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The Hang makers Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer call the Hang a Sound Sculpture. What does this mean?

Is it a sculpture that is able to sound?

I think this isn't wrongt but mainly it means something else. The Hang makers also said that the Hang is not an musical instrument in the common meaning. It is something different: A sound sculpture.

I think this means that playing the Hang is creating a sculpture made of sound and time, an acoustucal sculpture that moves in the time. The Hang is not an instrument to play melodies or musical pieces. The aim of playing the Hang is to create this sculpture of sound out of the moment and let it live and move in the time as long as the player plays. Then the sculpture disappears in the silence where it came from when the player started to play.

My 2007 Hang educated me to play in this way and I'm its student to follow on this way. This means that silence is necessary to play the Hang and that one has to left behind all thougts and aims and concepts and fears. Silence and the Hang that will tell you what to do. Nothing else.

What do you think?

Ix

I think that the true magic of almost every hang begins to fade from the moment it leaves the hangbauhaus. Felix told me that the hang is like a flower - a good gardener can keep it flowering longer.

those intricate sounds can only be heard in a perfectly tuned instrument - 'THE BALANCE' as is always referred to, is easy to lose with bad playing. (like me)

Exactly!
Gitta

I think that is one way to see it.

=)

Hi,

nice topic.

I think it is useful to have the evolution of the Hang in mind.
The first generation Hang is in my eyes much more an "music instrument" in western context as the "second generation" and between the first generation and the Integral Hang are a lot of big differences.

On the first generation you had a lot of different scales from the world of music. For me it was interesting to see, that I played suddenly "egypt" sounding tunes, only because I played the Niavent Hang from Lost. This was definitive the result from the scale.
The first generation Hang give the player something like a "direction to play". On an F-Penta Hang it is easy to make a kind of chinese music.
A lot of scales gives automaticly a different sound color from different cultures.
I like that. It makes fun to play on this generation Hang.

With the second generation Hang we have a break. Panart leave the way from this scales. If you play the new scales up and down, you have not automaticly a direction to play.
You can hear also, that Panart change the sound.
I think that Panart´s focus is more and more the sound.

Why is the Hang not an music instrument in an western context?
I think we agree, that the Hang is no drum. You can use similar patterns and rhythms as on a drum, but this makes only your kind of playing and it is not a premise.
I you go on a stage with other instruments the Hang is a nice coulour in the music, maybe.
If you have only one Hang the other musicians are very limited because you cant leave your tonality.
The Hang has not enough power to be the leading rhythm instruments and not enough notes for the leading melody instrument.
It is interesting for a while and a few musicians make nice music with the Hang in a band context. The most use the Hang only in special moments from the concert.
Together with only one ore maybe two other instruments and carfully players who listen on the Hang it works better. The result could be very nice.

One of the rules for Hang playing is, that there are no rules!
I personally make no compositions on my Hang. I play only in the moment music for the moment. This silence Ixkeys speak about is a very nice situation for Hang playing also for my eyes and ears.
The Hang has so many fine sounds and colours. You cant hear this on a loud place.
Another reason why I like this kind of playing is the result inside me. To play the Hang only in a way, where I dont think about what to do and let the Hang tell me the melodys makes me very calming and brings me to my "inner self".
I think this kind of playing work better with the second generation and the Integral Hang as with the first generation.
With the first generation you automaticly play "music", because you only must play up and down and the result are scales from the world music. I say again, that I like this, but the other way to play gives me personally much more.

The Hangmakers called the Hang a sculpture and I think this is the best word for characterization. A lot of people like the first Hanghang with all the different scales more than the Integral Hang. A musician can do more with this instrument. We see, that in the moment are discussions about different scales, how they work together and so on.
This is nice! I personlly like the Hijaz. But more, I like the sound from my second generation, because I can do with this Hang what I do.
I play the Hang also from time to time on the street. More and more I look for places who are so quite as possible. Not easy in a city. My playing at home is different, because it is quite and I can play more with all the subtleties.
On the street people ask me a lot of and I cant come to the point where I am "at home in me". On the streets to play makes fun in another way. To play the Hang on a quite place help me personally more for my whole life.

