Voices of the Bamboo: The ‘Ohe Hano Ihu, Hawaiian Nose Flute
By Leilehua Yuen
The ‘ohe hano ihu, or bamboo nose flute, is found on many island groups in the Pacific. In Hawai‘i, it is considered a sweetheart’s instrument. It is not a loud instrument; rather, the tone is intended to be soft and gentle. Traditionally, it is not played in concert for a large audience, but played in a quiet place for someone special.
A few generations back, a Hawaiian youth interested in courtship would fashion a simple flute. The romantic would take a length of bamboo and cut it, leaving a node on one end and cutting the node off the other. He would take a burning hardwood twig and char a breath hole and finger holes in the side of the flute.
The spacing of the holes and the length of the flute were entirely a matter of personal taste, determined, by what the suitor believed would please the object of his affections. He would then carefully sand the flute and burnish it with oil. Each flute and its song was as unique as the swain who crafted it.
In the evenings, the young man would take his flute and play it softly within hearing of his sweetheart. If she liked him, she would make a point of remembering the distinct sound of his melody. Then, when he wanted to attract her attention, he would play his flute to entice her to join him. Sometimes, a young woman would make a flute of her own to entice or reply. Sitting together, the couple might play duets or whisper to each other as they played, the words disguised to other listeners, but intelligible to the pair.
According to one legend, a god taught a young chief to make the nose flute so that he could court a beautiful girl from the valley below his upland court. The nose flute is found in many Hawaiian stories of courtship and romance.
In the Hawaiian language, the flute is known by a number of names: hano, nose flute, (Pukui and Elbert); by the more specific term ‘ohe hano ihu, bamboo flute [for] nose; ‘ohe hanu ihu, bamboo [for] nose breath (Nona Beamer lectures); and the evocative term, mea ho‘oipoipo or thing for lovemaking.
When the ancestors of the present-day Hawaiian people arrived to these islands almost 2,000 years ago, they brought with them useful plants, including two varieties of bamboo known as ‘ohe [OH-heh] in the Hawaiian language.
Bambusa vulgaris is a thick-walled lumber bamboo. Schizostachyum glaucifolium is a thin-walled bamboo used in Hawai‘i for containers and musical instruments. As well as the nose flute, bamboo instruments traditional to Hawai‘i are the pū‘ili (split bamboo rattles) and the kā‘eke‘eke (bamboo xylophone).
Hawai‘i’s Bishop Museum has flutes from Hawai‘i, the Caroline islands, Fiji, the Marquesas, Tonga, Niue, Futuna, and Tahiti. The Samoan people played their courting flute using the mouth. In Aotearoa, the flutes were made of wood or human bone. In Hawai‘i, it is used as an accompaniment to hula as well as in courting.
According to Arts and Crafts of Hawai‘i by Te Rangi Hiroa, old flutes in the Bishop Museum collection have a hole at the node area for the breath and two or three fingering holes. In the three-finger-hole specimen, one fingering hole is placed near the breath hole. Lengths range from around 10 inches to over 21 inches.
Oral tradition in various families states that numbers of fingering holes ranged from one to four, and location of the holes varied depending on the musical taste of the player. Though primarily a courting instrument played privately and for personal enjoyment, it also could be used in conjunction with chants, song, and hula (Emerson, 1965). Some kumu hula were said to have been able to make the flute sound as though it were chanting or to chant and play at the same time.
In 1948, Nona Beamer, her brothers, cousins, and haumāna introduced the nose flute to the North American public in Canada, the USA’s 48 contiguous states, and Mexico in an 18-month performing tour. Other than as a curiosity, few people held an interest in the instrument.
One person who was interested was Calvin Hoe, who in the early 1960s began making pre-European-contact traditional Hawaiian instruments. A water-rights activist with genealogical ties to Hakipu‘u, O‘ahu, he also is a strong proponent of Hawaiian culture and has taught Hawaiian music and instrument making to Hawai‘i’s school children in numerous settings since that time. He is responsible for much of today’s popularity of the instrument, helping students to craft almost 2,000 instruments each year through the Kamehameha Schools Exploration program.
