2016 - Dr. Achong writes on WST on, among other things, whether the Hang is like an „early steelpan“

In the WST Forum appears an article about the Hang by steelpan scientist and polymath Dr. Anthony Achong : https://whensteeltalks.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dr-anthony-achong-comments-on-the-pan-hang-argument

This post vom Dr. Achong arises in response to yet another forum post in which the PANArt documentary „A discrete Revolution“ is discussed by:

Rudie Kendall https://whensteeltalks.ning.com/forum/topics/the-panart-hang-documentary-a-propaganda-filled-dissemination-of

Michael Paschko https://www.hangblog.org/2016/07/15/an-excessive-critique-based-on-preconception-ignorance-and-misunderstanding/

Some relevant discussion topics are:

• the „divine tuner“. In the PANArt documentary the tuner is compared to „divine“ . Dr. Achong answers: this is nonsense.

• the question whether certain metals sound better than others. Dr. Achong answers:„They ALL operate under the same set of principles. The sound is NOT in the metal (a common mistake) but in the dynamics.“

• Michael Paschko’s (Hangblog) statement: „Trinidad doesn’t play the Pan with the hands.“  Dr.Achong replies: „This statement is factually and historically incorrect. Pan players in Trinidad, in the early days, first played pans with their bare hands or wrapped their hands with cloth.“

• The question raised whether early steelpans were curved outward and played with the hand.
  „About the early pans being convex (upward) like the Hang.“
  Dr. Achong sums up: „The Hang is a steelpan (pan) having limited musical range (…)“___Sidenote:Dr. Achong wrote a important letter for PANArt in 2020, which is in court as an expert report in 2020 and was published by PANArt in September 2020. Dr. Achong passed away the previous summer (RIP).
• https://handpan-timeline.org/timeline/rip-dr-anthony-achong/
• https://handpan-timeline.org/timeline/open-letter-to-the-steeltuning-community/