The Hawaiian Islands, Ukuleles & Pynchon

p.14-15:
Since their Hawaiian escapades a few years previous (The Chums of Chance and the Curse of the Great Kahuna), Miles had become an enthusiastic ukulelist, and tonight, after securing the scullery and restoring the mess decks to their usual spotless state, he produced one of many of the four-stringed instruments which he kept in his sky-chest, and, after strumming a brief introduction, accompanied the boys as they sang [...]

p. 27:
“I perform the Dance of Lava-Lava, the Volcano Goddess,” she replied.

“I greatly admire the music of the region,” said Miles, “the ukulele in particular.”

“There are several ukulelists in my pit-band,” said Miss McAdoo, “tenor, baritone, and soprano.”

“And is it authentic native music?”

“More of a medley, I believe, encompassing Hawaiian and Philippino motifs, and concluding with a very tasteful adaptation of Monsieur Saint-Saëns’s wonderful ‘Bacchanale,’ as recently performed at the Paris Opera.”“I am only an amateur, of course,” Miles, though long a member of the prestigious International Academy of Ukulelists, said modestly, “and get lost now and then. But if I promised to go back to the tonic and wait, do you think they’d let me come and sit in?”

p.324:
Overflowing with an all-but-elated idea of how he might actually do someone some good, the old fellow produced as from empty space a ukulele of some dark exotic wood trimmed with tortoiseshell and, after strumming a peppy eight-bar intro, sang [...]

p.411:
“Look here, Chick, are you quite resolved in this? You remember the last time, over that Hawaiian volcano—”

p.451:
Picnickers brought with them horseshoes and ukuleles [...]

p.551-52:
At the ukulele workshop that summer. He lectured on the four-note chord in the context of timelessness, and described himself then as a Quaternionist. We had quickly discovered our common love of the instrument,” Miles recalled,“ and discussed the widespread contempt in which ukulele players are held— traceable, we concluded, to the uke’s all-but-exclusive employment as a producer of chords—single, timeless events apprehended all at once instead of serially. Notes of a linear melody, up and down a staff, being a record of pitch versus time, to play a melody is to introduce the element of time, and hence of mortality. Our perceived reluctance to leave the timelessness of the struck chord has earned ukulele players our reputation as feckless, clownlike children who will not grow up.”

p.552:
“Brought your uke, I see.”

“I have learned a ‘snappy’ new arrangement of a Chopin nocturne that might interest you.”

p.555:
As evening descended, Thorn, who honored smaller promises at least, produced his ukulele and played the Chopin Ε-minor Nocturne, the tenuous notes, as light departed, acquiring substance and depth.

p.567:
Root Tubsmith whanging away at a ukulele medley including Borel-Clerc’s wildly popular “La Matchiche”

p.678-79:
while just in front of the Duke of Cumberland’s Theatre a ukulele quartet were playing and singing a medley of tunes from Waltzing in Whitechapel [...]

p.684:
and repeating da capo, a tune from the third act of Waltzing in Whitechapel, which Nigel accompanied with ukulele chords, thus [...]

p.866:
But, like you, the only chords on his ukulele these days are for ‘I Love You Truly.’”

p.1030: There were great waves passing through the Æther, Viridian explained, which a person could catch, and be carried along by, as the sea-wind carries the erne, or as Pacific waves are said to carry the surfers of Hawaii.