Switzerland’s long-celebrated yodelling has received a response from the UN cultural agency: The Alpine tradition of chant and song is indeed worthy of classification in a list of the world’s cultural heritage.
A committee of Paris-based UNESCO, meeting in New Delhi, on Friday listed yodelling in its list of intangible cultural heritage.
Yodelling was selected among 67 traditions honoured by UNESCO in the Indian capital, including Italian cooking, Ghanaian highlife music, the fermented Kyrgyz beverage Maksym and the El Joropo music and dance tradition in Venezuela.
The list is different from the UNESCO World Heritage List, which enshrines protections for physical sites that are considered important to humanity, like the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
“Yodelling can be performed by individuals, small groups or choirs, and sometimes with instruments like the accordion,” said UNESCO.
“It features rich harmonics and is often performed at concerts, parties and competitions, with participants typically wearing traditional regional costumes,” the assessment said.
Switzerland’s government pushed the candidacy with UNESCO, and promoters insist it’s far more than the mountain cries of yesteryear by falsetto-bellowing male herders in suspenders on green mountainsides: It’s also a popular form of singing.
The government says at least 12,000 yodellers take part through about 780 groups of the Swiss Yodelling Association.