6 ms·

The Handpan – A must-have instrument for the Burning Man set

38 points by laurex 5y ago

Iv 5y ago
When mainstream finance magazines tell you what is the latest expensive "must-have" item to a party some still believe to be the ultimate alternative gathering.
- vosper 5y ago
  It’s a strange headline: the article has nothing to do with Burning Man or the people who go to it.
lowkey 5y ago
It really is a beautiful sounding instrument and I would argue the greatest musical invention of the 21st century. Here is a taste for the uninitiated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=747hJQNJpeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=747hJQNJpeg
- euroderf 5y ago
  Seems like a perfect opener for Dead Can Dance.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
    > a perfect opener for Dead Can Dance This is literally true, yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-anastasis-featuring-hang.html http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-a... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A
- subpixel 5y ago
  It sounds to me like a non-musician tinkering with just the black keys on a piano. Novel - for a minute - and then rather artless.
rembicilious 5y ago
The linked article is not really about the instrument. It’s about the inventors of the instrument trying to use copyright laws (or any legal means) to stop the automated manufacturing of the “handpan”. Their artistic conviction seems to be that every “handpan” should be hand crafted. Mass production and automation churn out near identical instruments.. soulless copies. They aren’t wrong; taking the artisan out of fabrication leaves the musician as the sole artistic variable in instrument’s sonic output. Mass produced wooden instruments still retain unique properties of the trees they were grown from. No two acoustic guitars are the same, even though they came off the assembly line within minutes of each other. Instruments made exclusively from metals and plastics aren’t as likely to have the sonic variations found in wood. This is one of the reasons cymbal companies like Zildjian offer “hand hammered” products. edit: When I say “They’re not wrong” I don’t mean that I agree with their actions, just that the ideals they hold in regards to artisanship are not without merit. It’s great that nearly any musician can purchase a “handpan” thanks to mass production. Even a very low quality instrument can sound great in the hands of a skilled musician.
- galaxyLogic 5y ago
  I've seen some musicians playing these in the park and they sound great and their players have developed great styles and compositions for playing on these instruments. But I don't get the argument for banning mass-production. If that makes the quality less then so be it. All instruments are of varying quality anyway. Stradivarius? All violins can't be Stradivariuses.
  - setr 5y ago
    It seems to me the argument is really that it’s meant to be varied — as in, their goal was really to be playing with the awkwardness of poorly constructed tooling that can only haphazardously be declared an “instrument”. Akin to the “hacker” spirit — doing enough with whatever at hand, by understanding those objects beyond their construction’s intended purpose. More specifically, I think their issue is like taking an arduino and spare parts and slapping together some gizmo, versus simply buying that gizmo outright. The gizmo alone really wasn’t the point, and if a whole culture builds around variating and expanding on that concept, then the manufacturing and sale of a prepackaged gizmo both violates that goal, and also threatens that community’s continued public existence (because you’ll now get newcomers who don’t “get” it, and thus begins eternal September). So from that perspective I can empathize, though I don’t actually know anything about this community, and I don’t really care for use of lawsuits as a means of defending their goal (isn’t burning man supposed to have a whole anarchy thing overlaying it? Lawsuits seem contradictory…)
balnaphone 5y ago
https://archive.is/Y3wNG/again?url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-08/the-handpan-s-creators-want-to-keep-their-invention-pure-it-may-not-survive https://archive.is/Y3wNG/again?url=https://www.bloomberg.com...
jimnotgym 5y ago
If you can't pay £1000 and jump through hoops you can't join their magic world. Sorry kids you can't have their hipster drum. Nasty highbrow gatekeeping now has copyright lawyers. Well they may have legal rights, but watch how the community of players judges them for this. Hated by history, well done to the smug ex-hippies. Makes me feel like sponsoring anyone else who fancies making a steel drum derivative and making it open source
- mcphage 5y ago
  But they don’t want it to be only owned by the wealthy! They said it themselves, so it must be true. The fact that there selling an item in high demand and trying to ensure there’s almost no supply plus to have to jump through expensive hoops to buy it, won’t result in a scalper’s marketplace. No siree.
  - dopidopHN 5y ago
    10 years ago they were offering it as a significant discount if you had a compelling enough application. ( significant was for 100 € in my anecdotal experience )
    - mcphage 5y ago
      Did they make you fly to Bern?
Rochus 5y ago
Funny to see this on HN (it's not about hacking, isn't it?). The Swiss German name for the Handpan is "Hang" which means "Hand", but obviously is not a marketing friendly term in English. My friend, a percussionist, has a couple of them and we made this recording in 2002: http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=214 http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=214
SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
The HandPan or Hangdrum is a beautiful instrument (1) When first hearing it played, we were of course surprised to learn that it is a modern invention. Sadly the tension between ownership of the creators, and popularity with players, is not easy to resolve. How did this pan out when Adolphe Sax invented the Saxophone in the 1840s? 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-anastasis-featuring-hang.html http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-a... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A

