The album's starting point is the song cycle Lieder us um Tal (Songs from the Valley) by Eugen Meier, which sets poems by Hannes Taugwalder in the Valais dialect.
Album & Artwork
This album is an homage to Swiss Art Song and a declaration of love to Franziska Heinzen's home canton Valais.
Composer Biography
Eugen Meier, whose song cycle Lieder us um Tal is central to this album, was a conductor and singing teacher in Visp, Switzerland, and his song Weischus dü? is considered modern Swiss Folk Song.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Unlike neighboring countries, Switzerland has not developed an independent Art Song tradition, with composers often orienting themselves to international styles or deliberately ignoring them.
Historical Context
The poems by Hannes Taugwalder are written in the Valais dialect, a High Alemannic dialect preserved by the canton's geographical isolation, surrounded by over 40 four-thousand-meter mountains.
Compositional Technique
The Valais dialect, featured in many songs, is characterized by unique sound features, vowel changes, syllable transformations, and diminutive endings.
