Travel of Georg Forster
Tanna - Vanuatu
Title
Irromanga's man singing
Short description
Georg Forster describes another musical encounter with the natives. This time they have the opportunity to hear a song from the island of Irromanga, near Tanna, because the man they have asked to sing is from there. Forster notes the difference from what he had heard that morning (see also event number 110).
Text on source
We were no sooner seated with the father of one of the families, a middle-aged man, of a promising countenance, than our friends importuned us to sing to them again. We readily complied with their request, and when they seemed to wonder at the difference in our songs, we endeavored to make them understand that we were natives of different countries. Hearing this, they pointed at an elderly thin man in the circle of our hearers, and telling us that he was a native of Irromanga, desired him to sing to us. The man immediately stepped forward, and began a song, in the course of which he made a variety of gesticulations, not only to our entertainment, but to the great satisfaction of all the people about him. His song was to the full as musical as that of the people of Tanna, but it seemed to be of a droll or humorous nature, from his various ludicrous postures, and from the particular tone of the whole. The language was utterly distinct from that of Tanna, but not harsh or ill-suited to music. It seemed likewise to have a certain metre, but very different from that slow and serious one which we heard this morning.
English translation
Folios/Pages
p. 322
Date
1774 08 13
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
Forster, Georg
Singer
Sparrman, Anders
Singer
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "Irromanga's man singing" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 04 06.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
