Ranz des Vaches

Lore & Background

The Ranz des Vaches is a type of work song traditionally played on the horn by Swiss Alpine herdsmen as they called their cattle from the pastures for milking or the descent from alpine pastures. The Kuhreihen is linked to Swiss nostalgia and homesickness, also known as mal du Suisse or Schweizerheimweh. The Reverend James Wood, writing in The Nuttall Encyclopaedia in 1907, said that such a tune 'when played in foreign lands, produces on a Swiss an almost irrepressible yearning for home,' repeating 18th century accounts of nostalgia diagnosed in Swiss mercenaries.

Reader's Guide

The Ranz des Vaches is significant for its deep connection to Swiss cultural identity and the phenomenon of nostalgia. It is mentioned in a 1710 medical text by Theodor Zwinger III, who called it by its German name Kuhreihen and Latin Cantilena helvetica, noting its effect on Swiss mercenaries abroad who fell into prostration upon hearing it. The 1767 Dictionnaire de Musique by Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed that Swiss mercenaries were threatened with death to prevent them from singing this song, as it led to desertion, illness, or death. The Romantic connection of nostalgia, the Kuhreihen, and the Swiss Alps was a significant factor in the enthusiasm for Switzerland, early tourism, and Alpinism in the 19th century. The Kuhreihen were romanticized after the Unspunnenfest of 1805 in a collection edited by G. J. Kühn and J. R. Wyss, influencing Swiss yodel and becoming a topos in Romantic literature. Perhaps the most famous Ranz des Vaches is the cor anglais and flute solo in the overture to Gioachino Rossini's opera William Tell, and another famous example appears in Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

Did You Know?

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 1767 Dictionnaire de Musique claimed Swiss mercenaries were threatened with death to prevent them from singing this song.
• Henry David Thoreau compared the song of the wood thrush to a ranz des vaches in his writings.