What the heck is "altfrentsch"?

The term "altfrentsch" refers to a folk music instrumentation: the trio of violin, dulcimer and basset (string instrument between cello and double bass). The Bernese cabaret artist Franz Niklaus König depicted this ensemble as a vignette in the "Sammlung von Schweizer=Kühreihen und Volksliedern" in 1826. The same collection also contains two Appenzell dances for this ensemble. "Altfrentsch" means "old-fashioned" and literally comes from the expression "old Franconian".

In 1998, a manuscript containing 54 dances from the late 18th century was discovered in Gonten (Appenzell Innerrhoden), which the Center for Appenzell and Toggenburg Folk Music published in 2008 under the title Altfrentsch published. This collection of dances, now available in a new edition, also contains foreign melodies that were undoubtedly contributed by traveling fiddlers and other traveling musicians.

On the new album Altfrentsch on the road the six musicians of the Landstreichmusik under the direction of violinist Matthias Lincke chose only half of the 16 recorded dance melodies from the aforementioned manuscript. The remaining pieces are recordings of alpine dances that have been preserved on shellac records from the first half of the 20th century. Not only the old pieces, but also the historical playing styles (instrumentation, tempi, voice leading, intonation, phrasing and final turns) were adopted. The result is astonishingly vital and differs from the monophonic, specially arranged older Swiss folk dances, which have become fashionable in new folk music.

But you also enjoy listening to this recommendable recording because Dide Marfurt mixes up the melodies with the Jew's harp and other historical musical instruments, Christine Lauterburg contributes her violin playing and voice and the Austrian folk musician Matthias Härtel (double bass), Elias Menzl (dulcimer) and Simon Dettwiler (Schwyzerörgeli) add to the atmosphere.