Music... the univeral language with its mysterious and amazing ability to move the senses and touch the very core of one's being... the most powerful vehicle ever to carry and preserve a cluture throught time. In Hawaii, we have kanikapila - that wonderful traditon of coming together to sing and play the old mele of Hawaii.

"I touch my fingers to the ukulele that once was yours, Uncle, and feel the weight of your legacy...and then faintly, above the winds and the crashing sea, I hear again the sound of your singing and I am humbled by the greatness of your gift. When I play and sing your mele, I know you play and sing with me. Mahalo for your gift."

A young man (model: Walt Mahealani Keale) sits by a fire on the beach by Halona Blow Hole beneath a full moon. As he strums his ukulele and sings, his music relects the influence of him mentor, kumu and kupauna, (most notably for Walt, two giants in Hawaiian music composition and performance: his uncle Moe Keale [1939-2002] directly behind him and, standing by the fire, kiho'alu [slack key] great, Kawika Kahiapo. Kawika and Walt play and sing together in Kaukahi.) I am attempting to paint an "influence" in depicting the spirits of various Hawaiian songwriters and musicians, past and present. They kani ka pila togetehr, their voices and intruments joining with his. The will live forever... because of their music.

There is a perfect and beautiful harmony that transcends time and space. it takes the rhythms, melodies and harmonies of all composers, arrangers and great performers throughout the centuries, and blends them all together with the voices of today. This unique harmony is ongoing; the individual voices fade in and out and the faces change, but the music lives on - twisting, changing, but never separate from the music of those who sang and played before we did.

Think of each "voice" in this "time-line" harmony as a horizontal melody, moving through space. These multiple melodies from yesteryear are interwoven with our current music like a fugue, producing that wonderful "vertical' blend of past and present.

Now take this special resultant harmony and let it resonate together with the music of all of nature - the wind, the sea, the birds...and there is music that cannot be described in words; it can only be flet in the very depths of one's soul.

As the strains of this mystical, concerted sound waft high in the breeze, I wish I could simply reach up and grasp a handful and keep it always, but it belongs to another dimension. It is not mine, not yours, but rather "ours" - and yet ours only for this single, fleeting moment...