Música y Danza Folk Suiza.

Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk
Author(s): Violet Alford

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 1941), pp. 500-513
Published by: Oxford University Press
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MUSIC AND DANCE OF THE
SWISS FOLK
By VIOLET ALFORD
UST TEN DAYS before the war-cloud closed down

I sat in blazing sunshine awaiting the first great p
the Swiss National Trachtenfest. Long pennants d
arms of every canton, green fir branches, and st
made a gay scene. Although a city square was bef
sensed the wide, blue lake; and distant mountains at it
brought fresh breezes into the streets. On a high sto
city trumpeters of Zurich made a brilliant patch of c
land, with all her modernity, knows how to keep
and these men wear red and yellow 6th-century cos
their predecessors did in the great days of the city
and their gleaming trumpets, some four feet long,
ings by Albrecht Diirer. A rocket boomed up, the tru
forth, horse-hoofs clicked and trampled, the pro
Over eight thousand people composed it, three an
did not see the end of it. It therefore behoves me to
will most interest musicians, and reluctantly to leave
array of historical, ethnological, heraldic, and other
following morning saw the procession repeated,
and one afternoon were occupied by immense gat
huge Festhalle of the Zurich Exhibition. That mu
costumes was in question became apparent even in t
minutes of the first procession. The Festhalle "perf
you like to call them so-revealed an entrancing a
moving outpouring of folk culture, each canton s
rest its hereditary treasures, many presented with
artistry, all with fervor and enjoyment. So, altho
processions as my groundwork, I shall include what
Festhalle during something like ten hours (all to
tion, audition, and delight.
500
ii:ii:
Above. Carnival Parade of the Basle Drummers

Lower leftr. Alpine-horn Blower Lower right: Gauerle--Swiss Schuh
(By Courtesy
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Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk 50o
The hard and ancient nucleus of Switzerland had the place of

honor. Uri, birthplace of Swiss liberty, came first, represented by
a splendid bearded chap and his sturdy Bub, portraying the Wil-
helm Tell legend-or history. Schwyz and Unterwalden added
their hundreds-ladies of the "Patricians", as the higher citizen
class is called, with lovely winged caps; dignified peasants trudg-
ing quietly between cheering crowds as they would trudge up
their mountain paths, milk and cheese utensils on their backs; the
last postilion in person conducting the last diligence to rumble
over the St. Gotthard Pass. Flag-throwers held up the march as
their short-handled square flags hurtled skywards before the
tribune seats, with a sound like that of wind in the sails as a boat
comes about. The Uri champion was well known to me, for it
was he who had come to the First International Folk Dance Fes-
tival in London four years before. On stepping out of the train he
had sent his flag and his falsetto cries up into the roof of Victoria
Station, causing excitement even among solemn London police-
men. He had come in the full hope of showing his prowess to the
King and Queen. When he learned that neither could find time to
attend the Festival, he consoled his disappointment by buying a
photograph of their Majesties, and, as well as the cramped space
of his hotel room allowed him, he "threw" before their picture
with all the art he knew. At the Festhalle one evening no less than
seven ceremonial flag-throwers came together on the huge stage,
but Uri's champion outdid them all. Lucerne, the last of the Four
Forest Cantons in the procession, was ushered in by this old song
blared forth by the trumpeters on the balcony. You know it well.
It is a favorite on striking clocks and music boxes from Switzer-
land.
1 '6nLuzern nach Wegg9igs'tl6 / Yodel Yodel

