Kulning
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Kulning or lokk is a
, etc.), but this is not the main purpose of the call.In Norway it is called laling, lalning and kauking, kaukning when calling between person-to-person, or lokk, kulokk when calling between person-to-animals,[1] and is usually performed countrywide (especially in South Norway). In Sweden it is called llalning, lålning or kyrlokk, and is mainly performed in the provinces of Dalarna and Hälsingland and in the former Norwegian provinces of Jämtland and Härjedalen.
The song form is often used by women, as they were the ones tending the herds and flocks in the high mountain pastures, but there are recordings of these calls sung by men.
Acoustic characteristics
The song has a high-pitched vocal technique, i.e. a loud call using
"it was shown that kulning fell off less with distance from an intensity point of view, and also that partials in kulning – but not in head voice – remained more or less unperturbed 11 meters from the singer, as compared to 1 meter from the singer. Both results help explain why kulning as a singing mode was developed for calling cattle that might be at considerable distance from the singer".[2]
Function and physiological characteristics
When a call is made in a valley, it rings and echoes against the mountains. The animals, a number of whom wear bells tuned so that the livestock's location can be heard, begin to respond to the call, answering back and the sound of the bells indicates that they are moving down the mountain towards their home farm. The kulokks can belong to an individual, but are sometimes family-based and are handed down so that a family's cows know they are being called and thus respond. A number of calls contain names of individual (sometimes the "lead") animals, as herds are not very large.
A study done by Finnish and Swedish universities[3] showed that kulning, as compared to falsetto, exhibits a better contact of the vocal folds and a longer glottal closure in the phonation cycle. Using nasofiberendoscopy also showed medial and anteroposterior narrowing of the laryngeal inlet and approximation of the false vocal folds in kulning.
Comparison with other regional song traditions
In comparison with other song traditions used in northern Scandinavia, e.g. joik, there is no evidence that kulning has been used in religious rituals or for other purposes. It has been used on farms in stock-raising since medieval times. The tradition is still alive today, although waning. Kulning is, however, similar to yodeling, a singing style also developed for long-distance sound propagation.
Comparison with herdcalling songs in other countries
In France, briolage is a set of "techniques of calls and exhortations to the ploughing animals in most cases, intended to guide them".[4]
Kulning used in music
Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg based a few of his classical music compositions for piano and for orchestra on kulokker that he had heard. An early Norwegian opera includes a soprano aria that is half aria and half kulning.
Kulning features in the music of some Scandinavian folk groups, for example Heilung, Gjallarhorn and Frifot (featuring singer Lena Willemark).
The song "Ulveham" by Norwegian band Gåte, which they're competing with at Eurovision Song Contest 2024, includes a kulning vocalisation on the chorus.
Kulning in the media
There are also other examples of kulning to be found in other forms of modern media:
- Vocalist Christine Hals provided traditional Norwegian kulning for the soundtracks of the films Frozen (2013) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and as a voice actress in action-adventure video game God of War Ragnarök. [5]
- In the song "
- Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's film Offret ("The Sacrifice" – Sweden, 1986) features kulning in its soundtrack.
- TV series Vikingsfeatures aggressive kulning during some battle scenes.
- The 2013 videogame Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons features kulning in its soundtrack.[7]
- A 2019 episode of Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? features Daphne Blake and singer Sia at a kulning workshop in Sweden.
See also
- Keening
- Lilting
- Yodeling
- Field holler
- Chanting in general, and the variantassociated with Germanic and Norse pagan tradition
References
- ISBN 8200216926.
- ^ Eklund & McAllister (2015).
- ^ Geneid et al. (2016).
- ^ Glossaire Ethnomusicologie, in FRENCH
- ^ "News". Christine Hals. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- ^ Cohn, Gabe (29 November 2019). "How to Follow Up 'Frozen'? With Melancholy and a Power Ballad". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
- ^ Grefberg, Gustaf (2013). "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Official Soundtrack". Bandcamp. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
Kulning (vocals) by Emma Sunbring
Bibliography
- Dahlsmtrö, Kajsa & McAllister, Anita (June 2019). "An acoustic analysis of Swedish cattle calls, 'kulning', performed outdoors at three distances" (PDF). Proceedings of FONETIK. PERILUS (XXVII). Stockholm, Sweden: ISSN 0282-6690. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
- Geneid, Ahmed; ISSN 1104-5787. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- Eklund, Robert & McAllister, Anita (August 2015). "An acoustic analysis of 'kulning' (cattle calls) recorded in an outdoor setting on location in Dalarna (Sweden)" (PDF). Proceedings of 18th Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, Scotland: 10–14. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- McAllister, Anita & Eklund, Robert (June 2015). "An acoustic analysis of the cattle call "kulning": performed outdoors at Säter, Dalarna, Sweden" (PDF). Proceedings from Fonetik. Lund, Sweden: Centre for Languages and Literature, General Linguistics/Phonetics, Lund University: 8–10. ISSN 0280-526X. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- Eklund, Robert; McAllister, Anita & Pehrson, Fanny (June 2013). Eklund, Robert (ed.). "An acoustic comparison of voice characteristics in 'kulning', head and modal registers" (PDF). Proceedings of Fonetik 2013, the XXVIth Swedish Phonetics Conference, Studies in Language and Culture (21). Linköping, Sweden: Linköping University: 21–24. ISBN 978-91-7519-582-7. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
- Tellenbach, Magdalena (1999). Lockrufe in Skandinavien: Funktion, Klang, Revival (MA) (in German). University of Vienna, Faculty of Humanities.
- Johnson, Anna (1981). Svenska locklåtar i nutidstradition: studier över storform och funktion (Thesis) (in Swedish). University of Uppsala, Department of Musicology.
External links
- Rosenberg, Susanne & Ahlbäck, Sven (2004). Frizell, Barbro Santillo (ed.). "Kulning – herding calls from Sweden" (PDF). Man and Animal in Antiquity, Proceedings of the Conference at the Swedish Institute in Rome, September 2002. Swedish Institute in Rome: 150–153.