington Place.
Kapolei resident Christy Maumau said it was her first time attending the Candlelight Concerts. She grew up listening to classical music, including songs from the Hawaiian monarchs. That's how her father raised her and her brother and sister.
"We recognized many of the songs," she said. "That song about the flowers being delivered was a story my dad told us when we were young."
Maumau's father had a stroke last year, so she and her siblings brought their father to the concert in hopes that it would rekindle those memories for him.
"I hope he was able to resonate with it, and it would touch his mind in a way that would help him recover more," she said.
More than 300 people attended the concert.
Keeley Niday, a producer at Fever, said the point of the Candlelight Concerts is to envelop guests in the darkness and draw their attention to the music.
"It's very intimate," she said.
It's not the quartet's first time playing at the Candlelight Concerts, but it's the first time the concert has paid tribute to Queen Liliʻuokalani.
Padilla said what's different about this concert is that it's being played from the culture of Hawaiian music.
"In Western culture, music is entertainment, but in Hawaiian culture, music is the glue that holds society together," he said. "There's a great responsibility being a Hawaiian musician that you have to go beyond entertainment value and be the cultural bearers of what's come before, which is a huge responsibility. We don't take that lightly."
