page_title: Hang (instrument)
section_title: Creation and development
hierarchical_section_title: Hang (instrument) / Creation and development
caption_attribution_description: Front row: Ghatam (right) and the first idea of the Hang from November 1999 (left); second row: first generation Hang built 2005 (right), second generation Hang built 2006 (middle), second generation Hang built 2007 (left)
context_page_description: The Hang is a musical instrument in the idiophone class created by Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer in Bern, Switzerland. The name of their company is PANArt Hangbau AG. The Hang is sometimes referred to as a hang drum, but the inventors consider this a misnomer and strongly discourage its use.
  The instrument is constructed from two half-shells of deep drawn, nitrided steel sheet glued together at the rim leaving the inside hollow and creating the shape of a convex lens. The top side has a center 'note' hammered into it and seven or eight 'tone fields' hammered around the center. The bottom is a plain surface that has a rolled hole in the center with a tuned note that can be created when the rim is struck.
  The Hang uses some of the same basic physical principles as a steelpan, but modified in such a way as to act as a Helmholtz resonator. The creation of the Hang was the result of many years of research on the steelpan and other instruments. The inventors of the Hang have continued to refine the shape and materials and have produced several variations over the years.
context_section_description: The Hang was developed in the year 2000 and introduced at the Musikmesse Frankfurt in 2001. It is 52 cm (20 in) in diameter and has a height of 24 cm (9 in). The two deep drawn steel hemispheres of the Hang are hardened by a process known as gas nitridization. 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 damped way it can change in pitch similar to a talking drum. On the top are seven or eight notes arranged in a tone circle in zigzag 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.
  There are only two people who built Hanghang, the inventors Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer. They have a small workshop in Bern where every Hang has been created.
caption: Front line: Prototype Hang from November 1999 (left), Ghatam (right); second line: Three Hanghang built in 2007, 2006 and 2005 respectively (from the left to the right)
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