Hugo Zemp

Kurze Bio- / Filmografie

Der am 14. Mai 1937 in Basel geborene Hugo Zemp ist in der Ethnomusikologie weltweit nicht mehr wegzudenken. Seine Werke, Forschungen und Sammlungen hier aufzulisten würde den Rahmen der Webseite masslos sprengen. Seine Feldforschungen im Muotatal haben die Musikszene nachhaltig geprägt. Mit seinem berühmten Tonträger "Jüüzli du Muotatal" und seinen in den Achzigerjahren entstandenen 4 Dokumentarfilmen hat Hugo Zemp die Muotataler Jüüzli festgehalten, dokumentiert und portraitiert wie kein anderer vor oder nach ihm. Dank seinem Gespür und Interesse sind Werke entstanden die wiederum die heutige aktive Juuzer-Szene im Muotatal entscheidend beeinflusst haben.

Der heute pensionierte, fast 80 jährige Hugo ist immer noch unermüdlich beschäftigt mit realisieren von neuen Forschungen und Dokumentarfilmen, unter anderem 2015 der Film "Muotataler Jüüzli - 30 Jahre später".

Filmografie und Filmpreise

Alle seine Dokumentarfilme werden von Documentary Educational Resources (USA) auf DVD vertrieben. Link

Detaillierte Bio- /Filmographie hier als PDF

Jüüzli Dokumentationen / Filme

Doppel DVD "Jüüzli of the Muotathal" ( 4 Filme von 1983 - 1984 )

Trailer:

Kopfstimme, Bruststimme

Glattalp

Juuzen und Jodeln

Die Hochzeit von Susanna und Josef

- Hier bestellen! (nur über USA erhältlich! )

DVD "Muotathaler Jüüzli - 30 Jahre später" 2015

Trailer

Hier bestellen!

Study Guide Of A Swiss Yodelling Series:

"Jüüzli" of the Muotatal & Swiss Yodelling - 30 Years Later (PDF)

SWISS YODELLING – 30 Years Later

- Trailer (English)

- The Making of the Film

- The Question of Intonation

- Brief remarks about “new Swiss yodelling”

- Acknowledgments and Credits

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Thirty years after four documentaries, this film continues the research about the particular yodel style of the Muotatal, a small valley in the Swiss Pre-Alps. Shot in the 1980s, these earlier films present the traditional local yodel (called “yootz”) sung at work or whilst socializing in restaurants, in contrast to the stage presentations by yodel choirs, which were directed by conductors and followed the esthetics of the folkloric Swiss Yodel Association.

The study guide for The Swiss Yodelling Series addresses the four earlier films and gives general background information that is not reproduced here. The reader will, however, find notes about the specificity of Muotatal yodelling, research history, the making of the films, as well as bibliographic and discographic references, and links to websites.

The Making of the Film

I started in 2011 and 2012, in collaboration with the video editor of the French Center for Scientific research, to restore the four films of the Series.
Since DER has the potential to publish study guides on the internet, I called my friend Peter Betschart—co-researcher and sound man on the first four films—and asked him about the current yootzing situation in the valley where he still lives. He told me that the seven year old boy, Bernhard Betschart, whom I had filmed with his parents and sisters, had become a rock and country music singer and guitar player, but he had turned back to the local tradition and created, in 2007, with five friends, the local yootzing group Natur pur. Little by little, the idea grew to make a new film, with Bernhard as the central figure. On learning that the group Natur pur met every year at the local cattle fair (which I had already filmed in the eighties), we agreed to start shooting during that period.

