Classical and Jazz: Preview - Portico Quartet at Barbican Hall
Published: 4 March 2010
BY SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
THE hang, the wonderful new percussive instrument related to the steelpan, is making its debut at the Barbican Centre on Monday evening.
It will be played by young London jazz musicians The Portico Quartet as part of their own Barbican debut after a concert opener by Kansas-born soul singer-songwriter, Krystle Warren.
The hang has played a major role in Portico’s rapid emergence as a modern jazz phenomenon. Indeed, the instrument’s ability to produce complex layers of beautiful sounds as a Holmholtz resonator has influenced the development of the their style of delightful jazz.
A Holmhotlz resonator consists of an enclosed air space connected to the outside world by a narrow neck, for instance, a beer bottle.
The harmonically-tuned hang itself was invented several years ago by two Swiss engineers after years of research on the steelpan and other instruments such as gongs, gamelan, ghatam/udu, drums and bells.
Its name comes from the Bernese German word for hand, the plural being hanghang.
It is shaped like two woks, one placed upside-down on top of the other, and is best played by the hand rather than by drum sticks.
It can be made to sound like a harp, bells or harmonically tuned steel drums.
• Portico Quartet, Barbican Hall, Silk Street, EC2, March 8, 020 7638 8891 £10-£20