Hang-Music Forum : The Place for Hang musicians

A few months back, a story was put on the Yahoo Hang group about a Hang that had been missing for a couple years, but was found and was making it's way back to it's original owner. This is the story of Per Hultquist's Pentatonic E First Gen Hang as told through a series of emails of those involved. This story and emails are being posted here by me with permission of Per. This is a great story that I felt had to be shared.

The series of emails begins with Ron Kravitz' despcription of the events of Per's Hang and is followed by others that were involved with the story as well.

Enjoy!
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Dear Per,



This is my version of the story to the best of my knowledge, recollection.  Feel free to edit, embellish, add or delete, etc.  and to post it on whatever Hang blog/websites you desire.  Sherry, I did not recall your son's name.  Lets add that.  I haven't stopped reciting this miraculous story.  I continue to share it with others, regardless if they know what a Hang is or not.  It is truly astounding! Thanks and regards to all.

Ron



The Odyssey of Per Hultquist's Lost and To Be Found Pentatonic E, PANArt Hang



On Dec. 22, 2003, I shipped to Per Hultquist of  Bolder CO. a specially requested Pentatonic E Hang.  To my knowledge, that particular scale, to this day, is only 1 of 10 of the 5500+ Hanghang, that have ever been made.  Sometime in the future (Per do you recall the date?) I was notified by a distraught Per that The Pent E was missing and that he had an all points bulletin out to find it. 

After a few months of searching, he gave up. It was never found.  Per, at this point, you can tell your side of the story from here better than me.



We are now back in the present...Glenside, Pennsylvania, The Keswick Theater ... Monday evening Oct.  22, 2007.  The Global Drum Project is performing. (Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hildalgo and Sikiru Adepoju.  They have just released a new album are touring to promote it and to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of Planet Drum.  Babatunde O'latunji was an member of the original ensemble.  Glenside is a suburb, 30 minutes north of center city Philadelphia. In the audience, attending this concert is a who's who of the Philadelphia and surrounding area drumming community.  The concert is now over, we (me and 4 left out of my party of 12) are outside the theater and we have just made it through the last throng of people and it appears that I've finally finished saying all of my hello's and goodbye's to everyone, when all of a sudden, I hear "Hey Ron".  I turn around and it's my friend Sherry Downie Kurtz whom I probably haven't seen in 2 years.  Sherry and her family had moved outside of Reading, Pa. about 1 /12 hrs outside of Phila. We used to drum together in my colleague Pete Barnhart's, African Drumming class. In fact, back in 04, when Pete B and I had our CD release party for the Hang Meditations at my home, Sherry took care of reservations at the door.) Sherry is standing with two younger fellows, I'd say in their early 20's.  She introduces me. One is her son and the other is her son's best friend Adam.



This is my recollection of what next occurred.

We then began to catch up and as we are all conversing, because this is a percussion community, the conversation somehow naturally got around to the Hang and Adam says to me,  "You know, the guy that distributes Hangs in the US lives 10 minutes away in the next town over, in Wyndmoor".  I begin to smile and proceed to tell him " I'm that guy."  Sherry, then exclaims that Adam has a Hang.   When hearing that, I was immediately surprised because I knew I didn't sell him one.  I then asked how he had acquired one.   (Sherry answers and says her nephew Cameron, found one in a dumpster and gave it to him) That alone is incredulous sounding enough as it is, period.  In the next moment, a little bell rings inside my head and it occurs to me to ask him if Cameron had found it in a dumpster, by some remote chance in the state of Colorado.  Yes!... is the answer.  Could it have been in Boulder CO.  Yes!..is again the answer.  I then say something like, " You won't believe this but, I know who's Hang that is."

Of course it's Per's missing Hang in it's black PANArt bag.  Penta E Hang is written inside.  At some point we say our goodbyes.  On the way back to our car with my head still swirling, my buddy Quentin says to me "Ron, you've gotta connect those folks together".  Of course he was right.  I emailed Sherry as soon as I got in to ask for Adams phone #.



Sherry is replying to the email I sent to her later that night after the concert, where ours paths crossed again after two years.  I was requesting Adam's contact info. The next day she replied..............



HI Ron.........too funny............well, we meet again ..........so the story is that my nephew, Cameron, was in Colorado for a time and I don't know the particulars......but he found the Hang in a dumpster, large dumpster, on a work  site (he was a roofer)......he returned for a time, back to Pennsylvania and to pay off a debt.....he gave it to Adam .........to my dismay....because I wanted it......but that is beside the point.........



We were talking about you after the concert because I mentioned how I knew the way to the Keswick Theater because it was the same way I took to your house .......then the story got to some guy who sold Hangs in Wyndmoor and then we realized we were talking about the same person (you) when I saw you outside.....weird.........