,.i ; ,jJj r' l/.pJ iij-J 11
Yodel
f 11if IFLJ44-JrftT I J 1 Z JJ4 -I-1

This was the first and last time I consciously heard the trumpeters,
for, although they were posted there to usher in each canton with
appropriate airs, the processional bands, the drums, the bells, the
incessant yodels and yelps of joy, not to mention the applause of
502 The Musical Quarterly
the crowds, prevented even those brazen tones from entering my
mind, even if they reached my ears.
The contribution of Canton Fribourg, organized chiefly by
the famous Abbe Bovet and Dr. Henri Naef, enthusiastic curator
of the Ethnological Museum for the Gruyere district, brought in
a romantic note, and we saw that old Switzerland beloved of gth-
century writers before the tourist hordes invaded the country.
Whole families had come to town, riding in wagons, peaceably
driving black and white cows through the streets, proudly show-
ing off their Krdnzlitochter, girls wearing the curious, beflowered,
bejewelled crowns of the Corpus Christi processions. In this half
German-, half French-speaking canton, is heard the most northern
variety of the langue d'oc, that Romance tongue which covers the
whole of southern France. So here we get Minstrels, called by
their old name les Menestrels, playing old-fashioned instruments
in the villages. A cheesemakers' band played well, and the Fri-
bourg Choir in local costume, conducted by the Abbe, sang ad-
mirably. In the Festhalle an artistic standard was set, equalled only
by the singers from the Grisons and Canton Ticino, and these
owed the outstanding value of their work to a certain exotic qual-
ity borrowed from near-by Italy. Fribourg was true Switzerland,
Germanic and Latin, both. A moment of pure joy was given us in
the Hall, when a man's ringing voice sang the famous Ranz des
Vaches, supported discreetly by a chorus of men. This gem of
folk-song is heard in the Gruyere district when the cows come
down their summer heights in September. On the Moleson, the
guardian mountain of the region, the tracks are so steep that they
are practically steps. Nothing daunted, preceded by their wise
leaders, down come the herds, down from the now chilly alp
into the warmer valley, where, silver and mauve, the autumn
crocus streak the green pastures. Then it is that the traditional
song rings out, built up from cowmen's calls and the recitation-
the roll call-of cows' names. I have known it all my life, so here
is my variant, but not the dialect of the Gruyere cheesemen, for I
do not know how to write it.
Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk 503
2 ?e Rc td Refrin
. Iy:
FPresez k
rpas,
._ J ...
LAWLa, l'cu
^w; * JiE
s Le-6e, pi-cu'6-da,
Another interesting
which when left open
a circle of dancers.
ancient forms of da
ring comes to us fr
Dionysiac rites of A
threshing floor whic
sonal rites sprang the
gave place to the cir
when the actors the
Drama diverged from
as the Ring Dance, an
modern times as Ho
Carole in western E
hence May Carols, Ch
and the Coraules of C
Daunces, Carols an
writes a poet in 1303,
Swiss dancers, singin
step, and break into t
always keeping the r
ere sent off a great
rushed down into th
gesses and peasants,
Farandole form. The
above-; among other
* *
1 For a discussion o
Traditional Dance", Lo
Several bands were brought by each canton, village orchestras
also, some playing well, others delightfully out of tune. A double-
bass player marched along sawing at his strings, the cumbrous in-
strument borne by a second person. Two examples appeared of
the curious chapeau chinois, a collection of bells mounted on a
metal shape like a hat;2 the ancient hackbrett8 was seen in the
Festhalle, laid on a table to accompany fiddles and 'cello. In the
processions came accordions, forty or fifty of them, one band
composed of stalwart, spotless Bernese girls, whose instruments-
those "disreputable daughters of music"-gained respectability at
their hands.
Mention of the accordion brings up to me from the past two
contrasting pictures. The first innocuous and gay, a Fandango in a
French-Basque village, the dancers far apart from one another,
cheerfully enjoying themselves, open-air surroundings, a pelota
court as a background; the second not so innocuous, exciting
rather than gay, a Tango in a Spanish cafe, the dancers pressed
closely together, furtively watching one another, with stamping,
clapping, drinking people as a background. A "low-down" picture
this one, but I do not apologize for having made a figure in it, for
a good part of my observations are necessarily made in such places.
The accordion was used too, in a children's band. This was
pure pleasure to see and hear. Flaxen-headed boys and girls, none
over twelve or so, swung briskly along fiddling, whistling, fifing,
drumming, conducted by their schoolmaster, himself playing a
flute. A wonderful man to obtain so wonderful an ensemble.
Players of the great Alpine horn marched by, their instruments,
like giant churchwarden pipes, carried on their shoulders. On the
stage they showed what could be done with them, and a surprise
it was. I had heard the deep voice of the Alpine horn in the open,
when it is blown beside tourist-haunted paths and comes dully
echoing back from the Wetterhorn's steep sides. It was a very
different thing when three brothers-from Canton Berne they
came-stepped up on to the stage, lowered the bowls of their giant
pipes to the floor, and, their great cheeks puffing, their great chests
heaving, their faces growing redder and redder, gave us real music
from this fantastic instrument. The horn goes into the category of
wood-wind. The wood is very thin pine, and the horn is made in
2 See Violet Alford, "Odd Music-Makers and Their Instruments" in The Musical
Quarterly, XXII (1936), 98.
3 Ibid.
two parts lengthways, half the bowl and length in one part, half
in the other. The two parts are exquisitely joined, and bound with
rushes. The whole is varnished to preserve the materials and
weighs astonishingly little. Two little feet are sometimes attached,
on which it stands. From bowl to mouthpiece measures seven to
nine feet. There are no sound-holes, everything is done by the
mouth and the breath. Music is actually composed for the Alpine
horn, and folk airs are arranged for it. Our burly brothers in their
black-velvet, puffed-sleeved waistcoats, played trios very musi-
cally, the deep tones most impressive and grateful to the ear. I ex-
amined their horns closely afterwards, and found that they need
not vary much in circumference. It is the length that gives the
tone.
Another Alpine means of obtaining sound, if not music,

