She is something like the globalized, modernized version of Heidi: Gabriela Martina. Simon Heer
Gabriela Martina learned to yodel at home, deep in the Swiss provinces. From there she set out to expand her singing skills abroad – and received much praise in America and Holland. But the singer still has a difficult time in her homeland.
This content was published on December 27, 2023 – 06:00 December 27, 2023 – 06:00
Edward Simantob
Gabriela Martina’s new music video “Tribute to the GrämlisExternal link” seems like the opening scene of a new edition of Heidi, the almost mythological Swiss cultural export. But the mountain landscape in the background of a green meadow is not just a cliché. Gabriela Martina grew up on a farm near Lucerne – in central Switzerland, in the middle of Switzerland Province.
Her path took her to Boston (USA), where she enrolled at the renowned Berklee College of Music and began to fuse her local traditions, especially yodeling, with experimental music and jazz.
After 13 years in the United States, several awards and encouraging reviews in the specialized press, she decided to return to Europe with her husband. She had previously spent some time in Switzerland during the Corona pandemic and then settled in Amsterdam.
The pandemic delayed the release of her first album, but it also gave her the opportunity to deepen her yodeling skills at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences with Nadja Räss and numerous songs for her second album States to compose, which will be published in spring 2024.
The singer and composer is restless. Accompanied by a band of former study colleagues, Gabriela Martina is currently recording new songs for her third album in Boston – many of them composed for a project with the Mozambican singer Angelina Mbulo.
The songs were actually intended to raise awareness about the issue of child marriage and its consequences: domestic violence, marital abuse (physical, sexual or psychological) and abandonment. However, she had to abandon the project because Mbulo received a job offer and could not continue working on it.
“In the meantime, I have composed nine new pieces on the theme of ‘Femininity – Sexuality – Empowerment’,” she tells SWI swissinfo in a telephone interview.
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SWI swissinfo.ch: After many years in the USA, you decided to live in Amsterdam. Why Holland?
Gabriel Martin: My husband is from Finland, I am from Switzerland, and we moved to the USA at a pretty unstable time – on the one hand because of the Corona crisis, on the other hand because of the political tensions and other things like the healthcare system.
We then decided to return to Europe. We could have gone to Switzerland or Finland, but in either of those countries one of us would have had to start from scratch, so we chose a neutral place where we were both equal. Amsterdam is a very multicultural city with many venues, but we are not sure how long we can stay here.
SWI: What was your musical training like and how did you get into yodeling?
G.M.: I mainly got my yodeling from my parents and those around me because we always played music at home on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. My mother played the piano and accordion, my siblings played instruments and danced in circles.
SWI: Are your family members professional musicians or singers?
G.M.: My mother was in the church choir, and she sang solos and took music lessons. But she was never able to study music, while my father has been singing in a yodelling club every Tuesday evening for 50 years. They are between 20 and 30 men and two or three women and perform at yodeling festivals, in church or at events in the city, at weddings or funerals.
We also performed as a family. I have two sisters and a younger brother and we always yodeled together.
SWI: How did you decide to pursue a music career?
G.M.: That was something I discovered at school, in Lucerne. I once performed “The Girl from Ipanema” when I was 17, and I was very touched by the audience’s reaction. I realized, okay, there’s something I can do with my voice that seems to appeal to people. That was the moment I realized that maybe I should take singing a little more seriously.
Grassroots: Gabriela in front of a “tiled stove”, a traditional Swiss masonry oven. Simon Heer
SWI: A few years ago we reported that the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences had launched a yodelling diploma course. Does that mean anything to you?
GM: Yes, of course! I even studied there. In 2020 I returned to Switzerland from the USA because my father was very ill. During this time, Corona struck. Then I asked myself: What do I do now? Because I lost my income, my tours and actually all my performances from then on.
I looked for ways to stay afloat and applied for that Certificate programExternal link. I was finally able to study yodeling professionally at a very late age, but I was about to release an album called “Homage to Grämlis” where I combined yodeling with everything I had done before. And it just made sense to me to delve deeper into it.
SWI: The tradition of yodeling has been passed down from generation to generation rather informally, including yours. Has that changed recently?
