Bourdonnements des insectes et musique de David : image sonore de l’Éthiopie chez le père franciscain Remedius Prutký (1752)

Abstract

This article analyses the accoustic images of Ethiopia given by the Franciscan father Remedius Prutky in his travelogue Itinerarium, written in the mid-17th c., a text recently edited and translated. A sensory-oriented reading of this text is possible by paying attention to the way the catholic missionary "hears" orthodox Christian Ethiopia. This yields a new, sensory understanding of the perception of otherness. Prutky, in masterful rhetoric, ascribes high symbolical value, very often biblical, to the sounds he heard in Ethiopia. His aim was partisan: to give audible form to the heresy of the Ethiopian Christianity. Nonetheless, his description of Ethiopian musical practices, especially in religious contexts, are of great interest for historical musicology.

Keywords

• Ethiopia
• music
• accoustic image
• Catholic mission
• Remedius Prutky
• King David