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Hi,

I read in the www. that people call the Hang, Halo, Bells and so on "Handpan".
What is the history of origins of this name?

I ask Felix Rohner from PANArt if the Hang is a Handpan. He say clear, that a Hang is not a Handpan. He explained me, that the people from Trinidad see in the Hang a new and different instrument and not a pan.
I think the steelpan is an object of cultural value from Trinidad. I can imagine, that the people in Trinidad dont like it, if people from a outside cultur area decide what a Pan is.

There are a few characteristics definite from the "Tinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standart".

Quote:

"Steel Pan
The steelpan is a musical instrument indigenious to Trinidad and Tobago. It is a definite pitch percussion instrument in the idiophone class, traditionally made from a steel drum or steel container. The metallic playing surface is concave with a skirt attached. The plaing surface is divided into convex sections by channels, grooves and/or bores. Each convex section is a note tuned to a definite pitch. The convex sections are played by striking with pan sticks to produce musical tones."

You can find a copy from the original document here:

http://www.panyard.pan-jumbie.com/2/standard.html

Here we can read, that a Pan has to be "concave with a skirt attached" with "convex" sections. We can read also, that Pan are played by striking with sticks.

This has not much to do with the shape from Hang, Bell, Halo and so on... + this instruments are made for playing only with the hand and not with sticks.

Does anybody know, who bring the name "Handpan" in the world and what is the reason?

We see on the example, that a lot of people call the Hang a Hangdrum that such things spread very fast on the internet. As the result people think, it is the correct name.
PANArt say quite clear that the Hang is not a Hangdrum and that this is the wrong name.
In this case the artist and inventor give his sculpture a name and the people rename it. This is one thing, but with the Handpan it is a little bit different.

If people make the decision that these instruments are Handpans, they act again against PANArt (in the case of the Hang).
But there is a bigger problematic in my eyes. Is this not a intervention in the culture from Trinidad and Tobago?
They have the Pan and say clear, what a Pan is. People from outside this culture area coming and say: "Hang, Halo, Bells ...etc. , are also parts of the Pan family"
I think that only the people from Trinidad and Tobago can make these decision!

What do you think, about that? Who knows a little bit more about the origin of the name "Handpan" for these kind of instruments? Maybe anybody can give reasons, why it is no problem to use this name, and that this is not a intervention in the culture from Trinidad?

I am curious to hear your thoughts.

Greetings
Frank

Um ?
Perhaps the fact the Hang is the Bern's word for hand is the first and most obvious reason for the first part of the name, and naturally hand played.
Pan is also not such a mystery as a pan is a vessel mostly made of steel for containing and often cooking whatever and the Hang is defiantly like two pans (wok's) fitted together.
The fact that the Caribbean culture has taken the word for naming the Pan has given a new definition to the word but its origins are firmly rooted in the cooking implements.
Also the makers name PANart is a bit of a giveaway.
(some out there may not know but Felix and Sabina were originally Pan makers)
So cobble the two together and "hay presto" Handpan

I know most of us will already know the above but thought it would be helpful for the uninitiated to read this

Hi,

yes, this explained what is the "idea" behind the name Handpan. I searched a little bit on Google and I dont find a refer to a source of this name.
If you search for "Handpan" you find only , that this word is used in a few forums, youtube, Halo website, Hang player websites and so on.
I think the name and category for these instruments is a "invention" from a single person, and other people adopt this name. This means not, that this is the true category and name.
Felix told me, that the Hang is not a Handpan.
The "Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standart" make a declaration what a Pan is and it is easy to see, that Hang , Halo and Bell are not! Pan.

I dont find any reference, that a "Handpan" is part of the Pan family.

Is it allowable that people from outside the cultur area from Trinidad and Tobago put the Hang , Halo, Bell in the same category as the Steelpan? I think if they call these instrument a HandPan, they do exact this.
I think this is not a bagatelle, because the Pan is an importand cultural asset and not only a cookware.
So, can we call an european instrument (Hang, Bell) or an american (Halo) , a "Pan" without the acceptance from Trinidad?

Greetings
Frank

I like the "handpan" name, don´t know who was the first person to named it that way, but I think is a good name. The proof is that everybody is using it right now because is a perfect description of the instruments.
I think that we don´t need the permission for using a name in the forums, we are not writing a music compedium nor doing a doctoral tesis. Also the name "handpan" (notice it have no spaces) don´t mean that it must be of the same family of the instruments from Trinidad&Tobago

Anyway, what are the other alternatives? What family consider Panart for the Hanghang?

