h a n g b l o g

If you are looking for an overview on the different Hang Sound Models there are some places online that list notations and sound files. However these references are not fully representative of all the variations that have taken place. Until now no information about Low Hang Sound Models from 2005 has been available. Also some discrepancies between notations and sound files in published Sound Model lists exist on some sites. Another lack is a general overview about the Second Generation Hang Sound Models made in 2006 and 2007.

To learn more about Sound Models I started a systematic research on all available references. An important source is PANArt’s former website. A number of versions of www.hang.ch are archived by web.archive.org. So it was possible to find older PANArt Sound Model lists. Although the sound files were not archived by web.archive.org and the lists sometimes don’t indicate the whole scales of the tone circle, it was possible to reconstruct the complete scales by comparing the lists on the former PANArt website with notations and sound files from other sources.

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This video features a first generation Zhi Diao from 2003, a Low Hang in Pygmy Bb High Voice from 2005 and a second generation Hang from 2007.

Listening to this arrangement you are able to follow the journey of the Hang through the years from a steelpan like percussion instrument played with the hands to a sound sculpture going beyond the scope of percussion. This shows why the Hang Makers don’t like their creation being called a “hang drum”.

Thanks Frank for filming and cutting the video!

The tickets for the HangOut UK 2008 are on sale now. HangOut UK is a weekend event for people passionate about the Hang from across the world to come and join together to learn new techniques and play Hang. It will take place 19th - 21st September 2008 on Mellow Farm, Farnham, UK. Visit the HangOut UK Homepage for more information.

Back from his journey to Berne Robert shares a video with us demonstrating the new Integral Hang introduced by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer in February 2008. The Integral Hang comes with a new hard case. It has a new design of the Ding and the Gu is slightly oval. Look and listen how Robert demonstrates the overtones of each tone field and the Ding and the sounds of the rim of the Gu. All Integral Hanghang will have the same scale: A D3-Ding and a tone circle with A3, Bb3, C4, D4, E4, F4, A4. While PANArt created an amount of more than 45 sound models for the Hanghang from 2001 to 2004, they reduced the number of scales in the following years and found now the sound model they think it is the one and only.

Saturday night the new Integral Hang introduced by PANArt in February 2008 joined a familiy reunion with some of its older siblings in a little town near Darmstadt, Germany.

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Some times ago the “Research Papers - Steeldrums” by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer describing PANArt’s research and development by 2000 vanished when the website www.seetobago.com was shut down where the papers were hosted. Yesterday www.pan-jumbie.com announced that the website was set up again at www.tobago.org. So we can study the papers again at http://www.tobago.org/trinidad/pan/archive/r&d/panart/index.htm

Seit wenigen Tagen hält die deutschsprachige Wikipedia einen Artikel über die Schweizer Steelpan-Geschichte bereit. Hier erfährt der oder die Hang-Interessierte einiges über die Kultur, aus der PANArt und das Hang hervorgegangen sind. Wir erfahren, wie Felix Rohner und Alex Santschi nach dem Konzert einer Trinidader Steelband beim Bernfest 1976 in den Wald gingen, um ihre ersten Steelpans zu bauen. Wir lesen über das Wachsen der Steelpan Szene in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz auf um die 70 Steelbands in den 1980er Jahren, von der Gründung der PANArt Steelpanmanufaktur AG im Jahr 1993, der Suche nach einem besseren Material für den Steelpanbau und einiges mehr.

Ergänzend sei der deutschsprachige Wikipedia-Artikel über die Steel Pan empfohlen der ebenfalls in der letzten Zeit bedeutend ausgebaut wurde, und so den Blick auf die Wiege des Hang zu weiten vermag.

Zur deutschen Version dieses Artikels

The Hang Lexicon was last updated on June 4th, 2008.

The Hang Lexicon offers short explanations of key words in alphabetical order. If you know of a missing key word, or have questions on any of the descriptions please add a comment at the bottom of this page.

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It was 14 months ago, in November 2006, when the Hangblog started as a little German Weblog about the Hang. In the meantime it grows up and became a bilingual place for Hang related topics with English and German content and more than 10,000 visitors per month. So I decided that it was time for a new appearance. I hope the new design makes it easier for the readers to find the information they are searching for.

At the request of the hangbuilders from PANArt the hangblog publishes two new Hang papers written for the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, ISMA 2007, 9-12th September in Barcelona, where the Hang was presented by Felix Rohner, Sabina Schärer and Thomas D. Rossing.

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