Hello Cheese Days fans! I am honored and excited to represent Green County for the 2016 Cheese Days. My name is Jana Duval Crandall and I grew up on Hefty-Blum Homestead Farms, right outside of New Glarus and Monticello. Swiss heritage runs deep in my family and boy, are we proud of it! I work at Quest Industrial, the nation's largest direct cheese contact robotic integrator, as their Marketing Manager. This month I'd like to offer a brief background on yodeling, a long-standing entertainment tradition at the Cheese Days festival.
In simple terms, yodeling is singing with frequent and repeated variations in pitch from the chest register to the head register or variations from natural singing tones to falsetto pitches without speaking a single word.
Yodeling has been credited to the early shepherds who resided in the Swiss Alps and used this tactic to round up cattle as well as communicate across the hill and mountain tops to other people and villages. It is rumored in the 4th Century A.D., Julian, the Roman emperor, complained about the "wild, shrieking songs" of the northern mountain people. It was only in the 19th Century that choirs were formed to sing the yodeling songs.
Have you ever wondered what natural yodel singing is? Well, a single yodeler starts by singing a gentle arrangement of notes, the other yodelers then hum along with various but corresponding tones, creating a spontaneous but beautiful intertwined melody with no lyrics. The eleventh tone, alphorn Fa, makes the natural yodel so beautiful. The distinctive tone in C major is not heard as "F" or "F sharp" but we recognize it as somewhere in the middle. There are people who have a hard time getting used to the "Fa" sound because it isn't something we hear often. The note almost disappeared as a result of "well-tempered" tuning from the 18th Century. This basic form of yodeling is what you would have heard in the mountainous regions of Switzerland. Did you know that the Appenzell "Zäuerli" and "Ruggusserli" are natural yodels which are usually improvised as they are sung?
In 1910, yodeling while being accompanied by the accordion or "Schwyzerörgeli" made its official debut into the Swiss Yodeling Association and, at the time, was the genre that became most favored by yodelers. The National Yodeling Festival is held every year in Switzerland, and song topics can range from the mountains, nature and home as well as freedom and independence to spiritual songs. Currently, there are about 2,000 compositions of Swiss yodeling songs. You can hear a few when New Glarus Jodler Klub (yodel club) performs on the Main Stage at the Cheese Days Festival on Sunday afternoon.
I hope to see you out and about this month at the World Cheese Tasting Event presented by the Monsignor Thomas F. Campion Charitable Fund on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Monroe Den. Next month I'll be in downtown Monroe on June 4 for Main Street Monroe's "SuperCows" Summer Kick Off event.
It isn't too late for your child to submit their application for the Green County Cheese Days Prince and Princess Contest - applications are due May 23. Also, Cheese Days is seeking vendors for the Arts and Crafts Show to be held on Sept. 17 and commercial vendors for the weekend.
For more "Cheesy" information visit the official Cheese Days website at www.cheesedays.com. Don't forget this year's button to show off your Cheese Days pride, and mark your calendar for this year's Green County Cheese Days Festival, Sept. 16 to 18 - only five months away!
- Jana Duval Crandall is the 2016 Cheese Days Ambassador
In simple terms, yodeling is singing with frequent and repeated variations in pitch from the chest register to the head register or variations from natural singing tones to falsetto pitches without speaking a single word.
Yodeling has been credited to the early shepherds who resided in the Swiss Alps and used this tactic to round up cattle as well as communicate across the hill and mountain tops to other people and villages. It is rumored in the 4th Century A.D., Julian, the Roman emperor, complained about the "wild, shrieking songs" of the northern mountain people. It was only in the 19th Century that choirs were formed to sing the yodeling songs.
Have you ever wondered what natural yodel singing is? Well, a single yodeler starts by singing a gentle arrangement of notes, the other yodelers then hum along with various but corresponding tones, creating a spontaneous but beautiful intertwined melody with no lyrics. The eleventh tone, alphorn Fa, makes the natural yodel so beautiful. The distinctive tone in C major is not heard as "F" or "F sharp" but we recognize it as somewhere in the middle. There are people who have a hard time getting used to the "Fa" sound because it isn't something we hear often. The note almost disappeared as a result of "well-tempered" tuning from the 18th Century. This basic form of yodeling is what you would have heard in the mountainous regions of Switzerland. Did you know that the Appenzell "Zäuerli" and "Ruggusserli" are natural yodels which are usually improvised as they are sung?
In 1910, yodeling while being accompanied by the accordion or "Schwyzerörgeli" made its official debut into the Swiss Yodeling Association and, at the time, was the genre that became most favored by yodelers. The National Yodeling Festival is held every year in Switzerland, and song topics can range from the mountains, nature and home as well as freedom and independence to spiritual songs. Currently, there are about 2,000 compositions of Swiss yodeling songs. You can hear a few when New Glarus Jodler Klub (yodel club) performs on the Main Stage at the Cheese Days Festival on Sunday afternoon.
I hope to see you out and about this month at the World Cheese Tasting Event presented by the Monsignor Thomas F. Campion Charitable Fund on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Monroe Den. Next month I'll be in downtown Monroe on June 4 for Main Street Monroe's "SuperCows" Summer Kick Off event.
It isn't too late for your child to submit their application for the Green County Cheese Days Prince and Princess Contest - applications are due May 23. Also, Cheese Days is seeking vendors for the Arts and Crafts Show to be held on Sept. 17 and commercial vendors for the weekend.
For more "Cheesy" information visit the official Cheese Days website at www.cheesedays.com. Don't forget this year's button to show off your Cheese Days pride, and mark your calendar for this year's Green County Cheese Days Festival, Sept. 16 to 18 - only five months away!
- Jana Duval Crandall is the 2016 Cheese Days Ambassador