Travel of Georg Forster
'Eua - Tonga (Middleburg island, Eaoowe)
Title
A pleasant song heard in Tonga
Short description
Georg Forster describes the song with which he and the other crew members are welcomed into the chief's house on the island of 'Eua.
Text on source
We were no sooner seated in the house, surrounded by a considerable number of natives, not less than a hundred, than two or three of the women welcomed us with a song, which, though exceedingly simple, had a very pleasing effect, and was highly musical when compared to the Taheitian songs. They beat time to it by snapping the second finger and thumb, and holding the three remaining fingers upright. Their voices were very sweet and mellow, and they sung in parts. When they had done they were relieved by others, who sung the same tune, and at last they joined together in chorus. A very ingenious gentleman, who was on this voyage with us, has favoured me with one of the tunes which he heard in this island, which may serve as a specimen to the musical part of my readers.
In this little specimen the music is in the minor key, (a flat third). They varied the four notes without ever going lower than A or higher than E; singing them rather slow, and sometimes ending with the chord.
English translation
Folios/Pages
p. 429
Date
1773 10 02
Observations on the events description
Talking about the "ingenious gentleman", Georg Forster is referring to James Burney (see event number 110, 126 and 127). See also Dessì 2017, "Oltre il Mediterraneo".
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
Burney, James
Teller
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "A pleasant song heard in Tonga" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 03 20.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
