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You shouldn’t sit in a draft. You should be warm on your neck,” says Margrith Müller-Bischof. He massages his ears, pats his calves, lets his head spin. “Are you nervous?” – “No”, the chorus sounds. “Walking around the muul with your tongue.” 25 children follow the instructions of the choirmaster. It’s called a warm-up, they grunt like horses, say “buzz, thud” like a motorcycle, say “hoiii Sepp” and “bow, Gerda”. This is called singing.
Margrith Müller, 49, who grew up in Toggenburg and currently lives in Unterägeri in the canton of Zug, has short hair except for a single long strand behind her left ear. He pronounces the words “geeeeeeeeeet” clearly and approaches each child to listen carefully. Under pressure. It is the penultimate rehearsal of Chinderjodelchorli Ägerital. In one week, the 31st Swiss Yodelling Festival will be held in Zug. Finally, for the first time in six years. The last one was canceled due to the pandemic. The whole canton is in turmoil, with three musicians in costume on every corner looking down from the posters. A Swiss flag, an alphorn and a lake in the background.
sing for everyone
Margrith Müller-Bischof and her yodel colleague Nicole Ochsner (46) formed a project choir specifically for the festival. Purpose: All children in the canton of Zug should be able to sing. Not just those who already sing in a choir or whose parents actually sing. All primary schools were contacted. The result: 150 children perform together as Zuger Jungjutzer on Saturday. Some of the boys rehearsed before the performance with the full cast at the end of April. Otherwise, the children study separately.
For example, Chinderjodelchorli Ägerital. They meet every Wednesday in the Unterägeri ZG commercial area. Lukas (vanilla blonde hair, Edelweiss t-shirt, Chüeligurt) and Viola (a red shirt with “Lusmaitli” on it) have been in Chinderchörli for only a few months. “I enjoy smacking,” says Lukas. “I think it’s great that we sing in a band,” Viola says. Viola’s mother sings. Aunts with Lukas, his mother plays the accordion. You’ve already had a performance with the choir, but you’ve never been to a federal performance. The two were just three years old, most recently at Brig VS in 2017.
About his performance with Zuger Jungjutzern, Lukas says: “We sing with the children from the International School.” He will pronounce the word “international” a few more times in English and will always have trouble with the word. It’s “crazy” that so many of these kids only speak English and learn Swiss German words so quickly.
150 Zuger talks about JJ (10) and Zoe (11) from International School Zug and Lucerne (ISZL), who are part of Jungjutzer and will be performing at Jodlerfest in Zug. JJ is Norwegian, Zoe is half Hungarian, half English. “Singing is hard for me, it’s not that normal music,” says JJ. And he couldn’t pronounce the word “chhhh”. Zoe has heard the lyrics, grew up in Switzerland and now has a Swiss passport. JJ prefers to listen to rap – it’s something completely different. Kirsty Kelly, 38, the school’s choirmaster, proudly presents a video. Performance of the Hamilton musical with JJ rapping on stage. Both are tense. “I’ve never sung in front of so many people,” says JJ. “150,000 people are coming!” she says and she can’t believe it herself. His parents are enthusiastic and now want their children to sing at home.
integration by singing
The children came to sing through the choirmasters. Kirsty Kelly from Scotland has been a music teacher at ISZL for ten years. She saw the call from the singers and answered she. “I always look to see where we can perform as a choir. We want to integrate,” says Kelly. The school choir sings at the nursing home or “The Singing Christmas Tree” in Zurich at Christmas time. “You always see us as a school on the hill where everyone speaks English. But we live here and are also part of the community. We want to be.”
30 immigrant children aged between eight and eleven sing with Zuger Jungjutzern. Singing and singing in Swiss German is a challenge for students from a total of 54 different nationalities. A teacher practices the pronunciation of Swiss German words with the children. “Gahn i to grandma all over the country, so it always makes sense, Guggerzytli on the wall, where the hall is” is a line from the song “Guggerzytli’s Guggerzytli”. There are four songs in the repertoire, and they all need to be memorized. When you yodel, you have neither notes nor text. But in the main square of the campus in Baar ZG, the children of the choir taste “Guggerzytli”. And you turned out to be well prepared.
Most of the children in Chinderjodelchorli grew up with vulgar things and singing aunts. For the children of the international school, singing is a great adventure. The children have almost no contact with Swiss traditions, they are here because their parents work here. However, the school tries to familiarize them with the culture and traditions. And so when Jodel and the Expat children first met, there was no fear of contact. “Singing opens and connects,” says Ochsner. Kelly sees it this way: No matter what language a child speaks, music has no limits.
grown up singing
Now project manager Nicole Ochsner just hopes that “no child gets lost”. Up to 150,000 visitors, including 150 children, are expected to perform at the Landsgemeindeplatz at 14.30. “We’ve already distributed these wristbands with the child’s name and number on them,” says Ochsner. She has been working at the Ägerital yodelling club since 2008. Folk music was always important in his family, but no one sang. Ochsner tried and realized: singing opens the soul. You can forget a lot. “It makes me feel good.”
With colleague Margrith, the situation is somewhat different. A unique yodel. Stein grew up in SG, has known how to sing since childhood and was a member of the village’s own singing choir as a child. He has been working at the club in Unterägeri for 30 years, twelve years ago he was co-founder of Chinderjodelchorli. Singer friend Ochsner says what Margrith has done for the festival and how often she’s been performing this weekend is “enormous”.
The children sing “jo-lo-uou-lu-lu-lu” from the song “Chlyni Wunder”. Müller-Bischof does relocation and preparatory work with the children. It’s all part of the performance at the federal. Performance must be consistent, although no grades are given to children in the competition, like festival participants for adults. 150 children will wear different clothes. Obwaldner Jung Juizer comes in traditional costumes, Sännechind Walchwil wears a shepherd’s shirt, Chinderchorli Ägerital wears uniform white T-shirts with the choir’s name on it. All the kids from outside, namely 30 international kids and 15 other kids from Zug, wear black pants, white shirts and Glarner handkerchiefs around their necks.
dream of songs
“It’s in your pants bag,” says the choirmaster at Unterägeri. “I don’t have pants pockets,” says one boy. “Yeah, then make sure you’re wearing pocketed pants on Saturday.” There are several theories as to why singers always have their hands in the bag. You have the right attitude for singing, giving a uniform picture or just relaxed. Or, farmers hid their hands, which they had rarely cleaned in the past. For children from Chinderchörli, it is very important that their hands are “looked at” and not shaken nervously.
“And think of black pants. Long black pants,” says Müller-Bischof at last. “It doesn’t matter how hot it is.” And: “You have to dream of songs at night. Then it’s okay!”
Source : Blick
I am Dawid Malan, a news reporter for 24 Instant News. I specialize in celebrity and entertainment news, writing stories that capture the attention of readers from all walks of life. My work has been featured in some of the world’s leading publications and I am passionate about delivering quality content to my readers.
