A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ranz des Vaches

by William Barclay Squire

RANZ DES VACHES, (Kuhreihen, Kuhreiqen; Appenzell patois Chücreiha), a strain of an irregular description, which in some parts of Switzerland is sung or blown on the Alpine horn in June, to call the cattle from the valleys to the higher pastures. Several derivations have been suggested for the words ranz and reihen or reigen. Ranz has been translated by the English 'rant,' and the French 'rondeau,' and has been derived from the Keltic root 'renk' or 'rank,' which may also be the derivation of reihen, in which case both words would mean the 'procession, or march, of the cows.' Stalder ('Schweizerisches Idiotikon') thinks that reihen means 'to reach,' or 'fetch,' while other authorities say that the word is the same as reigen (a dance accompanied by singing), and derive ranz from the Swiss patois 'ranner,' to rejoice.

The Ranz des Vaches are very numerous, and differ both in music and words in the different cantons. They are extremely irregular in character, full of long cadences and abrupt changes of tempo. It is a curious fact that they are seldom strictly in tune, more particularly when played on the Alpine horn, an instrument in which, like the Bagpipe, the note represented by F is really an extra note between F and F♯. This note is very characteristic of the Ranz des Vaches; passages like the following being repeated and varied almost ad infinitum.

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Though of little musical value, a fictitious interest has been long attached to the Ranz des Vaches owing to the surroundings in which they are generally heard. Sung to a pianoforte accompaniment in a concert-room, they would sound little better than a string of semi-barbarous cadences, but heard at dawn or at sunset in some remote Alpine valley, and sung with the strange gradations of falsetto and chest-voice softened by distance, they possess a peculiar and undeniable charm. The most celebrated of them is that of Appenzell, a copy of which is said to have been sent to our Queen Anne, with whom it was a great favourite. The first work jn which it was printed is Georg Rhaw's 'Bicinia' (Wittenberg, 1545). It is also to be found in a dissertation on Nostalgia in Zwinger's 'Fasciculus Dissertationum Medicarum' (Basle, 1710). Rousseau printed a version in his 'Dictionnaire de Musique,' which Laborde arranged for 4 voices in his 'Essai sur la Musique.' It was used by Grétry in his Overture to 'Guillaume Tell,' and by Adam in his 'Methode de Piano du Conservatoire.'^[2] It has been also arranged by Webbe, Weigl, Rossini ('Guillaume Tell') and Meyerbeer. The following example is sung in the Alps of Gruyere in the Canton of Friburg:—

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[ W. B. S. ]

1. There is a curious analogy between the above and the following strain, which is sung with infinite variations in the agricultural districts near London to frighten away the birds from the seed. In both passages the F is more nearly F♯.
   
2. Other examples and descriptions will be found in the following works:—Cappeller's 'Pilati Montis Historia' (1757); Stolberg's 'Reise in Deutschland, der Schweiz, etc.' (1794); Ebel's 'Schilderung der Gebirgsvölker der Schweiz' (1798); Sigmund von Wagner's 'Acht Schweizer Kuhreihen' (1805); the article on Viotti in the 'Decade Philosophique' (An 6); Castelnau's 'Considerations sur la Nostalgie' 1806); Edward Jones's 'Musical Curiosities' (1811); Tarenne's 'Sammlung von Schweizer Kuhreihen und Volksliedern' (1818); Huber's 'Recueil de Ranz de Vaches' (1830); and Tobler's 'Appenzellischer Sprachschatz'(1837).
3. Translation, by Fenimore Cooper:—'The cowherds of Colombette arise at an early hour, Ha, ha! Ha, ha! Liauba! Liauba! in order to milk! Come all of you, Black and white, Red and mottled, Young and old; Beneath this oak I am about to milk you. Beneath this poplar I am about to press. Liauba! Liauba! in order to milk!