First shoot in September 2013

- A dialogue between Bernhard and Peter in the former’s apartment, about his childhood, his love for rock and country music. I added a short scene where I am sitting with the two protagonists, answering Bernhard’s questions.
- 30 years later, Bernhard performing the yootz that he had sung with his parents in the family home, another yootz that his father had sung after cutting grass, and the cattle call, also performed by his father.
- Bernhard performing his favorite country song, “Wagon Wheel”. As the lyrics are about a trip in the USA, I filmed Bernhard on the train travelling through a Swiss mountain landscape close to the Muotatal, with a view of future editing.
- Scene of the cattle fair.
- Group Natur pur. Yootzing in the restaurant “Schäfli”.
- Group Natur pur. An informal conversation between the members of the group in Daniel Schmidig’s farmhouse, where the group sometimes met. I discussed the main topics of the conversation with Peter Betschart, and of course, when the friends met together over a drink, I didn’t have to ask them to yootz!

Sometimes I interfered and talked directly with Bernhard. Thus, as he spoke about the cattle call, I asked him if he could perform it. A funny and unexpected situation occurred when I asked him about watching the old films for the first time. Dry humor and quick-witted responses are appreciated in the valley.

Second shooting in January 2015

In September Bernhard had said that when “going out” they sometimes yootzed with women, and also that women are more numerous in workshops, so we agreed to organize a second shooting period. This time I preferred in winter, since I wished to have some views of the village and mountains under the snow.
- The workshop in Oberwil, about 30 miles from the village of Muotathal.
- Yootzing with women in the restaurant “Schützenhaus”.
- Landscapes of mountain and village scenes in the snow.
- On the train along Lake Zug, from Oberwil where Bernhard gives his workshops.

As in my former films, I used two cameras fixed on tripods to film the conversations: one framing all protagonists without a cameraman, the other focused with a close-up and panning. Sometimes I went from one camera to the other in order to change the framing. This was to keep the conversation spontaneous, without interruption, and to be able in editing to alternate views, cutting out or shortening too lengthy shots. While I usually shoot a whole musical piece with one camera and keep the shot in editing, this time I alternated the two cameras in the workshop scene. The yootzing of the group at the cattle show, and one of the yootzes with the women, were filmed with handheld cameras.

During my stays in the village of Muotatal, I checked with Bernhard and Peter all the conversations and dialogues after each shooting session, noting with them the passages that were difficult to understand because of laughter masking the speech or, on a few occasions, when I did not know particular words of the local dialect. Other passages had to be clarified by email correspondence or telephone, as I live in Southern France.

Editing

The structure of the film emerged by itself. From my first plan, I had thought about starting with a close-up on Bernhard’s face as he is watching and listening to himself singing with his parents, at seven years of age. It was obvious to add his solo interpretation of the same song in the editing of the film.

Rather than a long narration explaining the reason for my return to the valley, I put in the short conversation between Peter, Bernhard and me. The title and inter-titles then follow with the landscape of the valley as background, with a brief written explanation of the features of the Muotatal yootz. It was logical to let the dialogues about Bernhard’s childhood and his love for American rock and country music follow on from this. I like to keep in when editing entire musical pieces without interruption. As the “Wagon Wheel” song is quite long and outside of the main topic of yootzing, I intercut two long shots showing Bernhard travelling by train, illustrating the lyrics of the song, but instead of travelling in the USA, it showed Swiss landscapes close to the Muotatal. The scenes of the yootzing with women, and of the workshop, were included after the topic was brought up during the conversations.

Excerpts of the older 16 mm films were intercut where the context was suitable, in a smaller size because of the loss of definition during transfer to analogue video in the eighties. The sequence of the animated graphics is quite long (6 minutes), but many viewers of this new film may not have seen Head Voice/Chest Voice. Bernhard showed some of these graphic animations at the workshop, with my spoken comments on the German version, in order that the workshop members could understand. For the English version, I took the English spoken comments. Three shorts clips were taken from YouTube.

During the conversations between the group and Peter Betschart, many interesting topics were addressed. But to obtain a certain balance between singing and speaking, it was not possible to keep too lengthy scenes of discussion. Therefore, I put in as an extra the conversation about my LP record from 1979 and their CD from 2007. I also added a sequence about creating new yootzes, a theme of discussion spontaneously introduced by Peter, after Bernhard had told that it was not necessary to look for new ways, and just to keep the tradition and repertoire of their ancestors. A short conversation follows about the titles of yootzes.

