Ferdinand Fürchtegott Huber, Initiator der musikalischen Beziehung zwischen Alphorn und Jodel

One aesthetic concept of alphorn music in Switzerland is that the performance of an alphorn tune should sound like natural yodeling played on a musical instrument. A mutual influence of alphorn music and yodel may come from the first half of the 19th century. At that time, a group of dedicated citizens endeavored to promote both alphorn music and yodeling. A central figure of this movement was the St. Gallen composer Ferdinand Fürchtegott Huber (1791–1863). Huber used elements of folk singing and alphorn music in his compositions, which are among the earliest Jodellieder. As a connoisseur of folk songs, a composer and a professional trumpet player, he was the appropriate person to give alphorn courses in which he even experimented with polyphony. An analysis of Huber’s yodel compositions intends to shed light on the musical relationship between the alphorn music and the yodeling of his era. Huber’s work is recognized as the first attempt towards a musical blending of alphorn melodies, cattle calls and yodeling.