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Yodel and yodel techniques:

let’s yodel together!

By Evelina Rioukhina and Gertrud Attar

A great day for the Swiss yodel! In December However, difficult does not mean impossible.
2025 it was voted a UNESCO intangible heritage. Yes, it was and still is a means of communication
In the edito we talked about different singing across mountain pastures and villages. However,
techniques, which, even if not officially called it is clearly more than that: even with more
yodel, use yodel technique. This article goes into modern means of communication, it survives,
more detail. and in Switzerland it is a national heritage.

Whilst yodel used to be thought of as exclusively One of the most popular songs with a natural
from the Alps, whether Austrian, German or Swiss, yodel, called Ranz des Vaches, or Lyôba, is known
nowadays it is a planetary phenomenon. Gertrud, by everybody in Switzerland, and it is often
my co-author, is from the part of Germany where called the Swiss national song. It is performed
yodelling is a common type of singing, just a more during important events and festivals, often
complex one. We are both members of the Swiss by thousands of people with soloists or a
Association of Yodellers, and we can definitely leading choir. It is so emotional that Jean-
confirm that it is very beautiful – but difficult ! Jacques Rousseau even said it had the power
to make Swiss soldiers to succumb to ‘delirium
melancholium’ (Swiss nostalgia).

The song also inspired great composers. Rossini
used it in the overture to “William Tell”, Berlioz
incorporated it into the “Scene in the Fields”
of his Symphonie Fantastique, Liszt wrote
paraphrases on it in his collection “Album d’un
Voyageur”, and Schumann included it in his
great symphonic poem Manfred. Beethoven and
Wagner also used it for pastoral themes.

Unless you were brought up within the tradition,
yodel technique can be difficult to acquire, but

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