The Question of Intonation

This part of the study guide considerably expands on what was written in the paragraph entitled “1979-1984: Sound recordings and films” in the chapter Musical Features: Preservation and Changes over 75 Years. To stop the reader having to go back and forth between the two texts, I am reproducing some data here, in particular a footnote concerning the measurements of intervals.
The study of intonation is very technical, and addresses ethnomusicologists rather than anthropologists. But there is a certain idealization of the specific “natural” intonation in the traditional performing style of Muotatal yootzes, that it is necessary to present some facts.

Neutral thirds (flattened scale degree 3)

When I first went to the Muotatal in the summer 1979, the musicologist Wolfgang Sichardt’s (1939) book was unknown to people living there. It seems that I was the first outsider—after Sichardt and thanks to his research—to be interested in neutral thirds in local yodelling. Peter Betschart—who just had finished his teaching diploma on the traditional yootzing of his valley, and had introduced me to performers who were the most committed to the traditional performing style—was the first insider as we discussed the matter. Nobody before in the valley seemed to care about “neutral thirds”, i.e. the interval between scale degree 1 and degree 3, which is neither a major nor a minor third. Traditional yootzers were accused of singing off key, their tones being considered as “dirty”. But even belonging to a depreciated minority face of the normative esthetics of the Swiss Yodelling Association, some defended their particular local way of singing, as the three singers, known as the “Fluehof’s”, explained in the film Yootzing and Yodelling.

Sichard briefly mentioned the neutral intonation of the third, together with the final downwards glissando, as particular “archaic features” (p. 28), but did not include the former in the summary of Muotatal yodel characteristics, in contrast to the second feature (p. 129). However, elsewhere in the text, he in passing mentions the neutralization of the third (p. 117).

I could confirm his findings with a few measurements from my own recordings, published in 1979 in the record notes of the LP, and later on in the reissue of the CD. To allow local people to read the record notes, I published these not only in French and English as usual in our record series “Collection CNRS/Musée de l’Homme”, but also in German. Colleagues have noticed, however, that few people from the areas where the sound recordings were made really read detailed record notes. This was particularly the case in the Muotatal. As Peter Betschart reminds us in the Extra of the film, many Muotatal people did not appreciate the LP, saying that it has not been necessary to record these performers as others could do it just as well (or as badly), implying that the local yodel choir had better singers worthy of recording and releasing a disc.

After the Premiere in the village of the first three films in 1987, I worked on the fourth film Head Voice/Chest Voice, to visualize the general features of yodeling, and of the local yootz in particular. Now the audience could follow visually with sync sound performance style, thanks to animated graphics. This film was shown for the first time in the village of Muotathal in 1990, together with the three earlier ones. As Peter Betschart recently told me (I had forgotten about it), “the size of the audience was disappointing”. But the VHS cassettes remained there, mainly in the performers families. In the meantime, the LP, reissued as a CD, acquired “cult status” for some people, and the neutral intonation of thirds, illustrated in the film Head Voice/Chest Voice, drew the attention of some lovers of traditional music, including performers like those of the group Natur pur.

While still writing this study guide, I have made new measurements of the old recordings and films, and of the new film. The figures in cents are approximate. Sonic Visualiser, the software that I use, presents in real time spectrograms, where the horizontal line of the fundamental tone (harmonic 1) in chest voice is difficult to measure. As the graphics of the overtones become thicker as the frequency augments, I usually check at the same time the fundamental frequency and the second harmonic at the octave, varying the cursor until it reaches the middle of harmonic 2. With a very slight movement of the cursor, the value of the frequency can vary more than 10 cents. Despite this variability of the result of measurements, it allows us to see if an interval is close to a major third, a minor third, or systematically near to a neutral third.

