Hang (instrument)

The Hang [ HAN ] (plural: hanghang ) is a musical instrument. It consists of two semi- spherical segments are glued together from gasnitriertem steel. On the upper half shell are sound fields - are incorporated into the sheet metal with hammers - similar to the steelpan.

The slope is held horizontally or vertically on the lap. It is played with the fingers and hands, giving the name: Hang Bern is German for hand.

The instrument was built in 2000 by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer invented in Bern, and from 2001 to 2013 in various stages of development exclusively by them in their company PANArt Hangbau AG. During the year 2013, the slope was replaced by the Gubal.

The names slope and Gubal are registered word marks and property of PANArt Hangbau AG.

Description

The two half shells of the slope form a hollow vessel with a diameter of 52 cm and a height of 24 cm. On its top seven or eight sound fields are circularly around a central tone zone, the thing arranged. Opposite, in the middle of the lower half-shell, is the Gu, a palm-sized, circular opening resonance with drawn inwards neck.

The upper shell of the slope is also called Ding- side lower than Gu page.

The thing is the central sound of the instrument and usually tuned a fifth or fourth below the lowest tone of the tone circuit. It consists of a flattened portion with an outwardly curved dome in the center and giving the slope Gong similar properties.

The elliptical sound fields of the tone ring, which is also called the choir, have the shape of a shallow hyperbolic paraboloid. In its center there is also an elliptical inward dome. In each sound field three partials are tuned: the fundamental, the octave and the twelfth.

The slope of the cavity together with the Gu a Helmholtz resonator, in which the air resonates at a certain frequency and a bass tone (F2 ) is generated, which can be lowered by narrowing the Gu opening up to an octave. The Hang players excites the Helmholtz resonance with a muted stop the thing, with the wrist in the area between the thing and the sound fields or with a flat hand on Gu.

In contrast to the steelpan, the playing surface is machined so that affect the individual sound fields little as possible, for the mood of the slope on the integration is invested at an overall sound. If the thing or individual sound fields excited so swing - the respective harmonious relationship accordingly - other sound fields and the Helmholtz resonance of the body with. Therefore, the Hang makers speak of the tone fields as " zones of harmonic order," which are embedded in the slope surface.

By 2007, the Hang was offered in a wide variety of sound models. They differed in the pitch of the thing ( between D3 and B3), the number of sound fields in the tone ring ( seven or eight ) and the matched tone scale ( between Ges3 and F5). Since 2008 a single sound model was only built.

Play

The gameplay of the slope is characterized diverse and highly individualized. While playing, the whole hand can be used: finger, thumb, palm and wrist are used to elicit the sounds.

Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer have repeatedly pointed out that the slope must not be misinterpreted as drum: " We do not build percussion instruments, no Handpans and no slope drums. Drums is a different language. " They also speak out against the use of mallets. As with to hard hitting with the hand there is a danger to detune the slope. What is needed is a sensitive metering of energy through the hands of the Hang player, touching, touching, exciting, tapping gently, brushing and plucking the slope surface. Stronger frontal Hitting does not lead to an intensification of sound like a drum, but narrowed and distorted it.

The base of the slope game is the integration of Gu and Ding to an overall sound. It is ( in a horizontal attitude of the slope on the lap ) or by inserting a hand into the Gu opening achieved by changing the leg angle (in vertical posture ). The Helmholtz resonance of the vessel is then exactly one octave below the frequency of the thing. This acoustic coupling of Ding and Gu brings the slope in a resonant state that allows the Hang players shaping the sound with the finest suggestions.

Sound Samples

History and Development

The emergence of the slope began with the Pang family of instruments, by the Bernese Pan tuners Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer ( PANArt steelpan Manufactory ) was developed in the 1990s in many years of research from the then popular in Switzerland Steelpans.

The traditional starting material of the Steelpan, tight head drums, has been replaced by primary forms of deep-drawn and then gasnitriertem steel sheet in PANArt. The sound fields were given a new geometry with a dome in the center. For the tuning of the instruments Pang its own procedure has been developed.

The percussionist Reto Weber brought the two instrument makers to the idea of ​​combining two half-shells from the Pang - sheet to combine properties of Indian Ghatam and the Steel Pan in a play with the hand tool. In the course of 2000, as was the slope.

2001 presented Rohner and Schärer its new tool before at Musikmesse Frankfurt. They gave up the construction of steel pans and devoted themselves exclusively to the construction and development of the slope. In 2003, she named her company into PANArt Hangbau AG.

First generation

This expression has been found for the slope slope from the years 2001 to 2005 distribution. These instruments had eight fields of sound in the sound ring and were initially 30 and later 45 different sound models offered, which were based on ethno- musical tone scales. The thing was mostly, rarely voted on A3 or G3 F3. Over the course of five years, about 4300 such instruments were manufactured and marketed worldwide.