A lot of intersting aspects inside these little sculpture with only eight notes.

Greetings
Frank

Yes yes yes to all that has been said above.
The Hang is a wonderful creation with a sole !
The “Sound of Silence” is something I experience every time she is resting on my lap before I start to play and she shows me the way as I stumble over and wonder at “Our” creation of a “Sound sculpture”.
The silence that follows is as powerful as the “song” we sang together, wonder and again wonder.
When I play for others they take a active part in the “song” and if they are receptive in there sole they contribute as much as I to the creation.
What a loving power, able to bring soles together in a space we call a “sound sculpture”

Amen

All musical instruments can sculpture sound in the hands of a true artist but with the hang (and a few other instruments) a child can sculpture sound with no previous training.

Why indeed?


Oh, I see.

=)

Hi,

sorry, I dont understand this comment. Not , that I dont understand the sense in the way that I have a different mind...
I dont understand what you mean, because of my limited english.

Frank

Have to say,

I agree about 100% with Funky!

Both in the difference between Hanghang, and also, the nature of my relationship to my second generation Hang.

I also have never written or composed pieces for it, though of course I have habits -- often it is a battle to break those habits, but also to not "grasp" (in the Buddhist sense) -- I think it is easy to unquiet the mind, even when the goal is to be more free...

When I played guitar more seriously it was the same way, I never learned other people's music, really, and when I wrote things, they would be forgotten and then come back in different ways later... always impermanent...

...but in the Hang I found the perfect object to engage this way. Always I think it gives quiet encouragement to be approached this way -- for me anyway.

I think it is very interesting what you say Frank about the IH tuning having no "direction," I had not thought about it precisely that way, but I think that is a great insight. When you hear that tuning "up and down" it does not contain a strong logic, and for that reason, when I was first getting my Hang (in that tuning) and listening to it (on a guitar), I thought, hmm, this is not so wonderful!

But I think you are right that it is the right kind of tuning for the instrument, I think it both encourages and reflects the most natural kinds of interaction (patterns for example) with the Hang.

Of course, for me, I am excited about the Halo (and Bell), because they will finally let someone like me enjoy the musical pleasure of the old Hanghang! This is a pleasure that is otherwise unachievable.

But I have been very curious also to see how I find playing an instrument which is both more an instrument, AND, made with a tuning that was developed for other kind of instruments -- more "linear" playing.

Me, I am going to try a Kiavara Halo which is a harmonic minor-based scale from a raga. I am not certain how this strongly flavored mode will seem, on a instrument in form like a Hang that does not encourage linear playing. It may be a disaster .

Fwiw I imagine there are other tunings like the IH tuning that have a similar balancing and openness and non-linearity -- on the Halo I think the Xiao Xiong Diao is like this also. Of course I have not played one, but it is similar to the IH tuning and also does not "push" up or down.

Regarding the sound-sculpture question...

I have understood that to mean, it is an object that produces sound, but it is not an instrument in the conventional sense. I understood that the reason to say "the Hang is a sound sculpture" was to suggest that natural mode of interaction should not automatically (without consideration and reflection) be as a musician playing an instrument -- but in a different "posture" mentally.

As described by Frank (and others) I think the posture that is more valuable is one more open, less goal-directed, more of a "dialog" -- that is often described, and I think there is something true in saying that Hang is not just being played by you, but collaborating.

I don't think this posture is only possible with a Hang -- I think it can (with intention) be assumed in relationship to all instruments, even all objects.

But the Hang seems somewhat unique in being evolved and crafted specifically to encourage and engage with that posture.

This kind of distinction has been very important to me outside of the world of the Hang for many years, because I am sound artist. In that life, there is a tradition of trying to explain the difference between "music" and "sound art." The difference is not so much in the sound (physical sound), but in the intention that is at work in the making of the sound, and in the active listening.

