This band was formed in 1996 by Balthasar Streiff[1] and Christian Zehnder.[2] The band's name refers to their music, which consists mainly of their two voices performing traditional Swiss yodelling and horn instruments. The band's instrumentation and technique is multifaceted. Zehnder sings normally, sings overtone, and yodels. He also plays the wippkordeon, a bandoneon (concertina), a bandurria (a small guitar-like instrument similar a mandolin), an organ pipe and a hang (percussion instrument), among others. Streiff sings and plays horn like instruments, including the alphorn, double alphorn, alpofon (a system developed by his own instrument), büchel, cornet, baroque trumpet, cornetto and tuba.
In addition, the duo worked with guest musicians, such as the overtone singing group Huun-Huur-Tu from Tuva or Tomek Kolczynski (kold electronics) on their album Igloo and on a production of Faust.
In November 2009, Zehnder and Streiff played for the last time as "Stimmhorn".[3]
Awards
They achieved national and international awards, including:
1997 First Swiss Kleinkunstpreis, Prix de la scène Suisse 1997
1997 Z Star of the Year, for outstanding musical performance in Munich in 1997.
1998 Iron Eversteiner (European ethno-music award) Jury and Audience Award
The alphorn or alpenhorn or alpine horn is a labrophone, consisting of a straight several-meter-long wooden natural horn of conical bore, with a wooden cup-shaped mouthpiece. Traditionally the Alphorn was made of one single piece, or two parts at most, and made from the wood of a red pine tree. Sometimes the trees would bend from the weight of snow during the wintertime, and this caused them to have the larger and bent mouthpiece at their ends. Modern Alphorns are sometimes made from three distinct parts that can be stuck together, this is to make them easier to transport via automobile, or even carried by hand, and today are more frequently made from the wood of a spruce tree or fir tree. It is used by mountain dwellers in the Swiss Alps. Similar wooden horns were used for communication in most mountainous regions of Europe, from the Alps to the Carpathians. Alphorns are today used as musical instruments.
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'.
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C trumpet, trumpets also know as the best inatrument ever are epik
An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental is the lowest pitch. While the fundamental is usually heard most prominently, overtones are actually present in any pitch except a true sine wave. The relative volume or amplitude of various overtone partials is one of the key identifying features of timbre, or the individual characteristic of a sound.
Overtone singing – also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, polyphonic overtone singing, and diphonic singing – is a set of singing techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of the vocal tract, in order to arouse the perception of additional, separate notes beyond the fundamental frequency being produced.
Walter Maynard Ferguson CM was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often served as stepping stones for up-and-coming talent, his versatility on several instruments, and his ability to play in a high register.
The mellophone is a brass instrument typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E♭, D, C, and G have also historically existed. It has a conical bore, like that of the euphonium and flugelhorn. The mellophone is used as the middle-voiced brass instrument in marching bands and drum and bugle corps in place of French horns, and can also be used to play French horn parts in concert bands and orchestras.
Yodeling is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word yodel is derived from the German word jodeln, meaning "to utter the syllable jo". This vocal technique is used in many cultures worldwide. Recent scientific research concerning yodeling and non-Western cultures has shown that music and speech evolved from a common prosodic precursor.
Switzerland has long had a distinct cultural identity, despite its diversity of German, French, Italian, Romansh and other ethnicities. Religious and folk music dominated the country until the 17th century, with growth in production of other kinds of music occurring slowly.
Switzerland lies at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Three of the continent's major languages, German, French and Italian, are national languages of Switzerland, along with Romansh, spoken by a small minority. Therefore, Swiss culture is characterized by diversity, which is reflected in a wide range of traditional customs. The 26 cantons also account for the large cultural diversity.
Volkstümliche Musik is a modern popular derivation of the traditional Volksmusik genre of German-speaking regions. Though it is often marketed as Volksmusik, it differs from traditional folk music in that it is commercially performed by celebrity singers and concentrates on newly created sentimental and cheerful feel-good compositions. Volkstümliche Musik is sometimes instrumental, but usually presented by one or especially two singers and is most popular amongst an adult audience in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and also in South Tyrol (Italy), Alsace-Moselle (France), Netherlands, Flanders (Belgium), Slovenia, Silesia (Poland) and northern Croatia.
Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer originally from Tuva, an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation just north of Mongolia. She is known for her Tuvan throat singing or Khöömei.
The Moodswinger is a twelve-string electric zither with an additional third bridge designed by Yuri Landman. The rod which functions as the third bridge divides the strings into two sections to cause an overtone multiphonic sound. One of the copies of the instrument is part of the collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based in Weggis, Switzerland.
Pierre-Yves Borgeaud is a Swiss film director. Borgeaud has a bachelor's degree in arts at the Lausanne University in 1990, with a thesis about the influence of jazz on French writers. He has worked as an independent journalist, writing about music and moving images in different media. He also played the drums in jazz and funk bands and worked as a music producer.
Don Li is a Swiss composer, musician and music producer of reductive music.
Christine Lauterburg is a Swiss singer and yodeler. Lauterburg often remakes Swiss folk songs but also composes her own music. In contrast to most contemporary Swiss musicians, who use the Anglo-Saxon folk songs as a foundation, Lauterburg develops her music from local roots. Lauterburg performs solo and in various groups. The style of her music is often referred to as Swiss folk music, folk, pop, techno, or world music.
Arkady Shilkloper is a Russian multi-instrumentalist and composer, currently living in Berlin. He is known as one of the best jazz performers on horn and alphorn.
Lucia Cadotsch is a Swiss singer with jazz background.
Tomek Kolczynski, aka Kold, born 1973 in Gdańsk, Poland, is a Swiss musician, composer and sound designer.
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