Ruedi Rymann: Yodelling star and cultural icon who sang 'Switzerland's greatest hit'

If you put aside the Toblerone and cuckoo-clock clichés, you would be hard pressed to find a more thoroughly Swiss archetype than Ruedi Rymann. In the Swiss public imagination he represented a combination of Swiss-German music and national sports. Most especially, he will be remembered as one of the great yodelling stars of our time. Yet despite the gold discs and international tours that made him a cultural icon, his feet were planted firmly in the soil. By profession, he was a man of the land; his life revolved around labouring, farming, cheese-making and forestry work. As a life, Rymann's reveals much about Swiss character and culture.

Technically jodel is style of singing that switches between a head and a chest voice. The generally accepted theory is that it developed to carry and communicate over distances – hill to vale, hill to hill. In its original form it was – and is still largely viewed – as a Swiss-German phenomenon. Over time, particularly since 1910, when a formal association – the Eidgenössischer Jodlerverband (Swiss Yodelling Association) – was founded, yodelling's many and various regional styles gained wider recognition and became a happy hunting ground for ethnomusicologists. But things changed in other ways, too, with yodelling finding a place in Switzerland's popular music, just as it had in popular music forms elsewhere, such as the US country music of Hank Williams.

Rymann was one of Switzerland's most prominent yodellers and his "Dr Schacher Seppli", a revisiting of a traditional song, became – and remains – a much-requested staple of Swiss radio broadcasting. It earned him a gold disc in 1982. His yodelling skills took him to Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the US on tour. He remained active in music and, as recently as 2007, Obwalden – the canton in which he lived – awarded him its cultural prize.

In late 2007 Swiss television ran a series called Die grössten Schweizer Hits ("Greatest Swiss Hits"). At the end of the series, "Dr Schacher Seppli" had mobilised enough of the population to vote it Switzerland's greatest hit. The programme was a sublime nonsense, yet Rymann's hit had indubitably tapped into something in the Swiss temperament and psyche.

Switzerland has three renowned national sports that receive little attention outside the nation: Hornussen, sometimes described as "Swiss golf", Unspunnenstein, which involves tossing a 83.5kg rock, and Swingen, a variant of Ringen – the usual German word for wrestling. Rymann was involved in the latter, which is played out on rings, traditionally outdoor, spread with sawdust. He became the president of his local Swingen society.

In retirement Rymann was also a huntsman. Fittingly, one of his best-known songs was Der Gemsjäger ("The Chamois Hunter").

Ken Hunt

Rudolf Rymann, yodler, sportsman and farmer: born Sarnen, Switzerland 31 January 1933; married (one son, five daughters); died Giswil, Switzerland 10 September 2008.

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