ensemble of cattle-bells and what is called Schilleschotte. Swiss
cowbells are the biggest and heaviest imaginable. They hang from
gaily decorated and finely carved wooden collars, and look like
deep kettles under the animals' chins. It is not the cows, however,
but the cowmen who really perform with them, bearing them on
yokes on their shoulders and gently swaying the body to make the
clappers sound, and when you hear several pairs going at once it is
like a distant carillon from great church-bells. Other cowmen, at
the same time, gently tilt to and fro earthenware bowls in the
bottom of which lie coins. The metal, moving round and round
the bowl, makes the sound of far-off herds on the move. It gives
an illusion of the Kiihreihen, the annual exodus of the cows from
the villages, when, slowly moving, they climb to the summer alp.
Unsullied patches of snow among the green, silver-white ranun-
culus, golden globe flowers, and royal blue gentians make a fairy-
land up there, round the strongly built wooden chalet which has
only lately emerged from the snows. This is the great moment for
the cowmen. They look forward to it all through the winter in
the valley; this is the day on which the bull wears his wreath of
cowslips, on which the wise leader steps to the front, tossing her
head with her bouquet of flowers upon it, and the best milker
proudly bears the one-legged milking stool between her horns like a
third one. An army of little pigs scuffles along in the rear, the mule
carries spotless wooden cheese-making utensils, and the strongest
man the huge copper cauldron on his back. Young twelve-year-
olds, stiff with pride at going up with the men, march here and
there, the women accompany the clanging, yodling hosts a little
So6 The Musical Quarterly
way up the ascent. No wonder the men at the Festhalle loved to
invoke these exciting days, and they stood there adroitly tilting
their bowls, an expression of delight on their healthy faces, as they
listened to the clamor of the far-off herds, which they themselves
invoked. They are from Canton Appenzell, these faintly-smiling,
fair-haired men. They wear tight yellow breeches and scarlet
waistcoats, wonderful belts worked with a design of their beloved
cows in silver, and from each right ear hangs a tiny silver spoon
by way of an ear-ring. They seem hypnotized by the sounds they
produce.
Bells naturally play a large part in Swiss doings, great cow-
bells, smaller cowbells, long narrow goatbells, high tinkling sheep-
bells, bells on horses, bells on mules. At Carnival time the tradi-
tional "Runners" wear enormous cowbells round their waists as
they run from house to house across the snow, to "bring in the
Spring" with clangor and whip-cracking. When the young men
go out to punish any violation of village conventions or morals,
they again make use of bells with horns and whips for their well-
named Katzenmusik, performed outside the house of the culprits.
Cats' music is Rough Music in England, made still more hideous
with pots and pans, spoons drumming on saucepans, whistles, and
yells. An account of such an "orchestra" was given in the English
papers only a few years ago, when it visited a widower who had
married his late wife's nurse-too quickly in the opinion of the
Midland village where he lived.
Yodels are an entirely Alpine form of music. Not the actual
mountain cry, for that exists in various forms from the Alps,
through Dauphine and Auvergne, down to the Pyrenees. Along
this range it goes, rising and falling in piercing falsetto, reaching
its maximum of intensity in the Basque country, dropping to
something less horrifying across the Spanish frontier, nevertheless
shrill enough to make one apprehensive along the Cantabrian
coast, to finish mildly among the mild Portuguese. In Switzerland
and the Tyrol the free, wild Yodel has been captured and re-
shaped into an adjunct of art. "Natural" yodeling is improvised
and of course unaccompanied, but is already a great advance on
the call as used for cattle on the mountainside. The next step is to
bind it by bars-musical ones-and by phrases, to stylize it into
airs, to improvise or compose parts to these melodies, and there
you have an art creation. This process must have been perfected
long since, for quite old folk airs end with traditional yodels.
Choral societies always have two or three yodeling members,