A work of sound art can be musical, and music can be sound art also, but it is not meaningless to make a distinction. There is much sound art that is not musical (or would be very bad music), and there is much wonderful music that would be bad or trite "sound art" if you called it that.

But the main point is -- the idea of having the right mental "posture" in relationship to the Hang is something that I did not know about until I had one -- but now it is at the heart of my love of the instrument, and my ever-deeper respect for its makers...

aaron

I was just playing with you.

I keep hearing the wonderful comment that 'there are no rules' from folks who have very strict and rigid opinions about how a Hang should and should not be handled.

Hi,

I think this is maybe an misunderstanding?

There are no rules how to play a Hang. I dont hope, that I say there are rules in the foretime. I personally have for me personally in mind, what a Hang is for me. What I think is the result from nearly 3 years playing every day, talkin with other Hangplayers and talking with Felix and Sabina.

I think PANArt has an idea in wich direction the evulotion of the Hang goes. You can see clear the difference between the generations and if I listen to the generations carfully I have in mind, what is for me the best way to play the Hang. I think it is to see and hear what aspects of the Hang change over time and what is the way to evoke all these fine subtleties.
Here I agree, that silence ist the best situation to start with playing.

If I see some Hang players on youtube, I like some styles more than other. Maybe I am critical and say what I think about players who play the Hang out of the limit. The Hang has a limit and if you hit the Hang to hard it sound not nice for my ears and I feel sorry for the Hang. Some styles are to hard and the Hang goes out of tune at the end.
This is maybe a rule, if you want to play an Hang in balance for a longer time.

I have my own conceivabilities what a Hang is for me. I also think it is an misunderstanding to see a "musical instrument" in a western context in the Hang. I know that Felix dont see this kind of instrument in the Hang and so he called it a Sound Sculpture.
The Hang is for me personally not an instrument to make compositions. I like a lot of aspects from Ixkeys views about Hang playing.
But I never said that this are "the rules" how to play the Hang.

In the Hangbooklet from Panart you can read what they think about the "Tao of Hang playing":

Quote: "We recommend approaching the instrument in freedom..."

after that, they are a few nice thoughts how PANArt see the Hang. I like this insight, but this are also not rules.

http://www.hangblog.org/panart/Booklet_ ... h_GzD1.pdf

go to page 20!


Maybe you @GotHang think that I :



as a result from my comments in the foretime about "quality aspects of the Hang and other instruments in relation.." ?

But this has nothing to do how a Hang should be played. I hope now it is a little bit more clear. Have in mind, that my english is not the best. I think in the last time it is more and more easyer for me to say a little bit more accurate, what I realy have in mind.

Greetings
Frank

Wow, a great topic and some beautiful thoughts being shared

I have said before I believe that I have a great respect for Franks approach to the Hang and the philosophy that he and Ix are both discussing here. In the 2009 letter regarding the IH reproduced in this forum F&S say of the Hang player : "His inner voice becomes audible".
I think this for me sums up well this approach to the instrument, and describes what some of us would call the magic of the Hang. The sharing of the inner voice is something that any artist aspires to ultimately, and I think there is something about the Hang which more readily brings out that very honest and personal expression in an often beautiful way, be it:

1) The particular and delicate balance of sound over the steel body of the instrument which could be said to be alike to a sculpture in its intricacy and artistic construction, creating beautiful harmonics and deeply resonant notes with a light touch, presenting a frequency range unmatched as yet in use of this material.

2) As mentioned here already the unusual intervals presented in scales particularly from the 2nd gen onwards (and especially the IH) which encourages a different focus in the manner of play, perhaps more readily coaxing out that 'inner voice'.

