Swiss National Museum, Zurich, on now till September 18, 2011
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Mani Matter a popular Bernese songwriter and poet left behind a wealth of songs (in Swiss German dialect) still very popular today. A temporary exhibition remembers Mani Matter with five themes taken after his most famous songs: “Der Eskimo” (The Eskimo), “Bim Coiffeur” (At the hairdresser), “Yr Isebahn” (The railway), “Dr Parkingmeter” (The Parking Meter) and “Arabisch” (Arabic) with selected texts, photographs and other items.
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Identity at stake in war of words
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At the moment, one third of teaching is supposed to be in dialect, one third in “high German”, the standard language of Germany, and the other third at the discretion of the teachers, according to the situation. Supporters of the “Yes to dialect in the kindergarten” campaign suspected that the aim of the education authorities…
Swiss Pop & Rock Anthology – MUNDART-SWISS DIALECT ROCK (Vol. 5)
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High German, which was an intrinsic element of traditional “Schlager”-hits, and didn’t seem to be suited to the driving rhythms, belting guitars and buzzing hi-hats of rock ‘n’ roll. And Swiss-German dialects didn’t appear to be much more attractive. How could the spirit of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” be expressed in a language…
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Although yodelling and Switzerland do go together well, the vocal technique is not exclusively Swiss. In the Alps, it is believed to have developed as a means of long-distance communication between isolated shepherds. As elsewhere in the Alps, a distinctive folkloric sound is provided by instruments such as the Schwyzerörgeli (or “Swiss organ”, an accordion),…
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