The folk music collection by Hanny Christen
A unique compilation of Swiss dance music between 1830 and 1960 has been available for some time in a ten-volume edition organized by region.
Between 1940 and 1960, the folklorist Hanny Christen (1899-1976) traveled through German-speaking Switzerland and compiled her huge collection of folk melodies. On the one hand, older minstrels played or sang to her, which she then wrote down in her little notebooks; on the other hand, she was sometimes allowed to copy entire dance books of the minstrels. As many of these musicians were already between sixty and eighty years old at the time, this collection goes back well into the 19th century.
Under the patronage of the Society for Folk Music in Switzerland (GVS) and under the direction of Fabian Müller, a team of authors worked for around a decade on the publication of this collection, which was found in the estate of Hanny Christen. In 2002 it was published as an encyclopaedia in 10 volumes with around 12,000 melodies, extensive illustrations and an additional index volume.
The publisher, the Society for Folk Music in Switzerland, and the Mülirad publishing house are now offering the complete edition at a particularly attractive price:
All 10 volumes + index volume: instead of Fr. 598.- only Fr. 200.-
Individual volumes CHF 30 each Volume IX out of print!
Volume I: Zurich, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen I, (with extensive information on the collection, on Hanny Christen and on Swiss folk music in general)
Volume II: St. Gallen II, Graubünden, Ticino
Volume III: Appenzell
Volume IV: Aargau, Basel I
Volume V: Basel II, Law
Volume VI: Fribourg, Valais, Bern I
Volume VII: Bern II, Solothurn
Volume VIII: Zug, Lucerne, Uri I
Volume IX: Uri II, Schwyz, Unterwalden I
Volume X: Unterwalden II, Glarus
Volume R: Index volume