During the Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance of the 1970s, the flute—free to make (if you can find bamboo), simple to play (if you can breathe), and easy to carry (in a backpack, purse, or pocket)—surged in popularity in Hawaiian music and hula.
Largely due to the efforts of people like Nona Beamer and Calvin Hoe, in the 1970s the Hawai‘i public school system slowly began to incorporate Hawaiian culture and arts into its curricula. By the 1980s, kūpuna (Hawaiian elders) were invited into most schools to teach traditional Hawaiian music, arts, and crafts.
In 1977, American television audiences were treated to the melodies of the ‘ohe hano ihu when Keola Beamer and Mr. Snuffleupagus (Snuffy) performed a duet during a Kaua‘i filming of Sesame Street. In general, though, the instrument was primarily used to accompany chant during ceremonies and occasionally to ornament or introduce slack key guitar pieces.
Nelson Ka‘ai of Hanapēpē, Kaua‘i was another of those who perpetuated the instrument in the 1970s. He began making traditional instruments in support of his wife’s hālau hula and has continued to do so, inspiring others to take up the art for four decades.
Near the end of the 20th Century and in the first decade of the 21st, the simple instrument began to develop a stronger following. The Beamer family of musicians was highly influential in its popularity. From the middle of the 20th Century, Mahi Beamer; Nona Beamer; her brother, Keola Beamer; and her two sons, Keola and Kapono Beamer have been incorporating the instrument into their performances.
At the close of the 20th Century, several Hawaiian musicians were incorporating the ‘ohe hano ihu into their music, but only one in the public eye used it as his primary instrument. The late Anthony Natividad was one of the kids who first met the nose flute through those 1970s Hawaiian culture programs.
In 1975 while in the fifth grade, Anthony participated in a leadership camp at Camp Erdman on O‘ahu’s North Shore. He remembered the camp as being run by Hawaiians, with all Hawaiian activities. One was playing the ‘ohe hano ihu, taught by the late Uncle John Naone. Intrigued for a time, but unable to play the instrument, he lost interest and moved on to other things. Years later, out of school, an adult, and married, he was given an ocarina by his wife. It sparked a love of wind instruments that eventually led him to the ‘ohe hano ihu. Among his inspirations was Native American musician Carlos Nakai.
At the turn of the century, Anthony was breaking new ground in the music using the ‘ohe hano ihu, performing in the stage production ‘Ulalena on Maui, collecting flutes from around the world, recording CDs, and crafting instruments from the traditional bamboo as well as cardboard, aluminum cans, water bottles, and anything else he could find. His musical explorations with the instrument led him to develop a style that appealed to the modern audience, introducing the flute to the new millennials.
As a youngster, Moku Hawai‘i (Hawai‘i Island) musician Manu Josiah spent 30 years traveling around the world before returning to his roots. Originally trained in classical guitar, he left the music world for a time to serve in the US Navy, retiring as a Chief Petty Officer.
He moved back to Hawai‘i Nei, settled on O‘ahu, and began participating in the activism and cultural causes then sweeping that island. He then taught financial management skills for the US Marines before returning to his ‘ohana’s (family’s) home island in 2008. Today, he is internationally known for his skill on the ‘ohe hano ihu.
In 2003, opportunities to begin performing Hawaiian music on Moku Hawai‘i opened up and he decided to take them. In 2008, he finally realized his dream of returning to live on his ‘ohana’s home island, and moved fulltime to Moku Hawai‘i.
Manu had spent his teenage years in the Pacific northwest and developed an appreciation for Native American culture. He had attended many powwows over the years, and so made a point of going to the Hilo Inter-Tribal Powwow, then organized by Troy and Liz De Roche. Troy, a renowned Blackfeet flute player, invited Manu to accompany him, and the two “brothers from another mother” began experimenting with combinations of Troy’s traditional and original Blackfeet melodies and Manu’s guitar stylings. Intrigued by the anthropomorphic qualities of the flute’s voice, Manu began studying the instrument under Troy’s direction. Troy also played and made ‘ohe hano ihu and shared that with Manu as well. Manu found the Hawaiian flute a perfect match and began exploring its many voices and moods.
