Dressed in round black hats and bright red waistcoats, the huddled circle of men burst into song, their falsetto voices echoing across the mountain valley: “Yodelayheehoo.”
High in the Alps, the resort of Davos is playing host to the Swiss Federal Yodelling Festival, a three-yearly magnet for lovers of mountain folk music and the region’s centuries’ old traditions.
“It’s all in the technique,” said 35-year-old Roger Bider, as bystanders applauded his eight-man group’s spontaneous performance on a station platform.
“You flip between singing from your head and your diaphragm,” said the soft-spoken Bider, one of two yodellers whose fellow singers provided a bass-voice backing.
Known internationally for the annual World Economic Forum gathering of business and political leaders, this is the first time Davos is hosting the four-day yodelling festival.
The national event, which wraps up Sunday and is broadcast live on Swiss television and radio, first began in 1924 and draws 10,000 traditionally clad participants and 100,000 fans.
While the events have juries, it’s hardly a battle of the bands: there are no prizes, beyond respect.
But for many attendees, yodelling is about more than just music.
“You get hooked,” explained Paul Mettler, 62, of the Swiss Yodelling Association, which supervises the event.
“There’s also the camaraderie. At events, you meet people you know, and make new friends too,” said Mettler, who took up yodelling in 1993. Most participants are from Switzerland’s majority German-language cantons — the equivalent of US states — whose guttural dialects bemuse outsiders.
Traditional Swiss yodel songs include lyrics in dialect but, like folk music worldwide, tell stories of love and hardship.
“When I listen to vintage blues, I hear similar rhythms, harmonies and themes,” said Mettler.
Peter Sutter, a yodeller for 30 years, said it was his passion for a host of reasons.
“Culture and tradition are important,” said the 59-year-old from the small, central canton of Schwyz, which gave Switzerland its name.
“The key is to be able to sing, to get the idea of sound, rhythm and scales,” he added.
Sutter is unimpressed by the “Schlager” pop pumped out in local bars and popular in central Europe, which mixes traditional accordion and yodel sounds with simple electronic beats.