Yodel!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:53 pm

This isn't Alpine folk music................it isn't playing on a hackbrett............but it is Erinnerungen an Zirkus Renz played in Aabenraa (used to be the first entry in the Pears Cyclopaedia Gazetteer) by two presumably Danish children, as Aabenraa is in Denmark. The little boy at times has to run from one end of the xylophone to the other to play the notes, but I think he's tremendous. Enjoy!

TRavine · Post by **TRavine** » Thu Mar 16, 2023 11:18 pm

OurCreature wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:53 pm This isn't Alpine folk music................it isn't playing on a hackbrett............but it is Erinnerungen an Zirkus Renz played in Aabenraa (used to be the first entry in the Pears Cyclopaedia Gazetteer) by two presumably Danish children, as Aabenraa is in Denmark. The little boy at times has to run from one end of the xylophone to the other to play the notes, but I think he's tremendous. Enjoy!

Oh wow that was impressive. What talent!!

Post by **merry** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 2:50 pm

That was absolutely fabulous!

Fantastically talented little boy, and I loved the way the little girl remembered to watch him for her own cues. Sometimes it's quite hard to get small children to watch the conductor.

Great stuff, OC! thank you for posting this!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:40 am

Time for some Alpine harmonies.............a polka courtesy of some young ladies from near Kitzbühel in the Tirol.

Here they are again.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:05 pm

A follow-up to young Justus playing his marimba (I think it was that instrument rather than a xylophone). This Youtube video told me that Justus was around 7 or 8 when he played that piece. Also I think Justus is one of the Danish-speaking minority in North Germany as he is from Flensburg just south of the border with Denmark.

This video was recorded when he was 12, taking on Evelyn Glennie to see who could play The Flight Of The Bumblebee faster; the Dame had no penalties for mistakes but Justus had some time added for errors. But the Dame didn't need Justus to have penalty time added because she was faster anyway.

You might also notice that the Dame varies the tone of her playing; sometimes louder, sometimes softer ie interpreting the music which is a technique that Justus has yet to learn. He's still very talented!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:36 am

It's a little while since we saw Melanie and her family so here they are - Melanie is informing us that they are a Yodel Family and I think she tells us at one point that her Dad plays the handorgel (accordion), as if we hadn't already noticed. I don't know where they are in Switzerland - the country abounds with these little castles and pretty villages.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:52 am

I've chosen this video for a couple of reasons. Firstly it shows you that violinist Noelle looks completely different when she is wearing her glad rags for a formal concert compared with when she is appearing on Nicolas Senn's TV programme. In the pic below you can see her with Nicolas, Erika (accordion) and Madlaina (double bass) all in their traditional gear playing to the TV studio audience. I am not sure that she is from Canton Appenzell even though she is wearing Appenzeller traditional clothes because her grandmother lives/lived in Wintherthur which is in Canton Zurich.

In the video her group Trio Fontane are playing with Nicolas in a marriage of hackbrett and classical at a festival in Lenzburg which is in north-central Switzerland; Hero Jam had its factory by the railway station there, but in 2012 (thank you Wikipedia!) the plant was replaced by a new one elsewhere in Lenzburg. Lenzburg also has a connection with the Royal Family in that a rich American who bought Schloss Lenzburg in 1893 and renovated it was married to Mildred Bowes-Lyon who happened to be an aunt of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon who became the Queen Mother when her husband George VI died early. There is a photo of Glamis Castle in the Schloss which I went round with my Swiss friend some years ago.

Here's the video!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:43 pm

I have discovered that the old gentleman I visit fortnightly in Winchester likes this music - I showed him a video on my mobile and he said he'd like to see some more. It's different and interesting, he said. I started him off with Nicolas Senn playing a duet with young Joshua, and then Nicolas on his own playing Zirkus Renz when he was quite young - plus the four young Austrian ladies playing their hackbretts as well. So I hope I'm on a winner there!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:02 am

Time for another Alpine melody!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Apr 02, 2023 3:10 pm

It's time for Kapelle Weissbad (yet more musical Appenzellers) to play for us today - music more in the style of what a lot of non-Swiss etc think is Alpine music. You might recognise Daniel from Trio Fassler-Kolbeiner at the piano. The name of the piece Efach Schö translates as 'Just Fine' which is appropriate for Switzerland as everything there has to be just so. I've also learned that the small disc hanging by the thin chain from the men's right ears represents the wooden cream ladle used in making cheese (for which the Appenzell cantons are famous in Switzerland) so it's very traditional and important.