yodeling societies have nothing else. Well trained ones make
nothing of the most complicated four-, six-, or eight-part yodels,
and never allow the high parts to become strident. The occasion I
remember with most pleasure was a summer's night, when a yodel
club visited a chalet in which I was staying. They performed in
the garden, and after beer and conversation they yodeled upon
the silver lake as they rowed away under a silver moon. Women
can yodel well, especially contraltos, and a most successful item in
the Zurich Festhalle was a duet between a man and a woman, ac-
companied by a piano-accordion. The man's falsetto soared high
above that of the woman, who took the second part, both were
slightly comic in style, the ensemble a marvel. Here we have
moved far indeed from the cattle call on high, green alps. The
"natural" form was much in evidence in the processions, when
men became excited by the crowds-and women too for that
matter. All through those marvellous days and nights Canton
Appenzell and Canton Uri above the rest made their presence
known. They entirely drowned the civic trumpeters as their
approach was heralded, ringing yodels soared upwards, queer fal-
setto chirps and yelps burst from the processionists like an explo-
sion of squibs, here, there, and everywhere. One night I came
upon a group of Uri girls stretched on the grass by the lakeside,
unmindful of their festal costumes, faint but yodeling still. Per-
sonally I prefer the Natur yodel. The art form has developed too
far to my mind, for such a cry is not fundamentally a thing on
which to build ornate parts.
3 WHM Kiter isch *in Appewnz/er Yodel
fr-I IJ5Ji4 jifr I J Lj iJ. J

