In 1810, during his journey through Albania alongside Lord Byron, the English traveler and writer John Cam Hobhouse (later Baron Broughton) witnessed a distinctive vocal tradition among Albanians.

While passing through a customs post, an Albanian customs guard entertained the travelers by singing various songs. Hobhouse described the performance in his travelogue A Journey through Albania, and other provinces of Turkey in Europe and Asia, to Constantinople, during the years 1809 and 1810:

“Their melody is extremely monotonous and sung through the nose.”

He further noted that the singer amplified the sharp cry of his voice by placing his hand against his ear and cheek.

This account represents one of the early Western descriptions of a traditional Albanian singing style characterized by nasal resonance and a strong, penetrating tone. Such techniques, often involving nasal emission and hand-to-ear amplification, were (and in some regions still are) part of Albanian folk singing practices, particularly in mountainous and rural areas.

Hobhouse’s observation captures both the cultural curiosity and the typical 19th-century European perspective on non-Western musical forms, which were frequently labeled as “monotonous” by travelers accustomed to different harmonic traditions.

Source

Из истории английской литературы. этюды, очерки, исследования. Михаил Павлович Алексеев. 1960.