| |||||||
A very special welcome to all people arriving directly from my website! Yodeling started out as a means of communications between next-door neighbors. But they were one peak instead of one door apart. Mountain peak that is. Scenario: the Austrian Alps. It didn't need words. Just a loud sound and a strong voice. And whoever lives up there, where the air is almost unpolluted, does develop an enduring voice rather naturally! Actually yodeling was originally called "Juchizn," an array of short yells which had different meanings, like "it's dinner time" or "it's a boy." Yodeling turned out to be so much fun that it quickly turned into an art form and it expanded into the Swiss and Bavarian Alps. Listen to two RealAudio examples:
Again, most of the words you hear don't mean anything. They are just chosen for good sound. The words are a pile up with some repeated patterns. Sometimes a piece ends with three or four meaningful words just for the fun of it. For example: "drobn auf da Alm," which is Austrian slang (dialect) for "up there on the mountain."
Yodeling is now part of the folk music all over Europe. Only in the twentieth century people started to write some of those melodies down. Tobi Reiser, the Salzburger folk music pioneer, traveled through the lands, listened to people yodel and make music and wrote down all he heard. Then later pieces finally got published and recorded. Yodeling started out with a single voice melody. That's why it's still very typical that a single voice starts the piece. Then a second voice was added, then a third, and sometimes a bass line. In most cases the middle voice of the three is the main melody which makes it especially interesting. Yodeling works best when you can get a natural echo. The greatest place where I ever got to yodel was in the middle of the Königsee in Berchtesgaden, Germany. The lake lies at the foot of the 10,000-foot Watzmann Mountain. I yodeled in front of a rock face appropriately called the echo wall. Our boat was about 1,000 feet away from the steep mountain and it took two tries. And I had already given up, but all of a sudden I got my echo! It took a long time for the sound to make the round trip. On those popular boat rides the skipper always carries a trumpet to demonstrate the echo. He was glad to have a yodeler this time for a change! Nowadays every art form gets somewhat commercialized. Be aware of what I like to call "tourist yodeling." It's not the real thing! It emphasizes acrobatics and speed. Those are not major elements of the traditional yodeling. And the absence of tourist-yodeling is one of the secrets for the success of the show Salzburger Adventsingen which I have been part of for the past 35 years. It was founded by the before-mentioned Tobi Reiser in 1946. The Adventsingen is a big event these days, but it preserved the pure yodeling of small folk ensembles from Bavaria and Austria as one of its strongest elements! Now it's no coincidence that Tarzan is a man. What he is doing is some kind of jungle-yodeling. Since a man has the most noticeable voice break he is predestined to yodel. Women have a voice break too in puberty, but a much smaller one. And I am very proud to have many female yodelers as close friends. When I learned how to yodel from Tobi Reiser himself, I was only seven years old. So I had to practice for a year or so before I got that funny knot in my vocal chords. I can't physically explain it. And it wasn't all good for me: at the same time I sang with the children's choir at the theater in opera productions. I had a hard time controlling my voice with that weaker middle range where I had developed that "artificial" voice break! Bottom line: in good conscience I can not recommend yodeling for kids. But you adults out there: next time you reach a mountain top or you walk through the woods, try yodeling! It's a wonderful feeling and it's also a cry of joy! Make sure to visit Florian Keller at his lively web site at Vienna Opera 4151. There you can hear him sing and play the piano, and also learn about his secrets of success and all his concert activities. Florian is an Austrian citizen, having been raised in Salzburg, one of the most beautiful und culturally enriched cities in the world. Don't miss next month's column when he tells you about some typical Austrian traditions. | |||
