Hawaiian music today is a harmonious blend of different cultures. Ancient Hawaiians did not sing - they chanted. Chanters were considered a special breed, trained at an early age to chant lengthy meles. The chants were performed on special occasions honoring gods, people and events.
Like most Polynesians, ancient Hawaiians were poetic in their use of language and conscious of the balance of nature. For them, nature was a metaphor for life — ferns, flowers and birds were symbols of lovers; water, rain and wetness symbols of life, fertility, growth, grief and hardship.
Many chants were sacred not only to the gods but to families as well. Through the generations, chanters passed their secrets on to a chosen few; hence the reverence for chants today.