Imaginary

The “journey to the Orient” in the literary sense of the term is a 19th-century invention. To measure this metamorphosis, it needs to be compared with the past.

The Orient of musicians is no less vast than that of painters and writers, to which it is closely linked, and, of course, of scholars who, via writers, were often the first sources of inspiration. It could be near or far, ancient or modern. It is thus too vast for a real overview of it to be made here.