Yodelling and the alphorn in Switzerland: what UNESCO and the Swiss list say

Two traditions, two kinds of recognition

Yodelling and the alphorn are often presented together, and they do meet on the same festival grounds, but they have different standing. UNESCO inscribed yodelling, nominated by Switzerland, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2025.[1] The alphorn is not among the eleven Swiss elements on UNESCO's page for Switzerland.[2] It has its own entry instead on Living Traditions in Switzerland, the national list kept with the Federal Office of Culture, which calls the alphorn "the Swiss national instrument".[5]

How UNESCO's other Swiss listings fit together is covered in what UNESCO lists as Switzerland's intangible heritage, and the national list itself in the Swiss list of living traditions explained.

What yodelling is

UNESCO's element page describes yodelling as a vocal technique that uses different registers, such as chest and head voice, to sing melodies on meaningless syllables rather than words, with the syllables often set by the local dialect.[1] It distinguishes two types. Natural yodelling is wordless melody that varies by region and dialect and is passed down orally; sung yodelling has verses with a yodel chorus, often about nature and daily life.[1]

The Swiss list's description, written with the Federal Yodelling Association, makes the same split in Swiss terms: the Naturjodel, and the Jodellied, a song with strophic text in its first part and yodelling on syllables in its second.[4] It says today's tradition is heavily shaped by 19th-century vocal aesthetics, and that the multi-voiced yodel songs with that two-part form were created in the 20th century.[3]

Natural yodels by region

The natural yodel is where Swiss regions sound most different. The Living Traditions entry names the "Entlebucher Jutz", the "Berner Naturjutz", the "Juiz" of Obwalden and Nidwalden, the "Zäuerli" and "Ruggusserli" of Appenzell and the "Johlen" of the Toggenburg, and says the "Juuz" of the Muota valley uses tones outside equal temperament.[3]

Its detailed description adds that in eastern Switzerland these yodels are bound up with other customs: the Talerschwingen, in which a five-franc coin in each of three milk bowls produces a drone, the "Schölleschötte" with cowbells, and the New Year's Silvesterchlausen in Urnäsch, where small groups go from house to house singing "Chlausezäuerli". The same text names the Juchzer, the Löckler and the Kuhreihen, or cow-call songs, as forerunners, and says many in western Switzerland regard the "Ranz des vaches" of the Gruyère region as an unofficial national anthem.[4]

The association, the festival and a founding-date discrepancy

Organised yodelling in Switzerland runs largely through clubs. The Living Traditions page counts 780 groups under the Federal Yodelling Association, with around 12,000 members in its yodelling section, and says the association was founded in 1910.[3] The detailed description repeats 1910 in its summary, but its history section is more precise: it says the yodelling movement took its institutional start with a yodellers' union (Jodlervereinigung) founded in 1910 around Oskar Friedrich Schmalz, and that the Federal Yodelling Association (EJV) emerged from that union in 1932.[4] The alphorn description also refers to "the EJV founded in 1910".[6] The list's texts therefore give both dates, and XTOUR does not choose between them.

According to the detailed description, the EJV holds the Federal Yodelling Festival (Eidgenössisches Jodlerfest) every three years, alongside the festivals of its five regional sub-associations. It describes the 31st festival, in Zug in 2023, as drawing over 10,000 active yodellers, alphorn players and flag throwers and around 210,000 visitors, and dates the first to Basel in 1924. Performances are judged by a three-member jury on overall impression, tone and pronunciation, rhythm and dynamics, and harmonic purity, and the description notes that outsiders not infrequently see these criteria as standardising the singing, while most of the association's amateur yodellers treat them as a fair basis for assessment.[4] XTOUR does not give dates or venues for future festivals.

What the alphorn is

The Living Traditions entry describes an instrument whose shape comes from fir trunks that grew curved on a slope, now built from glued pieces of wood that are carved, split, hollowed out and glued together again, with a wooden mouthpiece.[5] Its detailed description gives the usual tunings as F sharp (344 centimetres long) or F (364.5 centimetres), and says carbon instruments weighing about one kilogram have become popular against about 3.5 kilograms for wood.[6]

Alphorn music is built on the natural tones of the instrument, and one of them is distinctive.[6] The list calls it the "alphorn fa", a tone that falls between F and F sharp.[5] The detailed description says it is the eleventh natural tone, that for a time it was avoided in public performance, or played only briefly, because it sounded wrong to ears used to tempered tuning, and that it is now considered a characteristic feature of the alphorn's sound. The same text says the EJV published guidelines for traditional alphorn playing in 2019.[6]

The Büchel is the alphorn's companion on the list. The Living Traditions entry describes it as shaped like a trumpet and popular in Central Switzerland.[5] The detailed description adds that it is coiled once, more rarely twice, and gives the Muotatal Büchel a length of about one metre.[6]

Pilatus, the Rigi and other places in the alphorn's history

The alphorn's documented history runs through places travellers know. The detailed description says the naturalist Conrad Gesner described an alphorn of today's length in 1555 and played one himself at a mountain hut on Pilatus, and that the oldest known use of the word "Alphorn" is from 1527, when a man from the Valais was paid two Batzen for playing.[6]

It also records the instrument's decline and revival. Only two players turned up for the alphorn contest at the first Unspunnen festival in 1805, and a travel writer complained in 1814 that the alphorn was hardly heard any more. In the 19th century, the description says, impoverished herdsmen played for tourists for money, and the alphorn drew visitors to the Rigi, where the summer sunrise was accompanied by its sound. It adds that Johannes Brahms noted down an alphorn tune on 12 September 1868, probably at the Staubbach falls in the Lauterbrunnen valley, and later worked it into his first symphony.[6]

The two mountains themselves are compared in Mount Pilatus or the Rigi from Lucerne. The Living Traditions entry notes that the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences is the only higher-education institution in Switzerland offering a degree course in traditional music.[5]

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not list where or when to hear yodelling or alphorn playing, and it does not know of performances open to visitors on any given date. UNESCO's page and the Swiss list describe living practices carried by clubs, festivals and teachers, not attractions with opening hours.[3][1]