The interest in the deeper sounds in 2005 led to the development of tuning method. By repeated heating in the oven, the internal stress of larger fields of sound could be better controlled. The result was an improvement in the sound and tuning stability. These instruments designated as a low slope had built a thing in F3, E3 or Es3 and were 7 or 8 sound fields in the tone ring.

Second generation

2006 was a new generation of the slope. The surface of the half-shells received a coating of eingebürstetem and branded brass. The seam at which the two half shells of the instrument are bonded together, has been bound with a brass ring. The Hangmakers gave the orientation on to ethno- musical scales and instead gave each slope a sound base structure which they likened to a " cathedral acoustic ." The foundation is the Helmholtz resonance of the vessel ( with the legs or hand on D2 lowered), supplemented by a thing in D3 and its fifth A3 in the bass in the sound ring. In addition, there are the octaves of these tones, D4 and A4, in the tone circle each slope. The other sounds were chosen. Most slope slope of the second generation had seven sound fields in the sound ring, it also instruments were built with eight sound fields.

With the new generation of the slope also changed the distribution. The company gave up its international dealer network and closed her site. Interested parties were invited only after a written request to visit the workshop to choose their instrument itself.

In 2007, the Hangmakers before further modifications. The hitherto radially aligned sound field ellipses were now rotated by about 45 °. In addition, a D5 was tuned into the neck of Gu. The number of models offered sound was reduced to such a tone scales that fit particularly well into the overall sound of the slope.

In two years, a total of 826 slope slope of the second generation were built.

Gudu Hang

A variation of the slope with an additional smaller opening, which you, at the bottom was offered from 2004 to 2007. It allows the interaction with the Gu Udu -like sounds ( hence the name). If the you - hole is not used, it can be closed with a magnetic plate.

Integral Hang

In February 2008 PANArt presented the Integral Hang. It has an easy remote Ding- dome ( visually similar to a Pendentifkuppel ) and a slightly ovaloid Gu. Up to Ding- dome and Gu - neck, the surface has no more brass coating. The Integral Hang was offered in only one sound Model: A thing in D3 combined with the shades A3, B3, C4, D4, E4, F4, A4 and in the tone circle. Other models are sound since no longer being built.

With the Integral Hang up Rohner and Schärer finally turned on the goal of building a tool for the needs of professional musicians and percussionists. In a " letter of Hangbauhaus " she described her objective as follows: "Our work is not focused on musical standards which demand study, practice and performance hillside game can lead to a form of freedom that every print and every coercion opposes individuals.. who are aware of this, be strengthened by the slope game. thoughts Loser use can weaken the other hand. "

Free Integral Hang

This model is sold since April 2010. Compared to its predecessor, it has structural alterations. Then the two half shells are not enclosed at the adhesive seam with a brass ring. The Ding- dome has no more brass coating and is twice deposed ( " triple dome "). Free Integral Hang Hang be tuned without the use of tuners. The frequency of the thing is different from instrument to instrument and varies by the sound D3 around. The tones of the tone ring correspond relative to those of the Integral Hang thing.

In the free agreement of the slope are not mathematically exact frequency ratios of the partials of a sound field, but the effect of the sound in the center. Even the steelpan tuner Trinidad used the minimum detuning of partials to achieve a characteristic sound of your instruments. Anthony Achong has demonstrated in an acoustically - mathematical analysis that this upset the most important parameter to influence the duration of the partials as well as amplitude and frequency modulations in the structure of a steelpan tone is. The renunciation of the tuner at Free Integral Hang it allows the slope tuners to apply systematically this parameter and to concentrate during the Matching process entirely on the design of the sound.

Gubal

In the summer of 2013, the PANArt presented with the Gubal before a new, evolved on the basis of the Hang instrument. Instead of Gu has it on the bottom of the Cowl, a hemispherical expansion of the cavity, which enhances the Helmholtz resonance and lowers down a whole tone on Es2. The Gu - opening is located instead of the thing on the top of the instrument. The Gu - neck goes into a ring-shaped, flattened zone, the ring thing about that is aligned with the partials Es3, B3 and Es4. The tone ring includes the sounds Bb3, C4, Db4, EB4, F4, G4, and Bb4. As with the Free Integral Hang it's free attuned. As the sounds of the Ring Dings and the tone ring are however adapted to the Helmholtz resonance Es2 the Gubal is compatible with tuned according to concert pitch A = 440Hz instruments. This also makes it possible to play together with two or three Gubal.

While in 2013 Free Integral Hang and Gubal were built and sold together, the PANArt announced that they are from 2014 to devote entirely to the construction and development of the Gubal and inquiries will not be able to meet for a slope.