I called Adam on the phone first thing, the next morning.  (approx. 8:45am)   Adam is really a nice guy.  I asked him if he'd be willing to give the Penta E Hang back to Per.  He replied yes.  He told me he was not the type of person that would keep something that did not belong to him.  We ended our conversation by agreeing that I would now connect the two of them together. I proceeded to call Per.



Per's wife Eileen answers the phone.  I say something like "Ron Kravitz here" she exclaims " Ron Kravitz! It's been ages.  I ask her if Per is in.  Yes.  Would you please put him on the phone, and if you have an additional line, I know you'll want to hear this conversation.

Per gets on...I say 'How's your day?  He answers "How my day, It's 8:00am in the morning I haven't had one yet, I just woke up.  Regardless I say to him, "Your day is about to become better".  When I get to the part of the story that begins to imply that his Penta E Hang has been found, there is a huge gasp of silence over the other end of the phone.  Per then contacted Adam.  That was my part of this incredible story.



(From Per to me the other day)

Ron, Still can\'t believe the hang journey story......truly amazing and I asked Adam to write it in detail so we can share it with others. I am going to give Adam a didjeridoo in exchange as he agreed to, but I may wait until he comes out here in January so he can pick one. Either way, he\'ll get a VERY GOOD instrument.

And thanks Ron for enabling this miraculous event.



And this from Adam:



It was the summer of 2005 when my friend Cameron came home to Pennsylvania from Boulder, Colorado.  He stayed a short while before heading to the west coast.  Before he left, he told me he had a present for me.  He said I would appreciate this present more than himself.  He told me he found it while roofing down there in a dumpster.  It was a PanArt Pentatonic E Hang.  I had never seen one before and was excited to learn more about it.  I found them online and realized the only person in the country to sell them was Ron Kravitz in Wyndmoor, Pa.  I wanted to buy another one but it was out of my price range.
     The years went by and I played the Hang at special events and recorded with it a couple times.  I always retained the knowledge that a man in Wyndmoor was the only distributor in the United States.  In late 2007 I went to see Mickey Hart at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pa.  I went with my best friend Steve(Cameron's cousin) and his mother, Sherri.  We were outside after the show talking about the area; when Sherri mentioned she used to come down that way to go to Ron Kravitz house for drum gatherings.  I said, "Where at?"  She said, "Wyndmoor."  I then related to her that the guy who sold the Hangs lived in Wyndmoor.  She said, "That would be weird if it was him."  Next thing I know, Sherri sees Ron and introduces Steve and I.  I ask him if he was the guy with the Hangs and he said yes.  He went on to tell me how difficult they are to get now.  I told him I was fortunate to have one for free.  He looked puzzled and asked how.  When I told him he immediately said, "It's a Penta E isn't it?"
I didn't know off hand but he knew without seeing it.  I gave him the contact information for myself and told him to let me know.  The next morning he called and I gave him the okay to call Per Hultquist.  Per called me shortly after that and we arranged a plan to get his Hang back in his possession.  As a reward Per sent me an awesome didj.  Thanks so much for your patience Per.  Take care and contact me with any news.

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At this point Per sent his Penta E to Kyle at Pantheon Steel to get a tune up. Kyle has worked on Per's Hang and has brought it back to specs.

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Hello Per,

Amazing story, truly amazing.  I am honored that you have asked me to tune it.  I would like to donate this tuning.  I wouldn’t feel right profiting from this given its miraculous history.  I have done some work to it and every note sounds fine now except the high B.  It could be because of the damage (possibly from the dumpster) or from something else from the original tuning.  It has a bit of interference that is proving impossible to clear up without detaching the hemispheres and neither of us wants that.  I would be surprised if even Felix or Sabina could fix this.  Until I make a Halo with the same scale I won’t know what could be going on here, but I speculate this is why they only made 10 of these.  It could be some acoustical anomaly with the given shape and air space combined with the particular tuning. 

The pitches have fluctuated a bit over the past few days and I would like to keep it until it holds (stays in tune) after working on it.  This is achieved by tuning a little bit everyday until it no longer fluctuates. 

Also, my friend Danny Sorensen has asked if it would be ok to post your Hang’s history on hang-music.com  Would that be ok? 


Sincerely,
Kyle
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Hi Kyle,

Wow.....that's so generous of you...and we are in no hurry because we are about to leave for the JT didjfest and we won't be back until after the 20th....and when we get back we'll have lots of catching up to do.....so please keep it as long as you feel necessary. Yes, it's fine to post this story anywhere actually....I know I posted the first half somewhere some time ago, but I can't remember where;-(

Please take all the time you need.....afterall....what's another week or 5 in it's slow & patient journey;-)??

And thank you so much again for being an important part in the "magical journey." Please be sure that your friend mentions you in the story:-)

Per