hangforum.com - The Archive

Hallo,

Felix send me this letter and allowed me to post it in this Forum

Greetings
Frank


Hang ® by PANArt

The Integral Hang 2009

For a year now we have been making the integral hang. And we intend to continue doing that for the following reasons:

it is the quintessence of working with sound systems from cultures around the world for many years. Since the hang first appeared in the year 2000, more than 5000 hanghang have been created with different scales arranged around the central DING tone. A few of them touched human beings in a special way whereas others were not meant to be integrated into the complex order of the hang. We have, however, condensed those spheres to which hearing humans react with a particular well-being to a chorus – a resonance body into which one becomes immersed. This happens through a range of sounds and a form – one that integrates. Its wealth is revealed through free and intuitive playing with the hands. A spherical world is created from which the player emerges invigorated. He plays on the hang and it plays with him, ever changing, giving and taking, opening and closing, subsiding and elevating, soft and hard – primeval human gestures become music – music from the soul.

Since we hang-makers experience the nature of the hang as a whole, where individual parts are closely joined, the hang evolves into a sculpture whose internal and external beauty harmonize more and more. The hang is a receptacle with its own oscillation. We have included this in the resonance because the central aspect of our work is harmony and equilibrium – proportion.
The hang has evolved into a listening device which can stimulate human beings in today's increasingly loud world. His inner voice becomes audible, his stance in life can grow more confident.
It is by no means a musical instrument with an instruction manual! You will find faith in your hands by yourself – through daily concentrated playing. Find a partner who will play with you – a human voice, an instrument, a voice from nature – what joy!

The integral hang is somewhat lonely on the world's big stages – microphones cannot deal with the complex and dynamic radiance of the hang. Digital technology proves to be very fragmentary and the effect of the hang pales – the fatal consequence of an instrument whose strength lies in direct contact. This is true of other metal resonance bodies as well, such as steel bands, gongs, gamelan orchestras, bells; maybe even all musical instruments?

The acquisition of an integral hang requires careful consideration. Its great sensibility is a challenge for letting the hands speak intuitively and for developing their suppleness. 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.

After nine years news has reached us about instruments similar to the hang from other countries. We are not unhappy about this because discussions are now being launched regarding the quality aspects of those resonance bodies which only work if they are created with dedication.

Agreement
As you might have already heard, hanghang are being sold at auctions for very high prices. We do not agree with this practice and would like to reach an agreement with you (see brochure, last page). Since we regard the hang as a gift from heaven, we can outline the agreement as follows:

We will accompany your integral hang on its musical journey and you will abstain from bringing it on the lucrative market. The underlying factors leading to this agreement can be found in our experiences during the last 30 years with the development of the steel pan worldwide, in its country of origin, and especially in Switzerland. The hang-maker's hands slacken if he yields to the pressures of this market-oriented situation. His creativity and his sensitivity to human musical desires are endangered by today's profit-related society. With this agreement we want to establish a relationship of trust and respect – a culture that we are in desperate need of.


Hangbauhaus, May 2009
Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer, hang-makers

Thanks Frank, and thanks to PANArt as well. They don't say much but when they do we can always feel a lot of power and positive energies in their words.

greets
Sérgio

Good news comes then... the Hang shall live on! Hurrah so I presume making shall resume either in 2009 or early 2010... still being inundated with emails from all over the world asking if we can help people to buy a Hang... at least the news I can share is now good news... I can't help you get one, but atleast you can still get on the list to get one.

Its great having some direct information from the Hanghaus too.... thanks for posting this Frank, and thanks to Felix for sharing it

I would love to put this letter from Felix on our website, in its entirety - of course attributing it to Felix. (I already have a link to the hang forum on our site).

I assume it is an open letter to be shared anywhere? I just want to check first that it is appropriate to do so...?

Great news! I love the IH. I only wish that I knew what position I hold on their list. Would anybody who recently received their IH please let us know when you sent your letter?

Hey Tao de hang (great name by the way),
Knowing when others have received their hang will not help you to know when it will be your turn. The only way you'll know is when you get a letter from the hanghaus that advises you are in the next allocation, and it is usually 6 months ahead of when it would reach you.

True, but it is so much fun to speculate, and it seems so much more tangible after reading that letter. For now I will keep visualizing my future.

Frank thanks for sharing this with the all forum, as I said in another topic on the forum I tested an IH two weeks ago here in Barcelona (Spain), and after other testings in the past with 1st. and 2nd. generation of hangs (in my opinion) the Integral Hang is the best hang version made by PANART. On the other hand I agree with you (tao te hang) about the fact that all new customers wants to know almost in which position we are on the list. If PANART send a letter 6 months before to get a hang that is really helpful to decide if I will trip to Bern or maybe choose the shipping method for my hang. Also the fact about the letters date between customers is not a good point to know where you are in the list... just an example... I sent my letter on August 14 (2008), and one of my friends on Australia got an email from PANART letting him know that he would not receive a HANG during this year (2009), and of course is strange, because he sent the letter two months before my letter (on June 2009)... but I didn't get a letter from PANART until now, so think about my frustration thinking everyday, if Felix and Sabina got my letter correctly, or if they select the people in other way and not following the order on the list, and a large list of questions and good and bad feelings are around my head.

So at this point is hard to wait, is hard to assimilate that you must wait about a year or also 2 or 3 years to get a hang... who knows? but is the Felix and Sabina philosophy, my advice would be (in my opinion) that would be great if they just have a public website showing the list of people orders and position, I really think this information will help the customers to know in which position they are and have time to planing the trip to Bern, get the money to pay the hang, etc.