Measurements show that the intonation is not very stable. Further more, in most performances, the pitch is slightly raised, sometimes between a quartertone and more than a halftone from the beginning until the end of a yootz.

Muotatal yootzes are firmly structured in parts (Teili, “small parts”, in the local dialect). The performers consider that the most common form has two parts (AB), each part being repeated with a different ending. In a musicological analysis one could say that these same yootzes have four parts, the first and the third part being slightly elongated. This form can be noted as AoAcBoBc, where o stands for “open”, and c for “closed”. In two- or three-part polyphony, the closed parts end on the tonic, the first voice singing mostly degree 1 or 3 (rarely 5).

The intonation usually stabilizes towards the end of each part; therefore, I mainly measure the intervals there. When the soloist with the yodelling voice sings scale degree 1 in the head voice register at the end of a part, and the performer of the second voice in the high chest voice register sings a neutral degree 3, the result is a neutral sixth.

Franz-Dominik Betschart, Bernhard’s father, was one of the few yootzers filmed in the eighties, who systematically sang neutral thirds. His son Bernhard, despite his participation with rock and country music and his occasional singing in a pop choir, could partially keep this intonation, which he had “in his ears”. His intonation is especially near to his father’s when he listens several times to his father’s recording, and then immediately sings. In Head Voice/Chest Voice (14:48), Bernhard’s father sings neutral thirds indicated on the cipher notation with downwards arrows. My new measurements with Sonic Visualiser confirmed in 2011 and 2015 my older Stroboconn measurement of 1979: neutral thirds are between 340 and 360 cents. In the sound recording by Bernhard Betschart, made on my request by Peter Betschart in 2011, Bernhard sings thirds around 350 cents, with the exception of the beginning where the intonation is not stabilized.

For the new film in 2013, I asked Bernhard to sing another yootz. He chose one that his father sang after cutting grass (Yootzing and Yodelling, 16:34). While his father sings neutral thirds between 330 and 350 cents, Bernhard sings thirds between 360 and 380 cents, slightly higher than his father’s, but always smaller than a temperate major third. While I measured the whole performances, in the new film I alternated his father’s parts (AoBo) with Bernhard’s singing (AcBc).

After the Premiere of the new film, I asked Bernhard to sing the yootz that his father performed in Head Voice/Chest Voice (02:47). A copy of the graphic animation is reproduced in fig. 4. His father sang neutral thirds between 330 and 350 cents. Bernhard, after repetitious listening, recorded the yootz himself with neutral thirds between 350 and 370 cents. Bernhard sang also the Alphorn-Fa like his father (see infra).

At the beginning of the new film, Bernhard watches and listens to the yootz he sang in his childhood with his parents and sisters (00:13), which was difficult to measure because of the instability of intonation. When he sang this same yootz on his own in the new film, he obtained thirds between 360 and 380 cents (01:43).

Of the twenty yootzes on the CD Natur pur (there are also ten songs), only three by the two main soloists, Bernhard Betschart and Daniel Schmidig, with the bass by Heinz Gwerder, come close to neutral thirds, between 360 - 370 cents (No. 12, 14 and 18). All the others are closer to 380 and 400 cents.

In the restaurant at the cattle fair, the first yootz is the most uniform with measurements of the thirds between 370 and 380 cents (26:38). The second, with Christian Gwerder, the youngest member of the group singing the leading voice, shows major thirds of 400 cents. The third yootz has thirds between 370 and 400 cents. In Daniel Schmidig’s home (34:30, 37:35), the two yootzes have thirds between 360 and 390 cents.

In the restaurant “Schützenhaus” the two yootzes sang by the two young women Karin and Yvonne Gwerder (with collective bass) have definitively major thirds (41:00, 46:23). Alois Imhof and Bernhard Betschart, plus collective bass, sang thirds between 380 and 400 cents (43:41).

