20 francs - Yodelling

“Whenever I hear a yodel, it speaks directly into my heart and soul. A yodel call has no words because words simply cannot do justice to the feelings it conveys. You can put your whole being into a yodel," said author Heinrich Federer, describing the emotional pull of the yodel. Yodelling originated as a call from mountain to mountain, a way of communicating from one alpine farmstead to another. A love for nature and for one’s homeland are still central to this unique and instantly recognisable Alpine music. The original “natural” yodel was a form of communication in mountainous and inaccessible regions and was also used during cattle drives. A yodel or “jutz” is a melody sung using non-lexical vocables, i.e. sounds that are not words, with frequent repeated changes in pitch between the chest register and the head register (falsetto). Well-known natural yodels that are often improvised spontaneously include the "Muotataler Jüüzli", which is sung with two or three voices, and the polyphonic "Zäuerli" and "Ruggusserli" from Appenzell. In Switzerland and other Alpine countries, yodelling developed into song in the 19th century, usually as the choruses of folk songs.