3) The intuitive style of playing which the shape of the instrument itself informs, the 'primal gestures' (again from the 2009 letter) which are most unusual compared to other instruments (and perhaps what have brought about the comparison to a hand played percussion instrument - I have played the djembe, doumbek and other hand played drums for years and particularly have a great love for the simple connection of hand to instrument here, and the awareness of time and its passing which rythm and percussion instills)

I ought to say, I personally play the Hang in two ways. I play in the 'inner voice' way, it respects silence and is very aware of the sounds place in time, of the nature of creating sound, bringing a waveform into the world, a constant oscillation between positive and negative states which mirrors all life, is like the creation of life, the birth of energy. I can play this way by myself, or with a close friend on the body of the same instrument at which point you feel a close connection to the other person, feel that synchronicity of thought an intent that is similar to practicing any art spontaneously and perfectly in the moment - which is normally a very rare thing to get, when jamming or speaking, writing, drawing etc etc - it seems to require the right person and the right moment. I can play in this way with the hang and another instrument as well, when I play with a friend who is at a high level in their instrument and with who I share a close connection, when we as musicians 'speak' well together in the moment.

I also play the hang with other musicians in a more traditional musical context, it requires that I alter the way in which I approach the instrument - I change the notes I strike to fit to a particular key, the manner in which I strike is controlled to fit with a particular time signature and the mood is focused to fit with what we have all agreed. It is still a conversational thing to jam like this but must have more common rules in order to work more readily. The less players often the better with the Hang in the mix, and I have found three instruments, Hang and two others, to work best the most often. The more I constrain the Hang to reign it in to these contexts, the more I notice the difference between these two approaches, and the fact that there is a noticable difference is what tells me that the Hang is something that can be two very different things. When I am constrained perhaps something of the magic is missing, but there is a balance to be struck there.

I hope some of my intent is conveyed here! It is a hard thing to put to words. Frank please tell me if the english is not clear as I would love to hear your opinion

Reading this I thought I should add some comments to my starting statement in this topic:

1) I'm not the Hang pope. No word comming out of my mouth or out of my laptop keyboard has any normative character (so, yes you may have sex with your Hang using condoms ).

2) Starting a topic that animates people to join needs a clear statement, not a "bla bla... I love you all... everything is possible... bla bla... there are no rules... I didn't say anything... bla bla..." entry. And - Hi - you can see here: It works .

Ix

Sorry, not possible for me in english language.
gitta

Hi,

yes, I also play the Hang in two ways.
If I play alone in the silence at home, without any direction and intention, the Hang makes me sometimes very calming. There is only the sound and I dont think about what I play. I think there is something in the sound (maybe some special frequencies?) what brings my body and my soul in a more positive vibration.
This has nothing to do with esoteric. I think it is a natural law. In this moments I find a close connection to my inner self.
This moments are rare in this world. It is a very fast world and the Hang makes everything more slow. The Hang is for me a spring of energy for my life.
In situations with stress or hectic I close my eyes and imagine the sound of the Ding. Because I play every day, I can find with luck a similar inner calmness only with this imagination.
This is for me a very importand levelling board, if I see maybe in the future similar instruments. Can they do something similar with me and the people around me?
And this kind of playing is for me personally very helpfull for my whole life. I played a lot of instruments in the foretime. Guitar, drums, percussion, a little bit piano... no other instrument find the way so easy in my deepest soul as the Hang.

The second way, I play the Hang is in situations where I am not alone or play for an audience. For the first way, it needs silence. This silence I dont find, if I play for an audience on the streets or together with other people for fun.
It makes fun, to play the Hang in a musical context. I like the sessions on the Hangout and I am happy to be there soon.
This is another aspect of the Hang. It is also good for the soul, because it makes fun. You can have a good time, with nice music. With luck you have an kind of universal language and a few instruments find together in a way, where the people who are playing are close together. On the last Hangout I feel such moments. A lot of people make together nice music, but it was also more than only music. It was a special harmony, because the people listen to each other and the result was a big vibration of peace.
On the street I have not much moments in silence. A lot of people come to me and ask what instrument I play and so on. But this is also another great aspect. The Hang help me to come in contact with so many different people. Old or young, rich or poor... A lot of great moments in my life.

