RANI DES VACHES (‘ Kuhreihen' in German) is the name of certain simple melodies which are great favourites with the moun taineers of the Alps of Switzerland, and which are commonly played upon a kind of long trumpet called the Alp-horn. The sounds of these tunes, as well as the words which are set to them, are expressive of the scenes and business of pastoral life ; the hut, the roaring torrent, the bellowing of the cattle, and the tinkling of the belle which are suspended from their necks; and the associations which they thus recall to the minds of the natives when they are in foreign countries, often produce that unconquerable longing for home which is said to have been especially remarked among the Swiss soldiers on foreign service ; for this reason, the bands of the Swiss regiments in foreign ser vice were forbidden to play the Ranz des Vaches. Theodore Zwinger,
of Basel, wrote, in 1710, a ' Dissertation ou Nostalgia,' in which he gave the music of the Kuhreihen of Appenzell, which is one of the oldest, and which was introduced into England in the time of Queen Anne, who had it often played by her band. The words begin thus : " Wander yha, wander yha, wander yha, Lo ba." Each of the various pastoral districts, the Oberland, the Emmenthal, the Entlibuch, the Appenzell, the Gruyere, has its Kuhreihen. The western or Remand districts of Switzerland have their Ranz des Vaches in their respective patois or dialects.
A collection of the various Ranz des Vaches and other Swiss airs has been published : Samndung von Schweizer Kuhreihen and Volkstiedern, Bern, 1818 ; and they are included in the Allgemeine Schweizer Lieder latch, published in 1851.