One of my excursions during my stay was a trip to Schwyz, one of the founding cantons (states) of Switzerland. The other founding cantons are Uri and Unterwalden. Some information on the early Swiss history can be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_of_Schwyz.

Aside from enjoying the beautiful and picturesque town of Schwyz and the fascinating exhibition on the history of Swiss folk music, we also got to try out one of the legendary instruments — the alphorn. Unfortunately, we had to use a generic mouthpiece, which prevented us from actually playing the real alphorn tunes. We had to use our voices to play it. We got a good impression, though, of the kind of lung power and breath that is needed to make this amazing instrument sing.

The history of the alphorn is, like a lot of the history of early Switzerland or Helvetia, as it was called in the Middle Ages, a mix of historical accuracy and legend. Here is another article if you’re interested in the background of the alphorn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphorn

Here is a video of me trying out the alphorn. And yes, it’s funny and you may laugh!

And here are a few pictures of the quaint town of Schwyz.

I hope you enjoyed the quick tour into the past, to one of the original cantons of Switzerland.

More information on the exhibition about Swiss Folk music in Schwyz:

https://www.forumschwyz.ch/folk-music

But I don’t want to let you go without showing you this YouTube video from Eurovision 1979 with Pepe Lienhard, who really knows how to play the alphorn! Look at those hairstyles!