As The Swiss Yodelling Series show through diagrams, comments, and conversations between performers, the neutral third is not allowed in “cultivated” singing promoted by the Swiss Yodelling Association. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Muotathal yodel choir sings major thirds at the end of the lines at the concert (Yootzing and Yodelling, 29:20) and in the church (The Wedding of Susanna and Josef, 04:53). However, even performers who did not have trained voices or didn’t participate in workshops held by the Swiss Yodelling Association were losing the traditional feature of the neutral third, for example the women’s choir Pragelchörli (Yootzing and Yodelling, 36:17), the sisters Vreni von Rickenbach and Theres Suter (Yootzing and Yodelling 39:10).

Peter Betschart, who had been looking for Sichardt’s original sound recordings from 1936, found a copy deposited at the Swiss National Sound Archives in Lugano. He asked for, and received, a copy of the Muotatal recordings for his village archives. I made the interval measurements of these recordings after the final cut of the new film.

Sichardt’s first brief remark about neutral thirds concerns three musical notations of a men’s duo. The performers were herdsmen passing the summers on alpine pastures, and Sichardt implied that they were particularly apt, through their profession, to be true representatives of “archaic” performances. My measurements of these three yootzes confirmed the neutral degree 3, between 340 and 360 cents. Of the 18 yootzes recorded by Sichardt, I measured the 13 in which he included musical notations and detailed analyses. The results figure in Table 1, together with measurements of other intervals. The thirds, measured of all performers (3 men, 4 girls), are between 330 and 370 cents. Only two women’s duos performed major thirds as well as neutral thirds in the same yootzes.

Conclusion about “neutral thirds”

In the second decade of the 21st century, the use of real neutral thirds in Muotatal yootzing is disappearing. They were already rare during the eighties when I made sound recordings and films. A few performers were outstanding in systematically singing neutral thirds. In solo yootzing, we have seen supra the measures of neutral thirds by Franz-Dominik Betschart, Bernhard’s father (mostly around 350 cents). Emmy Suter Gwerder, an outstanding singer of the old generation, sang thirds of 350 - 370 cents (Extra of the new film, 01-25). In polyphonic two-part yootzing, the brothers Alois and Erwin Imhof on the Glattalp pasture sang neutral thirds around 340 cents (54:06). In three-part polyphony, the “Fluehof” trio, with brothers Alois and Paul Schmidig, and Josef-Maria Schelbert (08:49, 56:00, and Yootzing and Yodelling, 05:21), sings very tight neutral thirds, around 330-340 cents.
Thirty years later, Bernhard Betschart sometimes comes very close to it when he sings a yootz that had been performed by his father. In todays polyphonic singing, the thirds are still mostly narrower than a major third of 400 cents, but systematic and regularly performed neutral thirds around 350 cents, like those by the singers whom I recorded and filmed 1979-84, cannot be found anymore.

What was the situation like eighty years ago, when Wolfgang Sichardt made the sound recordings? The result of measurements indicated in Table 1 permits us to think that neutral thirds were commonly sung in the thirties of last century.

Flattened degree 2

In descending movements of degrees 3 2 1, or rising movements 1 2 3, many performers flatten degree 2. Peter Betschart—who was for some years director of a yodel choir—told me that this is common in yodel choirs and has to be fought against by the conductor. It is all the more understandable when the degree 2 precedes or follows the neutral degree 3. In yootzes performed with major thirds, like those by the two young women in the restaurant “Schützenhaus” (41:00, 46:23), the degree 2 is also a major second distant from degree 1. It appears that “neutral seconds” are conditioned by the use of neutral thirds and are not, therefore, a primary characteristic of traditional Muotatal yootzing. While I measured all yootzes, I include here only Sichardt’s degrees 2 in Table 1.

Neutral degree 7 (leading note)

Many yootzes have no degree 7. But if they do have one, it is sometimes sung with neutral intonation, between a major and a minor seventh from degree 1 of the same octave, or the other way round, between a minor and a major second below degree 1 of the upper octave. In this case there is a neutralization of the leading note. The neutral degree 7 can also be considered as the seventh harmonic of the overtone series.

