SYMPHONY REVIEW
'Masterworks' a tottering soapbox
By Gregory Shepherd
Advertiser Classical Music Critic
What the heck were they thinking at the Honolulu Symphony when they put together this weekend's program?
Advertiser library photo
Titled "Cinematic Masterworks," a goodly portion of the program
Elizabeth Lindsey Buyers' film discusses the effect of newcomers on a native populace.
is a tottering soapbox for the social theories of Dr. Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey Buyers via her latest film, "And Then There Were None," and a masterwork it ain't, not by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact it's difficult to figure out just what her documentary is other than a tendentious harangue about the evil haoles (disingenuously called "the newcomers" in the film) and the depredations they visited upon the native populace.
It is undeniable that these depredations did in fact occur, but Lindsey Buyers' reduction of 200 years of history into a 25-minute oppressor/victim dialectic turns that history into a politically correct cartoon, and not a very good one at that.
In an early portion of her on-stage narration of the film, Lindsey Buyers (who is described in the program notes as president of a large Big Island agricultural concern and an anthropologist) states, in a voice fairly quaking with victimhood: "The newcomers bring diseases against which Hawaiians have no immunity."
• "Then There Were None," a documentary film narrated by its director, Elizabeth Lindsey Buyers, with Honolulu Symphony Orchestra accompaniment; pianist Jeffrey Biegel performs George Strouse's "Concerto America"; Samuel Wong conducts • 4 p.m. today • Blaisdell Concert Hall • $15-$57, at the symphony box office • 792-2000
That was true, but "the newcomers" also brought, among many other positive things, the writing system that makes this newspaper possible, as well as a technological tradition that led to the invention of the movie camera which made "And Then There Were None" possible.
Cinematic Masterworks
As the film describes the population decrease of Native Hawaiians amid images of greedy haole overseers and starving Hawaiian children, only the barest mention is made of the intermarriage, a major factor in that decrease.
Lindsey Buyers' parting shot in the film is that by the middle of the 21st century there will not be a single "pure" Hawaiian left. The only remedy that seems possible would be to restrict current "pure" Hawaiians to marrying others of similarly unsullied lineage.
The music for the film is taken from Lalo Shifrin's "Liliuokalani Symphony" with chants performed by kumu John Ka'imikaua and two other unidentified gentlemen. These chants and additional singing at the film's conclusion by the children's chorus, Na Leo Kuho'okahi, were actually the most effective parts of Friday night's performance.
The music for the rest of the program takes a back seat to "And Then There Were None," and of the three other pieces performed (Copland's "Music for Theater," Charles Strouse's "Concerto America" and Gershwin's "An American in Paris") only the Gershwin has anything memorable about it.
Gregory Shepherd has been The Advertiser's classical music critic since 1987.