Hi,

i agree that we are not writing a music compendium, but if the name spread in the www. we put the instrument in a category for the future.

I quote from the letter from Panart:
"It is by no means a drum – or a hang drum – as we have seen it described on the Internet; it cannot be classified or pigeonholed..."

http://www.hangblog.org/2009/06/01/the- ... /#more-204

Here you see, that PANArt say that there is NO category for the Hang at the moment. This means not only no drum, it means also no Handpan.

Greetings
Frank

Just to clarify as I use the word a few times here - an Idiophone as defined by wikipedia 'is any musical instrument which creates sound primarily by way of the instrument vibrating itself'. More info here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiophone
As has been said here it is easy to see where the name comes from, the Hang is also one of the class of idiophone instruments, being a very recent invention to the musical world and a remarkable and succesful one we have already seen other new idiophones inspired by the Hang, bells, halo, tongue drums etc. The Hang itself was inspired by, amongst other instruments such as Ghatam and Udu clay drums, the steel pan.
So if we were to draw the family tree for the idiophone class we could see the Hang as a descendent of instruments such as these, perhaps more directly than other instruments from this class such as the kalimba, singing bowl, glockenspiel etc. The Hang is a hand played instrument, so - Handpan, it is an easy term to use that is specific to this branch of the family of instruments which create sound by way of the instruments body vibrating, and are played by hand.

As for the question of cultural appropriation - I have read also that people from Trinidad are unhappy about steel pans being made even outside of Trinidad. It is comparable perhaps to the sort of devotion felt by many inside the Hang community reguarding our favourite instrument I think that just as the world of Hang-like steel instruments (a more convoluted term than handpan!) and their use is not one that can be controlled effectively by the Hang makers similarly the world of steel pan-like instruments is not one that can be controlled by the progenitors of the steel pan. Perhaps it would be more respectful to the culture that brought us the steel pan to find a new name with no connotations to link Hang-like steel instruments to the steel pan but ultimately I believe that language will inevitably be shaped by the communities that use it and this is a desirable process.

Just seen your post Frank - I do not think that the Hang can remain a category of one, nor is it to me a good thing that it should. In fact it has never really been as such. Felix and Sabine recognise their influences in the creation of the instrument, it is unavoidable that the Hang takes its place within the world of instruments around it, this should not be seen as a negative thing or one that diminishes the Hang or the acheivements of its creators.

All in this life can be classified.
At certaint point, when there was nothing like the Hang itself, makes sense not to classify , but now there are alternatives sharing a lot in common with the Hang and we need a word for that kind of instruments.
In the coming months will be a lot of people with Hangs, Bells, Halos or a mix of them, and maybe more instruments will appear in the future, so I think would be a goos time to think a name for the family right now...

Hi,

i agree, that the Hang is an Idiophone. As a new invention it is possible that there is no category for the Hang at the moment.
I think we cant go the way and say the Hang is a Pan while Panart say it is not a Pan and the "Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standart" makes a clear conclusion what a Pan is.
It is easy to see, that the Hang, Bell, Halo dont fit in the description. Or not?

Yes, we dont need the permission. I think it is only disrespectful against the culture of Trinidad. As I statet before. The Pan is a "object of culture value".

Greetings
Frank

OK, I am convinced, it is best to try at this point to find and popularise a name to describe this area of the idiophone family which is respectful of the culture of steel pan in Trinidad.
I have done some reading briefly and of course it is quickly revealed to me that this is a complex issue. Do you know where I might find an english version of the document you link at the start of this topic Frank? Or the actual steel pan standards document in full?
I can see there is some proprietorship over the term steel pan and that the trinidad people wish to defend their culture from a sort of colonial flavoured appropriation. It makes sense that the best thing to do is to be as respectful as possible, and hope that a more subtle term would catch on. I see that this would be a positive thing.
But! I am at a loss for what a more culturally sensitive term would be. Interestingly F&S's Pang metal advance is mentioned in the Wiki article on Steel pan - 'A Swiss steelpan manufacturer (PANArt) researched the field of fine-grain sheet steel and developed a deepdrawn rawform which was additionally hardened by nitriding. This process, and the instruments they called Pang, were presented at the International Conference of Steelpan and Science in Port-of-Spain in 2000.'

