Yodeling (for Craig)

Yodeling is a kind of singing that is really abundant in all the countries that border the alps: Austria, Germany, Switzerland. A yodel sounds strange - and strange it is indeed. There are many misconceptions about the act of yodeling and its time to clarify this.

Yodeling is a fusion of two distinct types of human noises that served two different purposes. "Jonen" is a low-pitched sound that has been produced by the "Landsgmeind", the coming together of people from a village or a community to discuss political issues. If somebody has said something that everybody agreed with, people made this noise. The word "jonen" is also related to the word "jo" which means yes in the Basel dialect.

The second part of the yodel ist the model ("m-au-del"). Which is derived from another communal tradition: young men at the age of 18 come together to sing about how their favorite girl should be like. Again, it is connected to the verb "to model": the men hope that their wishes materialize.

But of course, this is long, long ago. About 500 years. The yodel itself has developed into an art form. Initially, however, it was a serious profession. It all started with an accident. Just around that time when yodeling emerged in the communities in the swiss alps, the reformation took place in Europe. People abandoned catholicism and the protestant church was on the rise. Protestant churches emphasized the good side of christianity, its positivity. This created a demand for artists that were able to contribute to the decoration of newly built churches, and coloured glass was very imporant. Windows of all churches were graced with pictures made of coloured glass. Still a widespread feature in many churches. Have you every tried to cut glass? Especially with the low quality glass in those days, it was impossible to get the necessary shapes to construct the biblical scenes in the windows. However, glass that is shattered with ultrasonic soundwaves splits in regular pieces irrespective of its quality. A technique that is still in use today. And this was realized early on. When several people yodel together, the interferences can easily be controlled by experienced singers to reach extremely high frequencies. And so it was the yodlers that helped to create those windows. Not a coincidence therefore, that yodeling is often done during mass (see the picture).

As with many things in Switzerland, the yodelin was perfected. Still nowadays there are contests were people attempt to shatter glass by yodeling according to predefined shapes ("Stücklijodle"). Or they try to focus the sonic waves to burst bottles ("Bierjodle"). Especially among younger people the bierjodle is famous. The loser has to drink all the beerbottles that didn't burst.

There is also a sad story that goes with the emergence of yodeling. It concerns the non-existant Swiss forest. I guess you don't know that Switzerland has basically no native forest left? That we actually import the wood to build cuckoo clocks? Here you go. In order to produce all the glass for the church windows (and even more was produced because it became a big export industry), many trees were cut to melt the glass. In fact all the trees.

This is also the reason why the standard Swiss army knife contains no saw. To protect our forests. And there is also the hypothesis that only after all the trees were cut people began farming and the cows the give the milk for the Swiss milk chocolate might never have existed hadn't there been the yodeling and the glass.

Strangely enough this story is rarely told. Althoug every child in Switzerland learns it. Maybe because there is too much negativity to it. Well, now you know.