SEW Opera Handpan E Lalabye | Stainless Steel

The SEW Opera handpans stand for a particularly warm sound experience. Their gentle tones, spiced with a full-bodied timbre, go right under the skin into every cell. The long-lasting and at the same time well-balanced aftertaste, also known as sustain, ensures a spherical sound carpet - both with slower and faster playing styles. The rich, spacious sound creates a soothing, warm atmosphere.

Due to the very clear and fine sound, the SEW Opera handpans are very well suited for studio recordings. For good reason, they are also particularly popular to accompany meditation, yoga and sound journeys. The sounds open up a space of inner experience, mindfulness and sensual feeling. An aura of encounter that connects us to our deepest self and at the same time to that which is bigger than us.

A high-quality, specially hardened stainless steel is used for production. The optical design and the tonal aesthetics of these instruments are well coordinated and form a mature unit. Finely worked out tone fields make it very easy to play. Every touch creates a beautiful sound. This makes the SEW Opera handpans easy to play even for newcomers.

Diameter: 55cm
Height: 26.5cm
Weight: about 6kg
Material: stainless steel

Mood designation : Kurd
Synonyms : Aeolian / with root C# = Annaziska
Basic tone sequence (8+1): E/ BCDEF# GAB
Effect : Warm - Mysterious - Dreamy
Tone Stock : Heptatonic

Mode
Phrygian (tonal center 1st note) = major or
aeolian (tonal center: Bb) = minor

Semitones : 7 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 2
Tonal center : DING or first tone

Mood description:
The Kurd tuning is, if you will, the natural minor variant of the handpan tuning. Due to its particularly harmonious combination of notes, it is particularly suitable for beginners. With them you can play everything from calm and meditative to melancholic to powerful and cheerful.

Even if this tuning can sound very sentimental, you can use it to create happy sound patterns. For example, there is a major triad on the second and third notes. Just be aware that the second and third notes played simultaneously will rub. Of course, you can also use this tension consciously to spice up your game so that the relaxation can have a stronger effect afterwards. 

This tuning is one of the first seven-note tunings that were built and has become very popular through some videos on the internet.

Origin and music theory of the Kurd tuning:

Kurd adopts the name of the Arabic/Turkish maqam Kurd. This selection of tones also shares the arrangement of the tones with this maqam, assuming that the tonal center is on the first tone in the circle. This is how the full Phrygian mode is created, which is characterized by a semitone step from the root to the second tone of the scale and is responsible for the mysterious sound of the scale.

However, an ambivalence remains, as the DING is a fifth below the first tone and thus appears as a second tonal center, which allows the mode to change to Aeolian (natural minor). Depending on how you play, you can switch between natural minor and Phrygian sound character. With Kurd , everything can be played in a variety of ways, from calm and meditative to melancholic to powerful and happy.

Kurd shares with other minor variations (cf. Celtic Minor/ Integral) the jump from a fifth from DING to the first note. From this fifth degree, assuming that the tonal center is the THING, one has all the steps of a natural minor scale (Aeolian). What is special about Kurd is the semitone step between the first and second tone. This step is also present in the Maqam Kurd (Arabic or Turkish scale system) of the same name (cf. Semai Kurd), but also in the Phrygian mode. The Phrygian mode is used in jazz, psychedelic rock, flamenco and fado, but also in classical music. 

Matching Moods:
Very well suited for playing together, improvisatively:

• G Sabye (parallel key)  
• G major (parallel key)
• E Celtic Minor / Amara
• A Celtic Minor / Amara
• E Aeolian  
• C Aegean
• E equinox
• E Magic Voyage
• E integral
• D Pygmy

Also good for composing together:

• B Celtic Minor / Amara
• B Hijaz
• D Kurd
• D Celtic Minor / Amara
• G Ragadesh