Ranz des vaches
A Swiss herding melody used to call cattle, also known by its French name Ranz des vaches.
What it means
The Kuhreigen is a traditional Swiss herding melody with which alpine herders call their cattle to pasture or soothe them during milking. It is usually played on the alphorn or yodelled, often in free, irregular rhythm.
Musical use
The tune became widely known under its French name, Ranz des vaches, which by the 18th and 19th centuries had become a Europe-wide symbol of homesickness and alpine romanticism; it is said to have induced such intense homesickness in Swiss mercenaries abroad that playing it was at times forbidden. Composers such as Rossini took up the characteristic melody in works with an alpine setting, notably the overture to William Tell. The tune often draws on the alphorn's natural harmonic series, including the instrument's characteristic, slightly "out of tune" eleventh harmonic (the so-called alphorn fa) lying between the perfect and augmented fourth.
Performance practice
When approaching the Ranz des vaches, try to preserve its free, almost spoken rhythm rather than forcing it into a rigid metre — it began as a call, not a composed art song.