* *
The Swiss have a

has come down to
aries, each compan
which were used f
ming in all the many bands was excellent, that of the children's
band above the average. But far beyond these was the perform-
ance of a company from Basle. Words can hardly be found for it
unless one indulges in such flights of fancy as "frenzied", "shat-
tering", "diabolic", and so forth. This frontier town we know so
well, the sound of the green, rushing Rhine ever present, cele-
brates Carnival in a way all its own. Carnival, as we know, is the
modern remains of an ancient Spring festival, and was allowed by
the Christian Church (and that only because it could not prevent
it) to be held just before Lent came in with its restrictions. So on
the Sunday and Monday before Ash Wednesday all Basle is on
the march to drum in the Spring. This ebullition goes by the name
of the Morgenstreich, and is first mentioned in I54Oi when the
town Guilds were in full force. The processionists are respectable
and well-to-do citizens, who pay a considerable sum as entrance
fee to the Clique to which they belong. These companies go by
fanciful names, and it was the "Olympia Clique" that we saw and
heard in the Zurich national procession. Each Clique gathers at
its chosen inn during the night of the Sunday, every head crowned
by a large lantern, star-shaped, circular and so on, each with two
faces made of transparent parchment. These are painted with local
topical subjects, sometimes funny, often unbelievably vulgar. The
fife and drum bands of each Clique are all masked, one band are
frogs, another some unknown and frightful creatures. By 3.30
a.m. on the Monday morning the streets are as crowded as at mid-
day, everyone out to hear the "Morning Drumming". Just before
4 o'clock the companies stream out of their inns and arrange them-
selves in order. The visitor too must be up and ready, for as the
great bells of Basle boom out the hour every light in the town goes
out. Simultaneously lights inside the transparent head-dresses blaze
out, bands strike up, and the march begins. Such drumming is
rarely heard. It is the pride and specialty of Basle, where drum-
ming schools exist and where every boy must learn to drum.
Cliques of quite small boys march too, and their drum rhythms
are nearly as complicated and quite as exact as those of their
fathers. Every Clique must cross the Rhine, some streaming up-
wards, those from the higher town streaming downwards, to pass
and repass on the bridges. Drum majors, bulky, stuffed and ter-
rifying figures, gravely salute each other, fifers shrilling and
drummers syncopating for dear life, for it is an eternal disgrace for
4 Schweizer Volksleben, ed. by H. Brockmann-Jerosch, Zurich, 1930-31.
a Clique to be put out of step by a rival. They all begin as the clock
strikes four, it is true, but absolute synchronization is hardly pos-
sible to maintain, and bands are a measure or two apart by the
time they reach outlying streets. Hundreds of Germans come
across the near-by frontier to see the show; and when I was there
in 1937 they were regaled with a thousand caricatures of their
Fiihrer, toothbrush moustache, falling lock, and lackadaisical eye,
enormously exaggerated in size, pitilessly illuminated from within.
But August I939 had bred too poignant a feeling, and the dreaded
neighbor was conspicuous by his absence. At 5 a.m. the town
lights came on again, and as the cold February dawn crept up the
sky the processions dispersed.
This morning drumming, or Aubade, is thought by the towns-
folk to be ancient, but in reality it began in 1835 only.5 The
Morgenstreich tunes are traditional from about the i7th century,
and were once Landsknecht tunes for fifes and drums. Lately they
have added a set of British marches such as "Brighton Camp" and
the "British Grenadiers". As for the transparencies, they cannot
claim a long tradition, although such painted lanterns had a place
in ancient ecclesiastical processions, and still have in Spain. In
Basle they took the place of torches when these were prohibited.
Now they are painted by professional artists, and a queer local art
has developed especially for them. Later in the day the companies
come out again, this time wearing new Carnival dress and mask.
Altogether a strange urban folk ebullition still carried on at fever
heat.
I wish there were space to write fully of the local craftsmen

