Impressive collection of materials

Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser's book is not a history of folk music, as the author herself states in the foreword, but a four-hundred-page collection of material. Why it still bears this title, however, remains a mystery.

The publication summarizes the life's work of Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser; this is both the strength and the weakness of the book. The variety of topics and the breadth of the collected material is impressive. Hardly anyone has spent so long and so intensively studying the various facets of Swiss folk music, resulting in a unique collection of material that makes this book a must-read for all specialists. From historical evidence to Alpine blessings, types of yodeling, folk songs, the alphorn, brass band music to children's instruments and calendar customs, a wide range of topics are covered. All chapters are accompanied by a wealth of illustrations. The collection is completed acoustically by two CDs with examples of the individual chapters and with melodies, rhythms and noise in calendar customs, making it a remarkable concept that is not only impressive in terms of text, but also visually and sonically.

However, the book has some weaknesses that cloud the positive overall impression. The selection and weighting of the material seems very random. For example, thirteen pages are devoted to cattle bells and cowbells, while the Swiss Yodelling Association is given just one page. Ländler music - after all, one of the central genres of Swiss folk music - is also dealt with on five and a half pages. This weighting would be tolerable if it were somehow justified. However, there is no indication as to why it has been chosen or what is meant by folk music here. The handling of the collected source material is also unsatisfactory. For example, it is claimed that the cow rows in the 18th and 19th centuries were written down without lyrics because the foreign researchers could not do anything with the Swiss dialect, but the fact that Jean-Jacques Rousseau explicitly attributed his example to the bagpipe is omitted. It is also a pity that there are numerous errors of detail. For example, a photo of Stocker Sepp in front of a Swissair plane is dated "around 1925", although Swissair was only founded in 1931, or it is claimed that Bligg's title Folk music had been in the hit parade for weeks, which cannot be confirmed on the basis of the Swiss hit parade lists.

What is most disappointing, however, is that most of the chapters are stuck in the 1970s and 1980s and have hardly been updated - and if they have, then with a few, carelessly researched sentences. This is particularly noticeable in the chapter on the "Renewal of folk music", which is limited to the 1960s to 1980s and barely mentions the last 25 years, during which Swiss folk music was extremely lively and changed considerably.

The book is therefore highly recommended as a collection of sources for critical specialists, but is less suitable as an overview for beginners.

Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser: History of Swiss folk music, 399 pp., 187 illustrations, 2 CDs, Fr. 64.00, Schwabe, Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7965-3853-7