Singing Association Harmonie Götzis at the Tyrolean Choir Festival – Götzis

The choirs from Tyrol, Italy, Bavaria, Carinthia, Upper Austria, Switzerland and Götzis were stationed at 6 stations on a two-kilometre long, obstacle-free circular hiking trail and treated the large audience later in the morning to mostly home-related songs. The singing society Harmonie Götzis under the direction of choir director Mag. Thomas Thurnher sang songs such as Götzner Völkle, Wer si uskennt im Ländle, Kanisfluh, Wanderer Ruf, some of which he composed himself. Chairman Hermann Naschbauer sometimes informed the Tyrolean audience in advance about the content and origins of the melodies written in the Vorarlberg dialect.

The farms and inns where the singers performed outdoors also offered guests delicious regional dishes. For example, Schmirner Krapfen and Tyrolean Großtel made burgers, herbal products and homemade cakes from local farmers, to name a few.

When I go through the valley…

The event motto, as well as the original composition of the Wolkensteiner Singers Association from Innsbruck, was a fitting tribute to the town of Wipptal in Schmirn – located at an altitude of 1,500 metres above sea level – which provided an incomparable backdrop for the event. The communities of Wipptal in Schmirn, St. Judok and Walsertal owe their charming rural character to the quality attribute “mountain village”. This obliges the participating communities, among other things, not to build hotels and lifts. Almost every farm and inn offers guest rooms, which are popular with skiers, hikers, mountaineers and those looking for relaxation in their activities.

During a visit to the local history museum the day before, run and managed by pensioner Ernst Jennewein, he described, using various agricultural tools and implements, how hard and time-consuming their work was at the time. A nostalgic ORF report from 1959 – shown on a small TV in his museum – shows the brave men hauling their hay down the steep slopes into the valley using sledges and wooden stretchers.