What is Mundart Musik
The word Mundart translates as dialect and refers to music that is sung in a local dialect rather than in the formal German language.
In Switzerland there is an active Mundart music scene covering rock pop, blues and hip hop. Much of the Swiss Mundart music is never heard outside of the country, but is very popular within the country.
There are simply too many individual performers, groups and genres to cover, so one or two noteworthy examples are shown here.
Patent Ochsner
During the 1990s there was an explosion of performers and groups and notable among these was a band called "Patent Ochsner", which performed only in the Bernese dialect (Berndeutsch). The name of the band was taken from the labelling on a well known brand of rubbish bins. These garbage skips supplied by the company Ochsner are always stamped with the name of the owner of the patent rights - Patent Ochsner.
The band is still performing today to huge audiences and many of their records have become standards in Swiss music culture. In particular one of their songs has become almost the de facto anthem of Bern. Released in 1996, the song W. Nuss vo Bümplitz shot up the charts and remained there and is still hugely popular among a generation of young people, who were not even born when it became a hit.
W. Nuss vo Bümplitz by Patent Ochsner
In a way this song almost represents a Swiss equivalent of the Beatles song "Strawberry Fields Forever". A remarkable thing about the song is that despite everyone knowing the words, no-one knows what the song is actually about.
The name W. Nuss would be a common Swiss name, but it is pronounced "vey noos", which is how Venus is pronounced in German.
So it could be about a beautiful unattainable woman, but it could equally be about a walnut tree (Walnuss Baum) or about the church in the town of Bümplitz or about something else. The composer/singer of the song Büne Huber has indicated that he is never going to disclose what the song is about.
The words of the chorus can be translated roughly as:
Venus from Bümpliz
is beautiful like fire in the night
Like a rose in the snow
When she goes out in Bümpliz
my heart beats in my throat
And I see myself falling, yeah, yeah
Ewigi Liebe (Enternal love)
This song emerged in 2000 and was written and sung by Padi Berhard of the band "Mash". It became a huge hit and has returned four times as a hit performed by different groups or solo artists.
The song is about wishing eternal love, but which cannot be guaranteed, because the future can never be foretold. The chorus can be translated as:
Everlasting love, I wish for you
Everlasting love, I wish for me
Everlasting love, perhaps not for us
but I'm at home with you.
A surprise version of Ewigi Liebi by an acapella yodell group, the Jodlerklub Wiesenberg, sounded quite different but shot to the top of the hit parade to the surprise of many people.
The Jodlerklub Wiesenberg was even more surprised when contacted from Japan and asked to do a tour there because their record was topping the charts in Japan.