Primal song of the mountains This Swiss tradition could soon become a UNESCO cultural heritage site

This week in New Delhi, Unesco is deciding which traditions will be added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. One of the 66 proposals includes a Swiss tradition.

Keystone-SDA

08.12.2025, 07:20

08.12.2025, 07:37

SDA

For countless Swiss people, yodeling is as much a part of life as cheese and chocolate. This tradition is now to be ennobled with recognition as a cultural heritage of humanity. A committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will decide on this at a meeting in New Delhi. The decision will be made by December 13.

The entry in the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage, as it is correctly called, is intended to strengthen the appreciation of yodeling, says Barbara Betschart, director of the Center for Appenzell and Toggenburg Folk Music, the Roothuus Gonten. "Among other things, it is important to counteract the opinion that yodeling is an old-fashioned thing," she told the German Press Agency.

Traditional and wild yodelling

But there are no problems with new blood. The Swiss Yodelling Association alone has around 12,000 active members and there are many independent yodelling groups. The association has clear rules for competitions. For example, song scores must be submitted in advance and "correct costume" is required for the performance. "Violations will be punished by disqualification", the regulations state.

Singer and yodeling teacher Sonja Morgenegg from the canton of Thurgau, however, describes herself as a "wild yodeler". "I am an artist and I like freedom," she told dpa. She likes to improvise and create new yodel melodies from scratch. "My roots are in the Swiss mountains. And my new wild yodel melodies grow on these roots like the branches of a tree in different directions. That makes me deeply happy."

Some wild yodelers associate yodelling with blues and jazz, others with techno, rock and rap. "There is a lively yodelling scene in Zurich," says Morgenegg. "These are people who no longer have to wear traditional costume to yodel." Betschart says: "It's cool when all people, including those with a migration background, are enthusiastic about yodelling and join in."

She distinguishes between "traditional yodelling, which is imprinted on the soul and is very much tied to the place where you grew up or where you live", and the free scene. "Alongside tradition, contemporary composition also has its place," she says. "One is not better than the other."

The primal song of the mountains

What is yodeling anyway? It is a song without lyrics or words that alternates between a low chest voice and a high falsetto voice. It is said to go back to shepherds who once communicated in this way between distant mountain pastures. "Yodeling is the primal song of the mountains," says Morgenegg. "When I yodel, I feel an incredible connection with my homeland, the Swiss mountains."

Betschart and the committee that submitted the application for Unesco inscription have big plans: "We want teachers to start yodelling with children at elementary school," she says. "If the teacher doesn't yodel themselves, it has to be organized differently."

Loriot and yodelling

When generations of Germans hear "yodeling", they think of a legendary Loriot sketch from 1978 in which Mrs. Hoppenstedt (Evelyn Hamann) takes a yodeling course in order to have "something of her own". It is unforgettable how she and others get tangled up in "the basic motifs of the Archduke Johann yodel" ("Holleri du dödl di, diri diri dudel dö").

Of course, that was stupidity. Even if the somewhat wooden description from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture could almost have been penned by Loriot's strict yodeling teacher: "Yodeling opens up a broad tonal spectrum ranging from cultivated, classical-style beautiful singing to archaic, shouting vocalizations."

Yodelling from Zimbabwe and Georgia already recognized

Yodelling is practised throughout the Alpine region and beyond. But Swiss yodeling is something unique, says Betschart. According to the pure doctrine, only the vowels O and U as well as Ü are yodeled. The Swiss natural yodel is usually much more solemn than the lively and cheerful yodeling known primarily from Austria. Yodelling also sounds very different in Bavaria than in Switzerland, says Betschart. "It was not an issue to submit a joint application to UNESCO," she says.

There are already two yodelling entries on the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage, from Zimbabwe and Georgia.