Have you ever heard of kulning? I had not. I have seen cows come to music before, in particular the trombone. My husband told me the reason for that.
Apparently cows are naturally curious and suspicious because they are prey animals. The first thing they do when something is different in their environment is to come and see what's up. Since there is protection in the herd, they'll all come at once.
What is Kulning?
Kulning is a high pitched singing technique that was used mainly by women. It was most common from 1500 to 1800 in Scandinavia. The women and children often took care of the animals and kulning was used to communicate with animals and over great distances. They took the farm animals to a fäbod (a chalet in the forest), and lived there all summer while the men stayed home at the farm to take care of the harvest.
Kulning can be heard through very far distances. I recently came across a beautiful and haunting video of this on Facebook.
"I sang for the cows one last time before they had to go back to the farm for the winter. I always feel a sorrow when they leave in the autumn. Since May they have been here on the fields, bringing some life to our little quiet village with only 10 inhabitants in the middle of the northern woods.The sounds of cowbells in the quiet evening is one of the best sounds I know. And I love the feelings of seeing them running towards me as I sing. Especially when I see my favorite cow, Stjärna (star). She is always the first one coming. I already miss them so much. " Said the kulner Jonna Jinton
The footage shows artist and photographer Jonna Jinton making full use of kulning to request the presence of the cows.
Grazing off in the distance the herd immediately prick up their ears at the sound of Jonna's voice.
It seems as though I wasn't the only one who loved the soothing haunting song. Since she uploaded the video to YouTube (below) on it has received over 4,000,000 views. The Facebook video (above) has more than 19,000,000!
In a blog post she explains why she was out calling to the cows on her birthday.
She wrote: 'The cows came running and I loved the feeling... although they also took with them millions of tiny gnats and mosquitoes.'But the feeling of getting to stand there and share a moment with the cows was unbeatable. Not to mention the finish.'