38 points by laurex 5y ago

Iv 5y ago

When mainstream finance magazines tell you what is the latest expensive "must-have" item to a party some still believe to be the ultimate alternative gathering.

vosper 5y ago
It’s a strange headline: the article has nothing to do with Burning Man or the people who go to it.

lowkey 5y ago

It really is a beautiful sounding instrument and I would argue the greatest musical invention of the 21st century. Here is a taste for the uninitiated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=747hJQNJpeg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=747hJQNJpeg

euroderf 5y ago
Seems like a perfect opener for Dead Can Dance.
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  > a perfect opener for Dead Can Dance This is literally true, yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-anastasis-featuring-hang.html http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-a... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A
subpixel 5y ago
It sounds to me like a non-musician tinkering with just the black keys on a piano. Novel - for a minute - and then rather artless.

rembicilious 5y ago

The linked article is not really about the instrument. It’s about the inventors of the instrument trying to use copyright laws (or any legal means) to stop the automated manufacturing of the “handpan”. Their artistic conviction seems to be that every “handpan” should be hand crafted. Mass production and automation churn out near identical instruments.. soulless copies. They aren’t wrong; taking the artisan out of fabrication leaves the musician as the sole artistic variable in instrument’s sonic output. Mass produced wooden instruments still retain unique properties of the trees they were grown from. No two acoustic guitars are the same, even though they came off the assembly line within minutes of each other. Instruments made exclusively from metals and plastics aren’t as likely to have the sonic variations found in wood. This is one of the reasons cymbal companies like Zildjian offer “hand hammered” products. edit: When I say “They’re not wrong” I don’t mean that I agree with their actions, just that the ideals they hold in regards to artisanship are not without merit. It’s great that nearly any musician can purchase a “handpan” thanks to mass production. Even a very low quality instrument can sound great in the hands of a skilled musician.

galaxyLogic 5y ago
I've seen some musicians playing these in the park and they sound great and their players have developed great styles and compositions for playing on these instruments. But I don't get the argument for banning mass-production. If that makes the quality less then so be it. All instruments are of varying quality anyway. Stradivarius? All violins can't be Stradivariuses.
- setr 5y ago
  It seems to me the argument is really that it’s meant to be varied — as in, their goal was really to be playing with the awkwardness of poorly constructed tooling that can only haphazardously be declared an “instrument”. Akin to the “hacker” spirit — doing enough with whatever at hand, by understanding those objects beyond their construction’s intended purpose. More specifically, I think their issue is like taking an arduino and spare parts and slapping together some gizmo, versus simply buying that gizmo outright. The gizmo alone really wasn’t the point, and if a whole culture builds around variating and expanding on that concept, then the manufacturing and sale of a prepackaged gizmo both violates that goal, and also threatens that community’s continued public existence (because you’ll now get newcomers who don’t “get” it, and thus begins eternal September). So from that perspective I can empathize, though I don’t actually know anything about this community, and I don’t really care for use of lawsuits as a means of defending their goal (isn’t burning man supposed to have a whole anarchy thing overlaying it? Lawsuits seem contradictory…)

balnaphone 5y ago

https://archive.is/Y3wNG/again?url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-10-08/the-handpan-s-creators-want-to-keep-their-invention-pure-it-may-not-survive https://archive.is/Y3wNG/again?url=https://www.bloomberg.com...

jimnotgym 5y ago

If you can't pay £1000 and jump through hoops you can't join their magic world. Sorry kids you can't have their hipster drum. Nasty highbrow gatekeeping now has copyright lawyers. Well they may have legal rights, but watch how the community of players judges them for this. Hated by history, well done to the smug ex-hippies. Makes me feel like sponsoring anyone else who fancies making a steel drum derivative and making it open source

mcphage 5y ago
But they don’t want it to be only owned by the wealthy! They said it themselves, so it must be true. The fact that there selling an item in high demand and trying to ensure there’s almost no supply plus to have to jump through expensive hoops to buy it, won’t result in a scalper’s marketplace. No siree.
- dopidopHN 5y ago
  10 years ago they were offering it as a significant discount if you had a compelling enough application. ( significant was for 100 € in my anecdotal experience )
  - mcphage 5y ago
    Did they make you fly to Bern?

Rochus 5y ago

Funny to see this on HN (it's not about hacking, isn't it?). The Swiss German name for the Handpan is "Hang" which means "Hand", but obviously is not a marketing friendly term in English. My friend, a percussionist, has a couple of them and we made this recording in 2002: http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=214 http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=214

SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago

The HandPan or Hangdrum is a beautiful instrument (1) When first hearing it played, we were of course surprised to learn that it is a modern invention. Sadly the tension between ownership of the creators, and popularity with players, is not easy to resolve. How did this pan out when Adolphe Sax invented the Saxophone in the 1840s? 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCaxpY0s34 http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-anastasis-featuring-hang.html http://www.hangdrumsandhandpans.com/2012/09/dead-can-dance-a... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu8JO4vm-A