Travel of Georg Forster
Queen Charlotte Sound - New Zealand (Tōtaranui)
Title
Some musical instruments of the natives
Short description
Georg Forster describes some of the musical instruments brought on board the Resolution by the natives.
Text on source
They also brought some musical instruments, among which was a trumpet, or tube of wood, about four feet long, and pretty strait; its small mouth was not above two inches, and the other not above five in diameter; it made a very uncouth kind of braying, for they always sounded the same note, though a performer on the French horn might perhaps be able to bring some better music out of it. Another trumpet was made of a large whelk, (murex tritonis), mounted with wood, curiously carved, and pierced at the point where the mouth was applied; a hideous bellowing was all the sound that could be procured out of this instrument. The third went by the name of a flute among our people, and was a hollow tube, widest about the middle, where it had a large opening, as well as another at each end. This and the first trumpet were both made of two hollow semicylinders of wood, exactly fitted, and moulded together, so as to form a perfect tube.
English translation
Folios/Pages
pp. 227-228
Date
1773 06 04
Observations on the events description
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
Name
Role
Notes
Edit
Delete
Cook, James
Travel fellow
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "Some musical instruments of the natives" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 03 14.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