In 2011, Troy and Manu released a CD, Journey Across the Water, currently available on CD Baby. Troy plays traditional Native American flutes, and Manu plays guitar and ‘ohe hano ihu. The melodies weave native American with Hawaiian tradition, just as the musicians do in their own lives.
Manu Josiah crafts his flutes by hand from invasive running bamboos, which have become problematic in Hawai‘i. The traditional native Hawaiian ‘ohe (Schizostachyum glaucifolium) is a clumping species.
Manu says, “The invasive bamboo used to make this flute is very detrimental to the native forest because it overtakes the environment it grows in, making it difficult or impossible for native plants in the forest to grow. This invasive species is also very prolific. So rather than pouring poison on it, which would be hazardous to our own health and environment, I use them to make instruments.”
While traditional Hawaiian flutes of old were not bound or decorated in any way, Manu decided to start wrapping his with fine twine or thread after a trip to Missoula, Montana.
Troy and Manu had traveled to Missoula for the release of Journey Across the Water. During the first night in Missoula more than 30 of the flutes Manu took for workshops and to sell cracked due to temperature and humidity changes. Throughout the night, the sharp snaps and pops of the flutes breaking kept him awake. He now binds all of his flutes before considering them pau (finished).
Two additional differences between Manu’s flutes and those of old are the tunings and the decorations.
“I started decorating the flutes with wood-burned designs because I wanted to flame-dry them. Reducing the water content makes the flutes stronger, destroys the eggs of insects that would start eating the flutes, and gives them a better tone. I also like the colors I get when I run a flame over them. At first, I was making abstract and random designs. Now, I’m finding symbols that mean something to me, that tell a story I want to add to the flute. But yes, all of the designs are still burned into the flute.”
He adds, “Today, because many people are used to hearing harmonic tunings (western tunings), I have modified the flutes to be more aesthetically appealing to the modern ear. I’ve also added more holes to give the player more options to play different songs. “Traditionally,” he says, “only one or two holes were used. Flute lengths varied from ten inches to twenty-one inches. There is no written sheet music for the flute. Just let your spirit lead you. The more you play, the more you will become comfortable coming up with original music.”
Manu says that playing the Hawaiian flute is easy and simple. “Rule number one, relax. This flute will not play if you try to force air into it. You need to be relaxed and breathe normally.”
He explains that the breath is allowed to flow across the hole, not forced into it. Think playing a soda bottle, not a whistle. ❖
Manu gives the following steps to play the ‘ohe hano ihu:
1. Holding the flute with your right hand, place the flute under your right nostril, so that the nose hole is under your right nostril, holding it perpendicular to your nose and about 30-degree angle to the right. You can adjust to find the best tone quality.
2. Gently place the pad of your middle finger over the hole farthest from your face. Remember, relax and don’t press too hard. Use just enough pressure to cover the hole.
3. Gently place the pad of your index finger over the hole closest to your face (not including the nose hole, of course).
4. Gently place your left thumb under the flute for support.
5. Gently place your left index finger on your left nostril and gently apply pressure to close the airway of your left nostril.
6. You are ready to play. Gently breathe in through your mouth and breathe out through your right nostril. Remember to relax, don’t force it. You can adjust the position of the flute until you hear a nice full sound.
7. Gently lifting and moving your fingers on your right hand will give you different notes.
Manu’s latest release, Hano—Breath of the Flute, is available through Music.LeiManu.com.
Bibliography
Buck, Te Rangi Hiroa Peter; Arts and Crafts of Hawai‘i
Craig, Dr. Robert D; Dictionary of Polynesian Mythology
Beamer, Winona; Nā Mele Hula
Beckwith, Martha: The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai
Gutmanis, June; Na Pule Kahiko, Ancient Hawaiian Prayers
Thrum, Thomas G; Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1902
Westervelt, WD; Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes
Beamer, Winona; Interviews, 1997-2007
Josiah, Manu; Interviews, 2005-2015
Natividad, Anthony; Interview, 2011
