Franzl Lang
Encyclopedia
Franz "Franzl" Lang known as the Yodelking , is a famous yodeler from Bavaria
,
Lang also sings and plays the guitar
and the accordion
; he has further authored several books on yodeling
. Lang's genre
is German folk music
; he typically sings in Bavarian dialect of the rural Alpine regions and its inhabitants. He inevitably breaks into yodeling at some point within each song. Now retired as a performer, he still occasionally records.
By general consensus, Lang is considered to be the best Alpine yodler in the world; he is certainly the best-selling.
s on West German television, especially on the ZDF
program Lustige Musikanten.
Lang has sold more than 10 million recordings; he has earned 20 gold records and one platinum record within the German recording industry. He is known as one of the most famous yodelers to have ever lived.
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
,
Lang also sings and plays the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
; he has further authored several books on yodeling
Yodeling
Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning "to...
. Lang's genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
is German folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
; he typically sings in Bavarian dialect of the rural Alpine regions and its inhabitants. He inevitably breaks into yodeling at some point within each song. Now retired as a performer, he still occasionally records.
By general consensus, Lang is considered to be the best Alpine yodler in the world; he is certainly the best-selling.
Career
Raised in Munich, Lang trained as a toolmaker. He started playing his trademark accordion at the age of nine. His greatest hit was his 1968 composition "Kufsteinlied." For many years in the 1970s, he was a permanent feature of musical variety showVariety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
s on West German television, especially on the ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
program Lustige Musikanten.
Lang has sold more than 10 million recordings; he has earned 20 gold records and one platinum record within the German recording industry. He is known as one of the most famous yodelers to have ever lived.