Sitting on the doorstep of his farmhouse, Bernhard’s father sings neutral degrees 7, following or preceding degree 1 of the upper octave, between 130 and 150 cents (Head Voice/Chest Voice, 00:00). His son Bernhard, whom I asked to record the same yootz in 2011, sings unaltered degrees 7. In the cutting grass on a slope scene (Yootzing and Yodelling, 00:00), Bernhard’s father sings flattened degrees 7 of 160 - 180 cents below degree 1 of the upper octave. His son Bernhard keeps closer to the halftone with 120 cents (00:00). After watching the video of his own yootzing with his parents and sisters in 1984, Bernhard sang the same yootz in 2013, with degree 7 below the upper octave degree 1, at a distance of 130 cents (00:00). In Daniel Schmidig’s house (34:30, 37:35), the six men of Natur pur sang degrees 7 leading to degrees 1 at the upper octave, with an interval between 120 and 140 cents.

Sichardt does not mention the neutral degree 7. It is true that, as seen before, many yootzes have no degree 7. Let’s consider here the two that we have. In a women’s duo (7b), there are passages of a step-by-step descending motive, with degrees 3 2 1 7, and at the end of a line, the leading note to the final upper degree 1. The measures indicate 120 to 130 cents from degree 7 to 1 in the upper octave. In a girl’s recording (6i), the final interval starts on degree 7 in head voice, jumping down to degree 1 in chest voice. It measures 1030 cents, a tight neutral seventh between a minor and a neutral seventh (see Table 1 for more measurements).

Flattened degree 5

While the perfect temperate fifth measures 700 cents (just intonation, 702 cents), one would expect—as there is always a certain variability in the pitches—that some intervals would be a bit lower, and some a bit higher, let’s say between 690 and 710 cents. In fact, most fifths between degree 1 and 5 are lower, around 650 - 680 cents.

The yootz that Bernhard’s father sang when sitting with a goat on the doorstep of his house (Head Voice/Chest Voice, 14:48) is one of the rare yootzes that has no fifths. In the other yootzes, both Bernhard and his father sang flattened fifths of 660 – 680 cents.

The group Natur pur in the three yootzes at the cattle fair (26:38), and in Daniel Schmidig’s house (34:30, 37:35), sings intervals close to perfect fifth (680 - 700 cents). In the restaurant “Schützenhaus”, the two young women, Karin and Yvonne Gwerder (41:00, 46:23), with collective bass, sing perfect fifth around 700 cents (we have also noticed major thirds by the same two performers).

Eight of the nine Sichardt recordings which I measured have flattened fifths, in general between 650 and 680 cents. Marie Ablondi sang perfect fifths in one yootz only (7d), while in all the others she sang fifths between 650 and 680 cents (Table 1).

Alphorn-Fa

We must remember that the Alphorn-Fa is the slightly augmented degree 4 (between F and F# in C). It has its name because it corresponds to the eleventh harmonic of the natural harmonic scale used by the alphorn, like by all wind instruments without finger holes or piston valves.

Sichardt declared the Alphorn-Fa as typical of the yodelling in the Muotatal (and also the Appenzell of eastern Switzerland). Apparently he uses this term for an occasional use, when the Fa is sometimes augmented about a quartertone, sometimes not. In cases when the whole yodel has an augmented fourth, he writes “Fa-Mode”, which designates a mode where three whole tones follow (F G A B). In fact, a real Alphorn-Fa is not exactly an augmented fourth (600 cents) distant from degree 1, but about a quarter tone less (550 cents).