Anyway I will let you know if I'll get a letter from PANART in the future.

Have fun, and all the hang owners really really enjoy your hangs... because is really difficult to have one!

Cheers

One comment I would like to agree on relates to once a letter has been sent to request a hang. It would be worse than bad to think your letter was at the hanghaus but it got lost in the mail and a long time passes where you think you are in the file but it is time lost. There are others who have experienced my hang and sent letters in, some have heard back and others not (well, not yet anyway, and we are talking months), and they ask the same question. This is not a criticism of Felix and Sabina, as I have been to the hanghaus and I see their dedication and commitment and their care about people.

I don't think a website is necessary, but it would be good if there was a standard response immediately upon receipt of a request. e.g. "Thank you for your letter, we have received it. We are not in a position at this time to advise you of when you might receive a hang, but please be assured your request has been filed."

Further to this, I would hope that when letters are received at the hanghaus, a scan or photocopy is taken and a copy stored elsewhere as a back up. One would fervently hope there is never a fire or other disaster there, but if there were, it is beyond imagining how Felix and Sabina would need to deal with a lot of people whose letters no longer exist - not to mention the possibility of some people pretending they had sent a letter when they hadn't (if they thought it would help them get a hang faster.)

Well all the questions you asked are the same as we all had/have
Its all part of the Hang experience,
Try to enjoy the tension of the uncertainty
and convert it to "trust" or even "faith"

(don't think Panart will change there way of doing things)

Thank you guys... will see what happen in the future...

Regards

Hi Samjjana, Frank sent you a PM to answer your question, but I think, there should also be a public statement of the Hang Forum moderators on this topic.

The text of PANArt published above is not "an open letter to be shared anywhere". The text was written by the Hang makers in order to be sent to people who get their letter that they can get a Hang in the next months. They also attach it to e-mails they write to people who asked to buy an IH backpack or something like this, to inform them about their current point of view on the IH in 2009.

If a text is sent to multiple addressees it doesn't say that every addressee is allowed to publish it anywhere. It is still copyrighted. And this means that the author is the only one who is allowed to publish it or give someone else permission to publish it.

In this special case a German member of this forum received the text in an e-mail from PANArt and thought it would be worth to share it in the Hang Forum with us. The Hang Forum moderators are responsible that there is no copyright violation at the Hang Forum. Therefor Funky Mod deleted the text because the forum member had no permission from PANArt to publish it. Then Frank sent an e-mail to Felix and told him that it would be worth to publish the text in the Hang Forum. After this the hang makers decided to give permission to Frank to publish the text in the Hang Forum. Therefor Frank was able to post it.

I think it is important to understand, that the easiness of the publication of a text at the Web doesn't abrogate the copyright of the author of the text. And it is also important to know that posting a forum entry in a public forum is an act of publication.

If someone runs a website and wants to provide his/her visitors to read a text published by someone else at the Web, there is a wonderful method to do this: A link. And it is the same with forum posts: Instead of copy and paste the text (which is a copyright violation) it is the better method to post a link to the text you want to share with other forum members. If the text isn't published at the Web (so you cannot post a link), you have to ask the author for permission to publish the text in a forum post.

Ixkeys Mod

Thanks IxKeys - I think it is very useful for everyone to know this.
I wasn't aware of it being copyright as it doesn't state that it is and this forum is a public forum, but I was checking anyway, out of courtesy, and I am glad I did.
My original idea was to share some of the beauty of what Felix expressed for those who may not follow a link, but a good way around that is to share what I feel about the letter as an encouragement for people to follow the link. I do think it is an important message to share with people who wish to order a hang or who are waiting for one.

It is a common misunderstanding that only texts that include a copyright indication are copyrighted. The exact opposite is correct: Every text is copyrighted unless it includes an indication that copying and publishing is allowed for everyone.

Ix

...? The Missing 11th Commandment? Moses must have tripped on his beard coming down the mountain, and a piece chipped off the tablets.

No wonder the damn thing feels so absurdly heavy... it's because they are still sitting on it! Accompanying us on our journey.

Forgive me if I see something wrong here...

I see someone who thinks that he is God gifting mankind with a gift from heaven, and he can therefore tell people what they should do with it.

I see someone who is unwilling to let go of something, and is unwilling to respect people's decisions to do what they want with what they own.

I see someone who thinks the WORLD (in particular, the MARKET PLACE) should change, in order to safeguard HIS hands from "slackening" under pressure.

I can also see that I am not going to be very popular in this forum...

Maybe because all I can lay claim to, is to be a prophet, and not God...

Your right on that one, you put your head in a nest of wasps !
This is a friendly forum with a lot of strong discussion at times but you are going the right way to making enemy's.

The only prophet about this one is the money he's trying rip off on eBay!!! be goneth demon and repent your evil ways

Its not a gift from heaven in my eyes, its a beautiful instrument that took years of work to produce but has been a gift from Switzerland... i'm not religious so don't see anything that way, I believe in karma though and this one will certainly bite ya on the bum... be gone.... be gone!

Hangseller, I can see that you have very strong feelings of disdain that are coloring your commentary in such a way that makes you sound a bit like a troll. I hope that you can look inward at what is bringing these strong feelings up, and perhaps find some peace with yourself and your decisions.

Good luck to you, and I hope that you can reduce your suffering, and the suffering of others.

Hi,

no, this could not be. The missing 11th commandment is: "never call the Hang a hangdrum!"


If anybody want a Hang from Panart today, he must sign this agreement, but nobody is forced to buy a Hang, if he dont like to follow the wish from PANArt. No problem.


Frank