Hang Drum

Creation and development

The Hang was developed in 2000 in Berne, Switzerland by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer (PANArt Hangbau AG). It was introduced at the Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2001. Its name comes from the Bernese German word for hand. The two deep drawn steel hemispheres of the Hang are hardened by a process known as gas-nitriding. The side considered the 'bottom' has an opening (Gu) in the center which allows the generation of the bass note through Helmholtz resonance. When it is played in a dampened way it can change in pitch similar to a talking drum. On the 'top' are seven (in the bass version of the Hang) or eight (treble version which is no longer produced) notes arranged in a 'Tone Circle' in zig-zag fashion from low to high. All are tuned harmonically (with fundamental, octave and the fifth above the octave) around a low note (Ding) at the center of the Tone Circle. Each creation is numbered and signed.^[5]

Front line: Prototype Hang from January 2000 (left), Ghatam (right); second line: Three Hanghang built in 2007, 2006 and 2005 respectively (from the left to the right)

There are only two people who make Hanghang (plural form of Hang), the inventors Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. They have a little workshop in Berne where every Hang has been created. From 2001 to 2005 the first generation Hang was offered in multiple scales ranging from fifteen to up to 45 different 'Sound Models'. The Hang makers took their initial inspiration from ethnomusicological roots with models such as the Aeolian, Ake Bono, Hijaz, Melog, Pygmy, and Zhi Diao. In 2005 PANArt was able to lower the tones on the Hang significantly in what they referred to as the Low Hang models with the Ding tuned to F3, E3 or Eb3. In the First Generation each creation was numbered, the model 'name' was written, and a signature of either Felix Rohner or Sabina Schärer was on a small note pasted on the inside of the top (Ding) surface.
In the spring of 2006 the Hang makers presented a new generation of Hang. The New Generation instruments (often referred to as 2nd generation) have a surface coating of annealed brass over the nitrided steel as well as a ring of brass around the circumference of the Hang. From the many different scales the Hang makers reduced to a more stable and consistent structure^{[citation needed]} with one type of central note (Ding) at D3. Most New Generation models have two A notes (A3 and A4) as well as another D (D4) in the Tone Circle around the Ding. The remaining notes were mixed into several different configurations. Older Hanghang had tone fields with the oval indentation oriented radially towards the Ding, with the 2007 models (as well as the Integral Hang) the tone fields are angled at about 45° from a line drawn from the Ding to the edge. They also started marking the individual serial number on the inside of the Gu opening and signing each Hang at the outside edge of the Gu side of the Hang. No 'Sound Model' names were officially given to the 2nd Generation models.