SUSANNE WENGER Dayana Pfammatter Gurten, 31, comes from Mund, a village perched on the mountain overlooking Brig. She embodies a new chapter in Swiss folk music, having recently completed a Master of Arts in music with a major in yodelling. Pfammatter is the first person to have graduated from a new degree pathway that was launched at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2018. “Many people think I yodelled all day long,” she says. But it was a very broad-based degree. In addition to vocal training and body work, she spent five-and-ahalf years studying subjects like music theory, rhythm, and music history. Pfammatter played in a folk music ensemble with other music students and learned how to compose and arrange. “I was able to develop a strong musical acumen.” She already had yodelling experience, because yodelling has been part of her life since childhood. Her family yodelled. She also learned to play the “Schwyzerörgeli”, the accordion typically used in Swiss folk music, at a young age. Pfammatter did an apprenticeship as a pharmacy assistant after leaving school, but yodelling remained a passion. The first-ever yodelling graduate Dayana Pfammatter Gurten from Valais is the first person in Switzerland to have earned a master’s degree in yodelling. Does a university course risk turning this quintessentially Swiss singing technique into something a little too polished? Not at all, says Pfammatter, who wants to pass on her knowledge to young people. Making a living from yodelling She attended courses given by the Swiss Yodelling Association and, at the tender age of 23, became head of Safran yodelling club in Mund. While receiving further tuition, she found out about the new music degree at Lucerne offering yodelling as the main subject. No other Swiss university had ever unveiled such a degree. Pfammatter applied and was accepted. “It was a chance for me to be academically trained as a music tutor.” Pfammatter has been making a living from yodelling since completing Yodelling is her day job, but Dayana Pfammatter also likes to spend time looking after her Valais Blacknose sheep. Photo: Alain Amherd Swiss Review / May 2024 / No.3 10 Culture
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