Traditional / folk music of Austria

Austria is a small country with hosting big tradition of music for the world, “Classical music”. It was the home of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven ,Franz Schubert, Strauss and etc. During 18th and 19th centuries, Vienna was the European capital of classical music. Today all around the world these names are well-known with their amazing compositions. They changed the history of music in all the genres and these compositions are used in all part of the world by different genres of musicians. They can be heard in the streets, bars and big official concert halls. Maybe classical music can be named as traditional music of Austria, but this is not all of the story.

Many genres of folk dances and local music also played and performed in Austria with little orchestras. Some of traditional dances in Austria are schuhplattler, ländler, polka, waltz, zwiefacher, kontratänze and sprachinseltänze. Some of them like polka and waltz are also common in many part of Europe. Some other like schuhplattler shared with the Alpine regions.

Yodeling

This genre of folk music is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. Yodeling is one of the oldest forms of communication. Too many times of switching from high and low voices and vice versa, can attract listeners from far away. When yodeling performed by many singers, it is very attractive and touching. Yodeling is common in different Alpine regions like Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany. It is also went to United State with German immigrants in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s. Today there are many yodelers in many part of the world. Yodeling is one of the strong elements of folk music in Austria.

Schrammelmusik

This genre of folk music is an urban music developed in Vienna by brothers Josef and Johann Schrammel in 1878. They were two violinists. It is still performed in Austria today. After Schrammel borthers many great composers like Johann Strauss, Johannes Brahms used this style of folk music for their compositions. The orchestras which plays schrammelmusik usually consist of clarinet, accordion, violin, and contraguitar. Contraguitar is a kind of guitar developed in Vienna in the mid-nineteenth century. In addition to the usual guitar neck with six strings and a fretboard, it has a second, fretless neck with up to nine bass strings.

One of the interesting instrument which is found in the popular and folk music of Austria is zither. It is a kind of string instrument which traditionally found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia, the southern regions of Germany and alpine Europe.

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