and women who wandered by in the procession, so intent on their
work that the crowd-lined streets hardly existed for them. Among
the yelping, chirping Uri folk, I noticed searchers for crystals and
for those semi-precious Alpine stones the tourist buys in the
seductive shops of Lucerne. Grave men they were, with the lonely
look of trappers, and they carried their sparkling finds in long
baskets on their backs. Dairymen, preparing cheeses, went by on
lorries, as did tobacco-growers and makers who flung cigarettes
to the townsfolk-horribly strong too. Spinners were there, salt-
workers, fishermen, clock- and watch-makers-artists, these last,
in the famous industry-, embroiderers in the marvellous dress of
5 Brockmann-Jerosch, op. cit.
Appenzell, bending over their frames installed on a wagon. These
women must preserve delicate fingers, and when out of work, as
often happens in this machine age, it is very difficult to find them
other employment, and much hardship is suffered for the sake of
their art.
Now and again exuberant spirits broke into dance, but this was
seen better in the Festhalle, where we were shown dances from
almost every canton. A Maypole dance, elderly men and women
gravely plaiting ribbons to the naive accompaniment of the village
band and the jingling of the chapeau chinois, came from the valley
beneath the snowy Dent du Midi. Some of these Valaisian women
traditionally wear trousers (and smoke pipes), so steep and diffi-
cult are the fields they work. I noticed a great improvement in the
cut of these garments from those of my childhood. Indeed the
young women who wore them were as smart as any modern
trousered girl, in their dark suits and scarlet headkerchiefs. A
baby, peacefully sleeping in a mule's pack, added to the domes-
ticity of the scene. Then we had a version of the Lauterbach wed-
ding dance, to the well known tune of "The Dutchman's Little
Wee Dog". A gay dance this, showing signs of the Landler fam-
ily, which, beginning close under the Juras, comes to fulfilment in
the Austrian Alps. This type is made up of intricate and varied
"holds", the hands of the couple linked behind their backs, over
their shoulders, round the girl's neck, the step a little waltz step,
the rhythm a jumpy waltz rhythm. The Lauterbach is a good
example of the courting dance. The girl recedes, the man pursues,
shows off before her; she refuses his advances, then suddenly turns
to accept them; he capers his best while, turning under her own
arm on the pivot of his finger, she spins like a top, her heavy skirt
outspread in umbrella shape.
4 Lauherbach. A Wedd,lng
rini;rIJ
~i~ - ~' I rI jeI~l F
fr7Pr
If'~irITfr- i UiI
tfrlalu-i. I-J i-r r , lbl 8
A~ ~ ~~L" L.~-I
Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk 5I
From further east came the Giuerle, from Canton Schwyz, and
here we light upon the first member of the famous Schuhplattler
family. The Schuhplattler we have all seen wherever Middle Al-
pine people foregather-and too often at exhibitions and musical
shows. It is said to belong to Bavaria, but Tyrolese, Styrians, and
even the people (now Italian) of the Alto Adige district love their
own variety of the dance. The man, sometimes with a partner on
either side, claps himself all over, leaps, turns somersaults, while
the girl spins and spins and spins. It is supposed to represent be-
havior of the blackcock in the mating season, but many another
courting dance shows the same exaggerations-the Norwegian
Halling for example-and I do not think we need look further
than primitive humans for the origin of such postures.
The Suisse Romande-that is, the French-speaking part of the
Federation-gave us dances and music strongly influenced by
France. It is not surprising that French and Proven9al culture fol-
lowed the Rhone waterway into the Alps, but what is surprising is
that the Helvetians have not stamped it with their own mark.
French Rondes, songs, and customs have worked their way into
the Pyrenean valleys, and have been accepted by the non-French
Basque people. But in course of time this race has marked them
with their own strong impress, so that observers have frequently
stated that the Basques possess some exotic culture of their own. It
is not so. What has really happened is that Romance-speaking
peoples (southwestern French and northern Spaniards) brought
their customs to the more primitive Basques, and then gradually
discarded them themselves. The strongly conservative Basques
treasured what had become theirs, so that at the present day one
finds customs, long since lost by the original possessors, still prac-
tised by the Basques who received them later. Nothing of the sort
has happened in Switzerland, so far as I can see.
The costumes of Geneva and Neuchatel are the French fash-
ionable modes of the I8th and early i th century. The Juras show
blue peasant blouses like any French province, the dances are
mostly Rondes. A Geneva group showed us one much resembling
the old Rigaudon, an influence which certainly came up the Rhone
from Dauphine and Provence. It is interesting to note the history
of this well known dance, which went to town, became a favorite
at the French court in the I8th century, crossed the Channel to
London, became anglicized as the Rigadoon, and provided a mu
cal form much used by composers. It continued its rural life al
while, renewing its "modishness" when it drifted back to
country as the latest fashion from Paris. A Bishop of Gr
among other ecclesiastics, inveighed against it about I65o-
was even before its fashionable days-because of its "postu
abominables, contre la pudeur chretienne et l'honnestete civile
Finally the King's Private Council forbade the poor old dance.
vain. It is still danced to gay2 tunes, quite in the old Rigau
form, and was eagerly awaited at the village fetes in the Cham
saur region this summer of 1939.
5 st and we/l marked A
A chi_arrc Cdon un
'or, S ard danc, ex,antif,FrOne Not
Canton Vaud does sometimes show Sw

