Kulning

Last updated
Example of kulning

Kulning or lokk is a Scandinavian form of herding calls predominantly performed by Norwegian and Swedish people often used to call livestock (cows, goats, etc.) down from high mountain pastures where they have been grazing during the day. It is possible that the sound also serves to scare away predators (wolves, bears, etc.), but this is not the main purpose of the call.

Contents

In Norway it is called laling, lalning and kauking, kaukning when calling between person-to-person, or lokk, kulokk when calling between person-to-animals, [1] and is usually performed countrywide (especially in South Norway). In Sweden it is called llalning, lålning or kyrlokk, and is mainly performed in the provinces of Dalarna and Hälsingland and in the former Norwegian provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen.

The song form is often used by women, as they were the ones tending the herds and flocks in the high mountain pastures, but there are recordings of these calls sung by men.

Acoustic characteristics

The song has a high-pitched vocal technique, i.e. a loud call using head tones, so that it can be heard or be used to communicate over long distances. It has a fascinating and haunting tone, often conveying a feeling of sadness, in large part because the kulokks often include typical half-tones and quarter-tones (also known as "blue tones") found in the music of the region. Linguist and phonetician Robert Eklund, speech therapist Anita McAllister and kulning singer and speech therapist Fanny Pehrson studied the difference between kulning voice production and head voice (sometimes also somewhat erroneously[ citation needed ] referred to as falsetto voice) production in both indoors (normal and anechoic rooms) and in an ecologically valid outdoor setting near Dalarna, Sweden. The song analyzed was the same in all cases, and was performed by the same kulning singer (Pehrson). Comparing kulning to head voice, they found that partials were visible in far higher registers in kulning than in head voice (easily observed up to 16 kHz) and that they were also less affected by an increased distance from the source than head voice, with more or less unaffected partial patterns when comparing a distance of 11 meters from the source, compared to 1 meter from the source. In the outdoor setting, they also found that head voice production exhibited a 25.2  dB decrease at 11 meters from the source, compared to 1 meter from the source, while the corresponding amplitude decrease in kulning was only 9.4 dB, which is a clear indication that kulning is well-suited to carry over long distances in an outdoor setting. Or, as the authors summarize the findings:

"it was shown that kulning fell off less with distance from an intensity point of view, and also that partials in kulning – but not in head voice – remained more or less unperturbed 11 meters from the singer, as compared to 1 meter from the singer. Both results help explain why kulning as a singing mode was developed for calling cattle that might be at considerable distance from the singer". [2]

Function and physiological characteristics

When a call is made in a valley, it rings and echoes against the mountains. The animals, a number of whom wear bells tuned so that the livestock's location can be heard, begin to respond to the call, answering back and the sound of the bells indicates that they are moving down the mountain towards their home farm. The kulokks can belong to an individual, but are sometimes family-based and are handed down so that a family's cows know they are being called and thus respond. A number of calls contain names of individual (sometimes the "lead") animals, as herds are not very large.

A study done by Finnish and Swedish universities [3] showed that kulning, as compared to falsetto, exhibits a better contact of the vocal folds and a longer glottal closure in the phonation cycle. Using nasofiberendoscopy also showed medial and anteroposterior narrowing of the laryngeal inlet and approximation of the false vocal folds in kulning.

Comparison with other regional song traditions

In comparison with other song traditions used in northern Scandinavia, e.g. joik, there is no evidence that kulning has been used in religious rituals or for other purposes. It has been used on farms in stock-raising since medieval times. The tradition is still alive today, although waning. Kulning is, however, similar to yodeling, a singing style also developed for long-distance sound propagation.

Comparison with herdcalling songs in other countries

In France, briolage is a set of "techniques of calls and exhortations to the ploughing animals in most cases, intended to guide them". [4]

Kulning used in music

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg based a few of his classical music compositions for piano and for orchestra on kulokker that he had heard. An early Norwegian opera includes a soprano aria that is half aria and half kulning.

Kulning features in the music of some Scandinavian folk groups, for example Heilung, Gjallarhorn and Frifot (featuring singer Lena Willemark).

The song "Ulveham" by Norwegian band Gåte, which they're competing with at Eurovision Song Contest 2024, includes a kulning vocalisation on the chorus.

Kulning in the media

There are also other examples of kulning to be found in other forms of modern media:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human voice</span> Sound made by a human being using the vocal tract

The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overtone singing</span> Style of singing multiple notes at once

Overtone singing, also known as overtone chanting, harmonic singing, polyphonic overtone singing, or diphonic singing, is a set of singing techniques in which the vocalist manipulates the resonances of the vocal tract to arouse the perception of additional separate notes beyond the fundamental frequency that is being produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singing</span> Act of producing musical sounds with the voice

Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person whose profession is singing is called a singer, artist or vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Greek music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalarna</span> Historical province of Sweden

Dalarna is a landskap in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia and the Dales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yodeling</span> Form of singing

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.