Does anyone have suggestions for a good term to describe the area of the idiophone family that are hand played, steel instruments? Instantly it is revealed to me that essentially I know nothing about this issue

Isn't every new word "invented" by a single person? If other people adopt it, there is generally some merit for calling it such. Language is not controlled by a single entity--it is alive and constantly evolving.

I don't think we need official permission from Trinidad and Tobago to use the term "Pan." They don't own this aspect of the language. (Nor is there any way to formally ask permission and get their approval . . . )

I don't think borrowing a word from one language and using it in another is inherently disrespectful. In fact, in many cases, it shows an acknowledgement that their is value in the word (and the thing itself). With ever greater communication among people all over the world, there is more and more borrowing. I'm sure all of us can think of hundreds of examples of this happening, over thousands of years.

Personally, I think Hand Pan has a lot going for it. It is not the same as "steel pan" or "pan," and therefore implicitly acknowledges something new and different, while also showing that the Hang has the "steel pan" (known in American English as the "steel drum") as a kind of ancestor. Hand incorporates the English translation of the Bernese word for hand, which is the source of Hang. In addition, it also indicates how this "thing" is played.

Hang by itself works for people who know what it is already, but "Hand Pan," IMHO, gives a newcomer some idea of what it is, how it is played, and where it came from, better than just the word itself. Much time and discussion has been devoted to the fact that "drum" is problematic, so Hand Pan seems a significant improvement on that. I don't think "Sound Scape" has a great deal of meaning to most people, so that doesn't help much, either. While I respect that PANArt did not choose the name Hand Pan, and they do not necessarily approve of it, but I still think "Hand Pan" makes more sense than anything else, at least in certain contexts.

Again, I think the term has caught on because many people think it makes intuitive sense and has merit for many people, though not necessarily everyone.

Agreed todd, but I see no reason not to conceive of a term which may save one day a discussion about handpans and respect for the culture of Trinidad. If the new word takes, then that is great, if it does not - as you say we do not control the language and people will use the word they find best conveys the desired meaning.

At the very least it is interesting to think about!

I'll start by saying that this picking of nits and questioning intentions and insisting on absolute adherance to tradition is rubbing me the wrong way.

Let's establish some things:

The Halo, Caisa, Bellart Bell would not exist without the Hang
The Hang would not exist without the Steelpan.
None are 'drums' (membranophones)

So, with that in mind it seems clear that the term Hand Pan is not inappropriate from a functional categorizational standpoint.

This does not mesh with PANArt's ideals or the ideals of traditionalist Pan makers, it is true, but it is a functional and useful categorization for discussion.

The term HandPan was first used by Kyle Cox. When he initially asked about interest on this subject on his website a couple years ago.... there was a small section if anyone was interested in a Hang or HandPan to leave an email.... or something to that respect.

I have to agree with those that have stated the term HandPan being adopted into the common vernacular because, for most, it is intuitively descriptive of the instruments they are describing. Yes.... we could push the term "idiophone". Though it has merit technically, it seems a bit verbose for a "common" term.

I have to wonder really, why? The only reason I can fathom, is to further separate the Hang from any instruments of similar form. And is this to appease the egos of the makers? Is this to truly clarify the differences of a Hang to other instruments or Pan? Is it actually an effort to preserve the cultural contribution of the people of Trinidad/Tobago of this musical artform for the world?

I've often used the term HandPan to describe what it is I am playing amongst people. I do clarify that one is a Hang, and one is a Halo, with their respective history's, etc. But usually people are captivated by the music so much, they are not concerned with the phylum/genus or species of the creature I am playing. The music allows them to contribe their own descriptions for themselves. I arm them with the knowledge of their names and origins. I have used the term "idiophone" before and was met with furled eyebrows.......

So, in my opinion, of course, perhaps it is up to those that are creating these instruments that can best describe what and how they should be classified. Anything within any pages of any forum are merely speculation, opinion and conjecture.

But of course, this is all in the spirit of meaningful discussion.

I see another argument against handpan:

Handpan is short for "hand played steel pan".

Is the Hang a "hand played steel pan"?

I think it is not.

