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Yodeling

Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word yodel is derived from the German word jodeln, meaning "to utter the syllable jo" (pronounced "yo"). This vocal technique is used in many cultures worldwide.[1] Recent scientific research concerning yodeling and non-Western cultures has shown that music and speech evolved from a common prosodic precursor.[2][3]

"Yodel" redirects here. For the UK delivery services company, see Yodel (company). For the brand of snack cake made by Drake's, see Yodels.

Alpine yodeling was a longtime rural tradition in Europe, and became popular in the 1830s as entertainment in theaters and music halls.[4] In Europe, yodeling is still a major feature of folk music (Volksmusik) from Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany and can be heard in many contemporary folk songs, which are also featured on regular TV broadcasts.


In the United States, traveling minstrels were yodeling in the 19th century, and, in 1920, the Victor recording company listed 17 yodels in their catalogue. In 1928, blending Alpine yodeling with African American work and blues music styles and traditional folk music, Jimmie Rodgers released his recording "Blue Yodel No. 1". Rodgers' "blue yodel", a term sometimes used to differentiate the earlier Austrian yodeling from the American form of yodeling introduced by Rodgers, created an instant national craze for yodeling in the United States; according to a black musician who lived near Rodgers in Mississippi, both black and white musicians began to copy Rodgers' style of vocal delivery.


When sound films first became available in the 1930s the industry began to turn out numerous films to meet the nation's fascination with the American cowboy. The singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films, popularized by many of the B-movies of the 1930s and 1940s.[5] The transformation of Rodgers' blue yodel to the cowboy yodel involved a change in both rhythm and a move away from Southern blues-type lyrics. Some yodels contained more of the Alpine type of yodel as well. Most famous of the singing cowboy film stars were Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, both accomplished yodelers. The popularity of yodeling lasted through the 1940s, but by the 1950s it became rare to hear yodeling in country and western music.[6]

Yodeling around the world[edit]

Apart from the Alps, yodeling can be found in the Solomon Islands, Hawaii, Madagascar, the US, Romania, Bulgaria, and Africa.[12]


Although associated with the Swiss Alps and Austrian Tyrol, ethnomusicologists believe that the origins of yodeling can be traced back tens of thousands of years to ancient African nomadic hunter-gatherer societies.[13]


In Scandinavian folk music, the oral-song tradition Kulning (Norwegian: Laling), also called huving, is a form of signal song, a shout to make themselves known over a long distance, especially used in the mountains. Usually it is linked to transhumance tradition. The cry could be individually designed so that it was not just a cry for contact, but also a signifier used to identify the singer. The cry may have a form of text, but is just as well without words. Laling is related to yodeling in Switzerland and Austria. The overture Hjalarljod has a background in the phenomenon of yodeling. Laling is a mix of yelling and singing, and is closely related to lokk. Huving was spent in the woods and mountains to call the animals, and get in touch with other people, such as other shepherds or people on the neighboring mountain farm and to give messages over long distances.[14]


In Persian classical music, singers frequently use tahrir ("tremolo" in English), a yodeling technique that oscillates on neighbor tones. It is similar to the Swiss yodel, and is used as an ornament or trill in phrases that have long syllables, and usually falls at the end of a phrase.[15] Tahrir is also prevalent in Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Turkish, Armenian, Afghan, and Central Asian musical traditions, and to a lesser extent in Pakistani and some Indian music.


In Georgian traditional music, yodeling takes the form of krimanchuli technique, and is used as a top part in three- or four-part polyphony.[16] Yodel-like shamanistic traditions are also seen among the Turkic Sakha people of Siberian, the Inuit of the Arctic regions of Greenland and the Saami of Scandinavia.[17] Among the Irish and Scottish peoples hints of yodeling-like sounds are also evident.[18] In Sakha Yakutian, yodeling plays a very important role in the way to address nature and to plead for the continuance of life.[19]


In Central Africa, Pygmy singers use yodels within their elaborate polyphonic singing, and the Shona people of Zimbabwe sometimes yodel while playing the mbira.[20] The Mbuti of the Congo incorporate distinctive whistles and yodels into their songs. Living from hunting and gathering, they sing hunting and harvest songs and use yodelling to call each other. In 1952, ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey recorded their songs and they have been released on compact discs.[21]


In Romanian traditional folk music, yodeling takes the form of "horea cu noduri", mostly used by shepherds to call their sheep or as a way of expressing sorrow. "Horea cu noduri" (knots singing style) is a particular manner of "doina" interpretation acquired through a guttural vocal technique, the knots being strikes of the glottis through the neck muscles contractions.


Many Hawaiian songs feature falsetto. In Hawaiian-style falsetto - called "ka leo ki'eki'e" - the singer, usually male, emphasizes the break between registers. Sometimes the singer exaggerates the break through repetition, as a yodel. As with other aspects of Hawaiian music, falsetto developed from a combination of sources, including pre-European Hawaiian chanting, early Christian hymn singing and the songs and yodeling of immigrant cowboys, called "paniolos" in the Hawaiian language, during the Kamehameha Reign in the 1800s when cowboys were brought from Mexico to teach Hawaiians how to care for cattle.[22]


Yodelling arrived in America in the mid-19th century and was propagated through travelling entertainment shows.[23]

Notable performers[edit]

United States[edit]

Jimmie Davis was a singer and songwriter, and served two terms as the governor of Louisiana. Singing on a local radio station, his early work was in the style of country music singer Jimmie Rodgers. Like Rodgers, he was influenced by African-American blues music and discovering its rich use of sexual double meanings, he wrote some of his own tunes such as "Tom Cat and Pussy Blues" and "Organ Grinder Blues". In his first run for governor his opponent tried to use some of his old work against him by playing it at a rally, but instead the crowds cheered for it and began dancing. On a week-end fishing trip, he and Hank Williams composed the Williams recording titled "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle".[71]

Austrian devotional yodel

Andachtsjodler

Cooee

Field holler

Jodeldiplom

Kulning

Old-time music

Singing cowboy

Ululation

Western music (North America)

Western swing

Zäuerli

Abbott, Lynn; Seroff, Doug (1993). . Musical Traditions. No. 11.

"America's Blue Yodel"

Cannon, Hal (5 December 2010). . NPR Music (audio). National Public Radio.

Who Were the Cowboys Behind 'Cowboy Songs'?

Matsuura, Koïchiro (2005). (PDF). UNESCO.

"Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity"

Plantenga, Bart (2004). . New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-93990-9. – from Switzerland to the avant-garde, an exhaustive survey of the field.

Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The secret history of yodeling around the world

Wise, Timothy (2013). (PDF). Manchester, UK: University of Salford. doi:10.1002/batt.201800148. Retrieved 7 April 2018.

From the Mountains to the Prairies and Beyond the Pale: American yodeling on early recordings

Media related to Yodeling at Wikimedia Commons