GM: Yes, I think so. There’s so much going on, isn’t there? In this globalized world, there are tons of students who come to Switzerland from different countries to learn yodeling. At the last yodeling festival I attended, there was a yodeler from South Korea.
Of course he’s… I don’t like to use the word outsider, but people listen to someone like that with completely different ears and it’s always a question of acceptance, respect and admiration for the whole effort. I just think that’s pretty damn cool.
SWI: You mean the cultural mix?
GM: Yes. It’s like going to Brazil, learning the language and getting excited about Brazilian music. I have no idea about that, and I know it would take me years, if not a lifetime. Because it’s not just the music. It’s the food, the language, how people dance, how they sleep, how they talk.
Yodeling is not a Swiss thing. Although it is part of Swiss culture, it can also be found in Austria and Germany. If you go to Lapland, the Sami people have their Joik. And in Sweden there is the Kulning.
There is also a form of yodeling in Africa. And if you look at India…I just met an Indian here in Amsterdam who said: “Oh, we do that too. I didn’t know the Swiss did yodeling” (laughs).
SWI: Is there something like a modern yodel today?
GM: Of course. But if there is a modern way of yodeling, then there are also a lot of artists who do it today. Nadja Räss certainly has a more modern approach to yodeling, and Simone Felber and Erika Stucky are also worth mentioning. These are just a few from Switzerland, although unfortunately I don’t know much about the Swiss scene.
Martina in front of the farmhouse where she spent a happy yodelling childhood, which is expressed in the song “Mis Bruune Huesli” (“My Brown Little House”). Simon Heer
SWI: What music do you use to create a dialogue when composing?
GM: It always depends on the concept. With Homage to Grämlis, for example, that was very clear. I wanted an homage to my childhood, to my parents, to my siblings, to the piece of land where I grew up. And I knew that I had to incorporate yodeling into my compositions somehow.
I actually rediscovered yodeling many, many years later, which was probably 2016 when I was in Boston and I was yodeling for some reason. I just burst into tears and realized there was something that touched me deeply and I needed to deal with it more.
I couldn’t just leave it like that. And that gave me the idea of composing pieces that would bring the whole story of Grämlis, my family’s farm, closer to a wider audience. Because my parents had decided to give up their farm in 2018, it was time to thank them for their contribution to the entire community.
SWI: You lived in the USA for 13 years and now live in Holland, to what extent do you maintain the dialogue with Switzerland? Has this changed significantly due to the distance?
GM: Well, one thing I should be better at is voting, because I’m very interested in politics, but for some reason I find it hard to meet the deadlines. I receive the Swiss Abroad newsletter and know that online voting is still a big issue. But that’s no excuse.
I just have to get better at it. I am always in contact with Switzerland, no matter where I live. In the Netherlands I’m in contact with the Swiss embassy, and if they ask me for a performance or a yodeling concert or whatever, I’m happy to join in.
Ironically, it’s difficult for me to get gigs in Switzerland.
SWI: Why is that?
GM: Maybe because I don’t really have a name in Switzerland yet. I know that there are venues in Switzerland that only care about visitor numbers. You have to sell tickets. This has to work. But I’m really good at promoting concerts, I did that in Boston where I was a foreigner.
It’s frustrating because if I can’t perform my music in Switzerland, how will people even get to hear it?
SWI: A common point of criticism from Swiss artists is that you have to be very successful abroad in order to be “discovered” in Switzerland.
GM: Yeah, I’m just wondering when the tipping point will come where someone will recognize all of my work. The musicians I play with are on tour with big names, they have incredible CVs and I would like to present them in Switzerland. And I know that the Swiss would like it, but first we have to get the chance.
The band of former schoolmates from Boston, from left to right: Vancil Cooper (USA, drums and percussion), Gabriela Martina, Ben Rosenblum (USA, accordion), Kyle Miles (USA, acoustic and electric bass), Maxim Lubarsky (Ukraine, piano and keys) and Jussi Reijonen (Finland, electric and acoustic guitar). Gabriela Martina
Edited by Virginie Mangin, translated from English by Michael Heger.
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2023-12-27 05:05:22
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