What is yodeling?
A: 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.
Where was alpine yodeling a longtime rural tradition?
A: In Europe.
It became popular in the 1830s as entertainment in
what?
A: Theaters and music halls.
In Europe, yodeling is still a major feature of what?
A: Folk music from Switzerland, Austria and southern
Germany and can be
heard in many contemporary folk songs, which are also featured on regular TV
broadcasts.
When were traveling minstrels in the United States
yodeling?
A: In the 19th century.
In 1920, the Victor recording company listed what in
their catalogue?
A: 17 yodels.
In 1928, blending Alpine yodeling with African
American work and blues music styles and traditional folk music, released
his recording "Blue Yodel No. 1"?
A: Jimmie Rodgers.
Blue yodel was a term sometimes used to differentiate
what?
A: The earlier Austrian yodeling from the American form of yodeling
introduced by Rodgers.
Where did it create an instant national craze for
yodeling?
A: In the United States.
When sound films first became available in the
1930s
the industry began to turn out numerous films to meet the nation's
fascination with what?
A: The American cowboy.
The singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal
cowboy hero of early Western films, popularized by what?
A: Many of the B-movies of the 1930s and
1940s.
The transformation of Rodgers' blue yodel to the cowboy
yodel involved a change in what?
A: Both rhythm and a move away from Southern blues-type lyrics.
Some yodels contained more of what?
A: The Alpine type of yodel as well.
Who were the two most famous of the singing cowboy film
stars?
A: Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, both accomplished yodelers.
The popularity of yodeling lasted through the 1940s,
but by the 1950s it became what?
A: Rare to hear yodeling in country and western music.
Most experts agree that yodeling was used in the
Central Alps by whom?
A: Herders calling their stock or to communicate between Alpine villages.
The multi-pitched "yelling" later became part of the
region’s what?
A: Traditional lore and musical expression.
When was the earliest record of a yodel?
A: In 1545, where it is described as "the call of a cowherd from Appenzell".
Although associated with the Swiss Alps and Austrian
Tyrol, it is found in other mountainous regions of the world, and also
amongst whom?
A: The Pygmies of Africa and the Aboriginal peoples of
Australia.
Upon being imported into America in the mid-19th
century, it was promulgated through what?
A: Travelling entertainment shows.
The Mbuti of the Congo incorporate distinctive whistles
and yodels into their what?
A: Songs.
Living from hunting and gathering, they sing hunting
and harvest songs and use yodeling to what?
A: To call each other.