So, the Hang has a lot of aspects and an big impact on my life. It is for me much more, than only a music instrument, but I make also music on my Hang.

Greetings
Frank

Wonderful summation of what the Hang is and means to you.

Thank you for taking the time to express yourself here about it, this is one of the insightful descriptions that makes me value this forum.

Great musings Frank. Your statements (and other's as well) bring up the interesting dichotomy that Hang players are often faced with. A) the "quiet time" play.... where you can truly reflect your inner relationship of your emotions with your Hang.... the very personal style of play. B) the "play time" play...... where your playing is often influenced by others around you. It's hard to accomodate the volume of others, while still trying to maintain that "quiet time" emotional style of playing. Two completely different sides to the coin.

I think many players out there are either in tune with one side or the other. Even though there are no "rules" per se, to play Hang..... there seems to be definite styles emerging. It will be interesting to see how other Handpans will affect playing styles.

It's the brilliance of this diversity that still amazes me about the Hang..... and even the HALO. But to achieve this skill level..... does take a large amount of practice to gain that control, and also to develop that personal relationship with your Handpan..... A wonderful journey of discovery.

Hey hangsters,
Great thread - love it. Very much similar as I have reflected on the effect the hang has on the inner self. The way I see it, the hang helps us to remember who we really are at the core - once the distractions in the mind and in the world are gently brought back to stillness. We come back to our centre and it is a beautiful - even blissful - place to rest. I also love how the hang brings so much focus to the silence that surrounds the notes.
Regarding the different ways to play - I seek out musicians who are interested in this same depth of music with their instruments and their intentions, and they also have a habit of seeking me out! So when there are a number of us playing together, especially in concert, with this awe and honouring of the stillness and depth, it is truly magical. On stage last weekend I was so full of joy I thought my heart would burst!
I still sometimes play more light-hearted fun, and it has its place, but more and more I prefer to dive into the depths.
Also another thing I thought might be useful to mention for those who keep getting interrupted as they are playing on the streets, by people who are very curious. I had this same situation and wanted to be able to continue playing, so I made a poster that explains what the hang is, where it is from, a few interesting points and then suggesting my website address for people to find more information. It works fantastically well - people read it (and sometimes take a photo of it to remember it all later!) and they don't try to talk to me while I am playing. I don't mind stopping to talk with them, but when so many are interested, you end up mostly talking and not playing very much!

Great and insightful thread--thanks for all for posting!

While I love to share my Hang with others, I agree it is best in a place of complete quiet. It often takes a little time to really lose myself, and then my Hang and I become one. The Hang becomes an extension of myself. The rest of the world isn't there, at least for that time. This does not always happen, but sometimes it does. During these times, I experience what psychologists refer to as "flow," the experience of being totally in the moment, completely engaged, with a loss of self and time. (My foot often falls asleep when I play.)

I am not sure if my Hang tells me how to play. Perhaps I would say that the Hang allows a kind of self-expression that is unique in this way, or maybe allows many people to intuitively experience it soon after they start playing. I would guess that high-level musicians of other instruments experience something similar, but it takes a long time to develop the technical skills to get to that level, where they are more readily accessible with the Hang. The Hang also has many subtleties which allow experienced players to continue to grow and explore, especially in those quiet moments.

I love all the old 1st Gen scales, and I would love to have many of them for different playing. There is something special about the IH scale that allows for a wide range of musical expression. I suspect there may be other groups of notes that would do so as well.

As for the spontaneity of playing, I normally tell people I never play the same thing twice. As others have mentioned, approaching the Hang with freedom and without rules opens many possibilities. The circular form has an openness to it. I have played other instruments. With those I always felt I "should" play, or that I "should" practice. With the Hang I play just because I want to play.

I remain unsure whether it is an instrument or sound sculpture or something else. In the end, the name is far less important than what happens when I play and the places it takes me to (or perhaps I should say the places we go together). It is something wonderful!