"The Beauty of Hawaiʻi Through Your Eyes": The Genealogical Consciousness of Edwin Mahiʻai "Mahi" Copp Beamer

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorTrimillos, Ricardo D.
dc.contributor.authorSala, Aaron J.
dc.contributor.departmentMusic
dc.date.accessioned2022-03-03T19:57:04Z
dc.date.available2022-03-03T19:57:04Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.degreePh.D.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/81652
dc.subjectMusic
dc.subjectBeamer
dc.subjectGenealogy
dc.subjectHawaiian Music
dc.subjectHawaiʻi
dc.title"The Beauty of Hawaiʻi Through Your Eyes": The Genealogical Consciousness of Edwin Mahiʻai "Mahi" Copp Beamer
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractGrounded in an ethnographic approach that is focused on integrating the etic theories of genealogy, memory, performativity, and ethnomusicology with emic sensitivities for moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy), moʻolelo (story), kupa (to be well-acquainted), and mele (music), this dissertation examines the life, education, professional career, and musical output of Native Hawaiian composer and performer Edwin Mahiʻai “Mahi” Copp Beamer (1928-2017). Owing to his steadfast commitment to honoring his ʻohana—the famed Beamer family—and especially his “Sweetheart Grandma,” Helen Desha Beamer (1882-1952) and to maintaining a high level of integrity in his musical work derived from that commitment, I argue that Mahi Beamer’s “genealogical consciousness” is the connective conduit that sustained his creative capacity and productive performativity as a foremost and beloved Native Hawaiian artist. I track Beamer’s career over some seven decades, with a particular interest in the analysis of several of his musical compositions and his falsetto style, and situate him at the center of a series of concentric circles that include family and friends, music industry colleagues, executives, and celebrities, and countless audience members and fans who came to know him over the course of his career. The research draws heavily from my personal relationship to Uncle Mahi, as I affectionately call him, and the countless moʻolelo he shared with me over the 28 years I knew him. Acknowledging that academe is a site of contestation and struggle for indigenous scholars like myself, I simultaneously take up the project of confronting my own struggle in the process of composing this dissertation, and I remain unapologetic over my self-reflexivity and the role I play as a critical interlocutor with a diverse set of viewpoints that are themselves derived from my formal training at the academy (as hegemony) and my formal training in the ʻohana (as indigenous). To carve out a safe space for this self-imposed interrogation, I draw upon the work of indigenous authors and scholars from Hawaiʻi, greater Pasifika, and from the First Nations. Finally, rather than consider how the music of Mahi Beamer sounds Hawaiian, I interrogate what Hawaiianness can sound like through the music of Mahi Beamer.
dcterms.extent236 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:11174

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Sala_hawii_0085A_11174.pdf
Size:
59.36 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Ph.D. - Music