A purr or whirr is a tonal fluttering sound made by some species of felids, including both larger, outdoor cats and the domestic cat, as well as two species of genets. It varies in loudness and tone among species and in the same animal. In smaller and domestic cats it is known as a purr, while in larger felids, such as the panther, it is called a whirr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malung</span> Place in Dalarna, Sweden

Malung is a locality and the seat of Malung-Sälen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 5,126 inhabitants as of 2010.

Swedish has a large vowel inventory, with nine vowels distinguished in quality and to some degree in quantity, making 18 vowel phonemes in most dialects. Another notable feature is the pitch accent, a development which it shares with Norwegian. Swedish pronunciation of most consonants is similar to that of other Germanic languages.

Stød is a suprasegmental unit of Danish phonology, which in its most common form is a kind of creaky voice (laryngealization), but it may also be realized as a glottal stop, especially in emphatic pronunciation. Some dialects of Southern Danish realize stød in a way that is more similar to the tonal word accents of Norwegian and Swedish. In much of Zealand it is regularly realized as reminiscent of a glottal stop. A probably unrelated glottal stop, with quite different distribution rules, occurs in Western Jutland and is known as the vestjysk stød. The word stød itself does not have a stød.

Anita Hegerland is Norway's biggest selling solo artist. She is a singer, most known for her childhood career in Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, and subsequent vocal contributions to Mike Oldfield's work, among others. She is one of Norway's best-selling female artists in history. In 1971, she was, along with Michael Jackson, one of the world's best-selling child singers.

Throat singing refers to several vocal practices found in different cultures worldwide. These vocal practices are generally associated with a certain type of guttural voice that contrasts with the most common types of voices employed in singing, which are usually represented by chest (modal) and head registers. Throat singing is often described as producing the sensation of more than one pitch at a time, meaning that the listener perceives two or more distinct musical notes while the singer is producing a single vocalization.

Evolutionary musicology is a subfield of biomusicology that grounds the cognitive mechanisms of music appreciation and music creation in evolutionary theory. It covers vocal communication in other animals, theories of the evolution of human music, and holocultural universals in musical ability and processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roar (vocalization)</span> Deep resonating sound produced by animals

A roar is a type of animal vocalization that is loud, deep and resonating. Many mammals have evolved to produce roars and other roar-like vocals for purposes such as long-distance communication and intimidation. These include various species of big cats, bears, pinnipeds, deer, bovids, elephants and simians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karin Rehnqvist</span> Musical artist

Karin Rehnqvist is a Swedish composer and conductor of classical music. She composes chamber music, orchestral works, music for the stage, and particularly vocal music, incorporating elements of folk music such as the vocal technique of Kulning. In 2009 she was appointed the first female professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Rosenberg</span> Musical artist

Susanne Rosenberg ) is a Swedish folk singer, professor, and researcher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna-Maria Hefele</span> German overtone singer

Anna-Maria Hefele is a German overtone singer. Hefele is from Grafing near Munich.

"Fun" is a song by British alternative rock band Coldplay, featuring Swedish singer Tove Lo. It is the sixth track from their seventh studio album, A Head Full of Dreams (2015). The song was produced by the band's long-time record producer Rik Simpson along with Norwegian production duo Stargate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedish Red Polled</span> Breed of cattle

The Swedish Red Polled, Swedish: Rödkulla, is a Swedish breed of domestic cattle. It is a dual-purpose breed, raised both for its milk and for its meat.

"All Is Found" is a song from the 2019 Disney film Frozen II. The song is performed by Evan Rachel Wood as Queen Iduna, the mother of Anna and Elsa, and written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulveham</span> 2023 song by Gåte

"Ulveham" is a song by Norwegian folk rock and metal band Gåte. It was originally released 12 December 2023 on the EP Vandrar as a track. It was later shortened and re-published as a single upon its selection to participate in Melodi Grand Prix 2024. The song ultimately won the selection and will thus represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It is Norway's first Eurovision entry since 2006 to be sung in Norwegian.

References

  1. Nyhus, Sven (1993). Aksdal, Bjørn (ed.). Fanitullen : innføring i norsk og samisk folkemusikk (5th ed.). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. ISBN   8200216926.
  2. Eklund & McAllister (2015).
  3. Geneid et al. (2016).
  4. Glossaire Ethnomusicologie, in FRENCH
  5. "News". Christine Hals. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  6. Cohn, Gabe (29 November 2019). "How to Follow Up 'Frozen'? With Melancholy and a Power Ballad". The New York Times . Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  7. Grefberg, Gustaf (2013). "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Official Soundtrack". Bandcamp . Retrieved 25 September 2019. Kulning (vocals) by Emma Sunbring

Bibliography