Le Ranz des Vaches

This excerpt of a Swiss song appeared in a medical study on the phenomenon of nostalgia, usually glossed in English as "homesickness." A researcher named Johannes Hofer had coined the term in his 1688 dissertation, observing that Swiss mercenary troops sometimes fell ill during extended absences from their homeland. Here, Theodore Zwinger in 1710 extends the insight to a folk cowherding tune--Kühe-Reyen--played on an alpenhorn or sung. The power of that music alone was so evocative that it it evoked palpable longing and ennui for the familiar meadows.

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