As mentioned in footnote 6 of the study guide of The Swiss Yodelling Series, the downward arrows of the cipher notation in Head Voice/Chest Voice (00:00) indicate lowered degrees 7 and 3. While degree 4 is a perfect fourth (500 cents) from degree 1, it sounds, because of its environment, like an Alphorn-Fa. In fact, as degree 3 is a neutral third (350 cents) from degree 1, the interval between degree 4 and the flattened degree 3 is a three-quarter tone, like for an Alphorn-Fa that is a three-quarter tone from a major third. This kind of listening error can happen even more so if the degree 4 is between lowered degrees 5 and 3.

Sichardt noticed an important element where both Fa and Do modes are used in the same melody (p. 114). This is also the case in the yootz, which was sung in 1983 by Franz-Dominik Betschart, Bernhard’s father (Head Voice/Chest Voice, 06:30). The Alphorn-Fa appears several times after, or before, degree 5. Bernhard recorded this yootz, which he knew well. He listened several times to his father’s performance and sang the Alphorn-Fa of about 560 cents distant from degree 1. The feature of this yootz is that only the last two parts (BoBc) have the Alphorn-Fa, while the first two parts (AoAc) have perfect fourths. A second feature is that the melodic line ends from degree 5 to 4+ (Alphorn-Fa) with chest voice, then up to degree 1 with head voice in the upper octave. This final interval is rarely used: it is called “tritone” (diabolus in musica).

In the analyses of his sound recordings, Sichardt mentions sometimes an Alphorn-Fa, which can be hardly qualified as such, as the interval in relation to degree 1 is only a slightly augmented fourth with 520 cents. However, in two men’s duo yootzes (7e and 7f), I measured true Alphorn-Fa of 540-550 cents, which Sichardt had not noticed.

Muotatal Blue Notes

While many Muotatal yootzers probably have heard about the Alphorn-Fa which can be called “natural”, as it belongs to the natural harmonic series, what should we call the flattened degrees 3, 5 and 7 of the major scale? The answer is: “Blue notes”! Few people from the valley, if any, are aware that their traditional performing style of yootzing has something in common with African-American music! When I presented my films in 1987 in different schools in the region, the teenagers in a secondary school in the town of Schwyz, the capital of the canton of the same name, rejected the films, because they did not like the music that was the subject of the films. They liked RnB and Rock n Roll, and only when I told them that traditional yootzers use a neutral intonation of the third degree, similar to what is called “blue note” in Blues and Jazz, were they a little bit more interested. The second time I publicly spoke about blue notes was at the premiere of the new film, on 15 May 2015, when somebody in the audience asked me to give supplementary information about “neutral thirds”.

Some people from the valley, as well as some from outside (as can be seen on concert programs and internet sites), believe that traditional Muotatal yootz intonation is based on the natural overtone scale, referring to the Alphorn-Fa. But as we have seen, the Alphorn-Fa in Muotatal singing is rare. It seems to be characteristic of a few specific pieces only. The originality of the traditional local performance style is the use of blue notes, which is by no means “natural”!

Finally, let’s add a short, but very interesting note, which was published in a recent collection of musical notations of local fiddle dance tunes of Muotathal village and a neighboring village. Among some characteristics, the editor, herself a folk fiddler and classical violinist and as such was sensitive to intonation, writes in the introduction when referring to sound recording from the fifties: “leading notes, fifths and thirds were often played a bit low”.

While blue notes in other yodelling regions of Switzerland have not been, as far as I know, ever mentioned in publications, and as I am ignorant if fiddlers from other Swiss regions use flattened thirds, fifth and seventh, the provisional conclusion is that blue notes could be the particular feature of the traditional local Muotatal performance style. The comparison between yootzing and traditional fiddle dance tune intonation opens new perspectives of research.

***

Brief remarks about “new Swiss yodelling”

The group Natur pur is committed to the traditional performance style, which the members distinguish from the polished “cultivated” singing of yodel choirs federated in the hundred year old Swiss Yodelling Association. Some professional singers try to renew and experiment with yodelling in the frame of globalization (see below some links). Even though Bernhard Betschart, the central figure in our film, became a rock and country musician, he does not want to mix this with yootzing. But for how much longer?