Alpenfest gets official alphorn

Published 8:00 am Sunday, July 10, 2022

WALLOWA LAKE — It’s not new, but Oregon’s Alpenfest has a new, 50-year-old alphorn as the official instrument of the festival, held each fall in Oregon’s “Little Switzerland.”

The half-century-old horn was on display July 5, when University of Idaho student Grace Hanning donned a traditional Swiss dirndl dress to show how the horn is played.

She was at Wallowa State Park at the marina where the state Parks and Recreation Department plans to construct an events center. Plans are for the center to be the new permanent home of Alpenfest, said Alpenmeister Chuck Anderson.

He said the horn may be old, but it’s like new because it was hardly ever played.

The horn was donated to Alpenfest by Cathy Leitch, whose father, Gordon Leitch, bought it from an alphorn maker in Lucerne, Switzerland. It arrived in the United States in 1975 when it was shipped to Portland, Anderson said.

The 12-foot-long horn consists of a long tube that goes down to a bell-shaped end is made largely of spruce with a birch rattan wrapping, Anderson said.

According to the Swiss Observer, which bills itself as the official organ of the Swiss colony in Great Britain, the alphorn is closely identified with Swiss culture. However, it’s not exclusively Swiss, as Alpine areas of Germany and Austria have long had the horns, as have Norway, Hungary, Romania and even some countries of Asia.

The earliest records of the alphorns used in what is now Switzerland date from the 16th century.

Alpenfest was held at the old Edelweiss Inn for 43 years, but the building’s owners deemed it to be too dangerous for future public events after the 2018 festival. This year’s festival, scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 2, will be at the Harley Tucker Memorial Rodeo Grounds in Joseph.

Anderson, who has long headed the Alpenfest, was eager to bring the festival back after being canceled for two years because of the pandemic.

“We’re going to hold it this year no matter what,” he said.