the imported French. The costume of th
pine in character, the wide straw hats wi
the crown, their bunches of artificial gra
colored bodices, the waistcoats of the
French. These people dance a Monferrin
known all along the southern Alps; bu
often versions of German-Swiss airs with
by far are the compositions of Jaques-
tional songs. The German-speaking canto
mistaken idea that their brothers and sist
are "refined", have an elegance they them
"very French". Truth to tell their dances
and their songs chiefly borrowed or co
neither so showy nor so interesting a
Swiss. A leader of folk culture in Zuric
she told me in confidence that she found
rwelsch i.e. alien.
6 Andre Hallays, A Travers la France, Paris, 1903.
Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk 5 3
A Pance Song
6 from VaLUCL
?d~~ llKr~~ -'ir T- h
-t.-2, rT-'F IIJ -*r . - l M
^^Nkr I iP 1hYt1 1 r?? i-1'S

On the whole the dances of the Federation are not interesting
to the student of folk dance, because no real men's ritual danc
has survived. History tells us that Basle and Berne and other places
had their Sword Dances and Hoop Dances among the Guilds of
the I6th and I7th centuries. Now all save a Millwheel, which may
be a Sun Dance for men, is lost; the Carnival Running, which i
some countries has developed into a ritual dance or march, has
here remained in a more primitive state. So to end with an item of
the highest antiquity and interest we must return for another
glance at the instruments of Switzerland.
The Italian-speaking Canton of the Federation, Ticino, lying
on the southern slopes of the Alps, rich in Alpine and Italian vege-
tation, brought to the great gathering a band of men whose instru
ments were policalami-pan-pipes. These were of all sizes, from
small ones, such as children use, to great pipes, the longest over tw
feet in length and two inches or more in diameter. These were fi
for a giant god. The tones varied according to size, the ensemble
was strange, and seemed as though it must be wood-wind whic
produced it, yet it was something different. These pipes are made
of reeds, as their first maker made them, and the sight and the
sound of them, even in a Zurich hall took one's imagination back
to the beginnings of music.
He cut it short, did the great god Pan,
(How tall it stood in the river!)
Then drew the pith like the heart of a man
Steadily from the outside ring,
And notched the poor, dry, empty thing
In holes, as he sat by the river.
Sweet, sweet, sweet, 0 Pan!

Piercing sweet by the river.
Blinding sweet, 0 great god Pan . . .

Música y Danza Folk Suiza.

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Música y Danza Folk Suiza.

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Music and Dance of the Swiss Folk

Author(s): Violet Alford

UST TEN DAYS before the war-cloud closed down

Above. Carnival Parade of the Basle Drummers

The hard and ancient nucleus of Switzerland had the place of

1 '6nLuzern nach Wegg9igs'tl6 / Yodel Yodel

f 11if IFLJ44-JrftT I J 1 Z JJ4 -I-1

Another Alpine means of obtaining sound, if not music,

Choral societies always have two or three yodeling members,

3 WHM Kiter isch *in Appewnz/er Yodel

fr-I IJ5Ji4 jifr I J Lj iJ. J

The Swiss have a

I wish there were space to write fully of the local craftsmen

Canton Vaud does sometimes show Sw

6 Andre Hallays, A Travers la France, Paris, 1903.

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-t.-2, rT-'F IIJ -*r . - l M

^^Nkr I iP 1hYt1 1 r?? i-1'S

Sweet, sweet, sweet, 0 Pan!

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