When I was a boy at Peter Symonds School the mad music master Mr Perkins quite often had us singing for part of the lesson, out of a book of traditional songs. One of them was about the Appenzellers making their cheese which was when I first heard about these people. In those days I thought it was just a song.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Wed Apr 05, 2023 1:57 pm

Here's Daniel with big sister Erika and brother Martin playing the hackbrett giving us a tune somewhere nice in the hills of Canton Appenzell. The name of the tune translates as Frieda's Dream.

TRavine · Post by **TRavine** » Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:31 pm

I posted the original version of this song here a while ago. This is the cover version by Conchita Wurst and Ina Regen. The video shows them looking down at the city of Vienna. The lyrics are in Austrian dialect.

TRavine · Post by **TRavine** » Thu Apr 06, 2023 10:31 pm

OurCreature wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 1:57 pm Here's Daniel with big sister Erika and brother Martin playing the hackbrett giving us a tune somewhere nice in the hills of Canton Appenzell. The name of the tune translates as Frieda's Dream.

This is lovely!!!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Apr 07, 2023 8:39 am

That's certainly a different take on yodelling by Conchita and Ina - I like it. Thanks for posting, Tom.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Apr 09, 2023 9:09 am

Let's stick with the Kapelle Geschwister Fässler who in this clip include brother Florian who looks as if he has borrowed big sister Erika's accordion. Martin is playing the double bass.

I read that the Kapelle were invited to play at a folk festival in Japan. Their father was all 'you won't get me up in one of those things' about the flight, but changed his mind IIRC when he learned that somebody else was paying for it. Florian had to stay at home to continue with his college studies.

I think the men are wearing traditional Appenzell herdsmen's trousers - a very dark brown instead of black. It's quite difficult for me to distinguish between those 2 colours sometimes.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:09 pm

Here is a pleasant group who do a little bit of yodelling in their song. I think these folk are from that part of Italy which the German-speakers call Sud Tirol. 62% of the people who live there are German speakers and it is the most ptosperous part of Italy. I get the impression from some of these videos that they are saying We might be in Italy but we aren't Italian, we are Tirol!

And I couldn't resist this advert for trains in Switzerland.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Thu Apr 13, 2023 10:05 am

Here's what I think they call in Switzerland Natural Yodel. The title translates as the Dance of the Snowflakes.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Apr 14, 2023 10:50 pm

It's Novelty Act Time! At Merry's request - not yodelling, no Jaws Harps, no Schuhplatteln..............just some fun.

First 'I Wish I Was A Hen' Takeo Ischi also did a chicken song with yodelling, that's on an earlier page.

And now a skit from Not Only But Also about the Leaping Nuns of Norwich, with a film showing how well they have learned the secrets of trampolining from Sister Domination who was transferred from Dijon for a record fee.

And here's some more from the Nuns' Chorus.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Apr 16, 2023 10:13 am

Back to the Alpine music today. You've seen 3 of these people on Page 4 when they were playing their hackbretts; Nicolas Senn and the lady are still playing the hackbrett, but the older chap who was playing the hackbrett is playing the double bass here.

Everybody looks as if they are having a good time, though one of the handorgel players looks as if he might already have had a better time than most already as you'd be forgiven for thinking he might have been rather too generous with his share of schnapps beforehand.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Tue Apr 18, 2023 9:34 am

More Alpine music - here's Nicolas outdoor in Canton Wallis in the south west-ish part of Switzerland. It has mountains north and south with the Rhone Valley in between. The camera occasionally pans over so we can see the cattle, and on one occasion hurriedly pans away from them when one gets a bit frisky.