The Hang has a history. In the beginning the group of people that was later involved in the foundation of PANArt (among them Felix Rohner) tried to rebuild the Trinidad steel pan. Later PANArt researched for a new material and found the PANG. Then they built different instruments with this material: Steelpan like (Ping, Peng, Pong), gong like (Pung), gamelan linke (Tubal), bell like (Pangglocke) and cymbal like (Orage). Then the Hang became the last instrument in this familiy.

In the Beginning of PANArt's research was the motivation to add new techniques and sound possibilities to the culture of steel pan. But there was also a wider view on a group of instruments that Felix Rohner called in his Swiss patent "Blechklanginstrumente" (directly translated: "Sheet steel sound instrunments"). The history showed that the steel pan culture was not interested to intigrate the Pang. So PANArts work divided from trinidad. PANArt followed the sound of the Hang and left the steel pan like instruments behind. The development of the Hang leaded to a new sound and a different art of playing compared to the steel pan. The steelpan is an instruments played in the steelband, it is the instrument played collective, an instrument intigrated in a culture, the instrument of Callypso and Carnival. The Hang became an instrument of a single person not connected to a special culture, an instruments that needs the silence.

So we can say that the steelpan was an important influence in the history of the Hang, but the Hang left the steelpan behind and was developed to something different. Therefor the Hang is not a steel pan.

The new instruments like Halo or Bell was inspired by the Hang to be a Hang copy or Hang alternative. On the other hand especial the Halo is the development of a steelpan tuner. Therefor here we have also an influence from the steelpan directly to the Halo. Is the Halo meant as a "hand played steelpan"? I think that is a question Kyle Cox has to join. I think the Caisa is really a "hand played steelpan". So it would probably adequate to call it a handpan. The Halo copied the design and the tone layout from the Hang, not from the steelpan. But probably the tuning techniques used for the Halo are original steelpan techniques. The Bellart tuner seemes not to have any connections to the steelpan. So the Bell that is obviously meant as a Hang copy when we look at its design, cant be adequately named a handpan.

We see the situation is a bit complicated but I think it is clear that "handpan" is not an adequate term to denote a group of instruments that includes the Hang, the Halo and the Bell.

Perhaps it is to early to establish a term, because the Hang is a single phenomenon and the Halo and the Bell are too young to be terminaly characterized.

Only the Caisa belongs to a category of instruments that could be named "handpan".

Ix

If there are ideas for a better term, I am open to considering them.

I still question whether using a name (or part of it, in this case, since only "pan" is included in Hand Pan) implies disrespect. Is the English "guitar" disrespectful of Spanish culture, which gave us the word "guitarra," which came from the Greek "kithara"? I would say no. In fact, I think guitar gives credit to the instrument's origins and is giving both credit and respect.

Going further into it, what does it mean to be a 'Hand Pan'.

It means (functionally so far) that it is a pan that is played on the convex side with the hands.

"But a Steel Pan is played on the concave side with sticks!"

Yes, that is correct, so a hand pan is not a traditional Steel Pan.

What's more the energy transfer from the hand to steel is different than from a stick to steel, so there is a different dynamic both in sound and play method with a 'hand pan' than a traditional 'steel pan'.

It works for me.

I do not agree that Hand Pan is short for "hand played steel pan."

I think we agree that the Hang is not a steel pan. Nor is the Halo, nor presumably the Bell.

It is interesting to witness the evolution of language.

I would note that "idiophone" includes a much wider range of instruments. It is technically correct, but is too general to be useful. And unless someone has good knowledge of percussion, they don't know what it is.

"Hand Pan" also has the advantage of being relatively short, which already gives it some advantage.

But what does handpan mean if it doesn't mean "hand played steel pan"?

Ix

IX, I think you begin with a bad premise: I think handpan is not the short for "hand played steel pan". you are asociating "pan" and "steel", but the word does not mention steel.

About the Halo and Bells (and Caisa) being the same family as the Hang, I think they are. Maybe they are "young", but thats is not enought to declassify them, they are similar enought in function to be considered members of the same family. We are speaking of families of instruments, not about individual instruments. As comparison, we are speaking about if all belong to the "strings" family, not if all of them are "violins".
Using the same sentences the different generations of Hanghang would not be part of the same family, and they do.

"Pan" is commonly used as short form of steelpan in the steelpan scene. If you use "pan" for an instrument made of tuned steel, everybody who knows the steelpan will pan understand as short form for steelpan.

And here the same question as to toddmnd: What does pan in handpan mean if it doesn't mean the short form for steelpan?

Ix