Interview with Broder Oetken

You can also read the French version of this interview.

Musical instruments are often very intriguing and whimsical; they entertain a curious relationship with their visual aspect, that is both related and irrelated to how they actually sound. In that respect, despite their seemingly simple appearance, gongs require a particularly high degree of craftsmanship to make. And with my background as a musician, I am always curious about musical instruments, especially when it seems as complex and mysterious as making a gong.

As a matter of fact, gongs are much in demand since a few years. Yet, apart from rare places like the GongForum (not online anymore) or the Website of Philip McNamara (not online anymore), it is difficult to find much information about gong-making, gongs themselves, their tuning and their design; nothing more than the same generic descriptions of their subjective characteristics (yes, it is kind of a paradox!).

But today, we have the chance to interview Broder Oetken, gongmaker at Oetken Gongs, his gong-making company. This will be our chance to know more about gongs, about his work, and about what we can expect in this field in the upcoming years.

Before reading this interview, I advise you to have a look at his gongs on the Website of Oetken Gongs and on his Facebook page to have an idea of the kind of gongs he make.

B.O.: I trained to work as a civil engineer, and became a gongmaster only by chance; and because I liked it, I have been making gongs until now.

My main knowledge in gongmaking, I’ve learned from Walter. I say “main knowledge” wilfully, because Walter got ill during my apprenticeship. At this time, Rudi (Note from Alexis: Rudi Bonness), who was the first gongmaster of Paiste, came to stay on my side, and he taught me a lot. By the way, Walter himself was formerly a Rudi’s apprentice, and then became the second gongmaster. So I had two teachers: the first and the second gongmasters. Because they had different styles of gongmaking, I had the chance to learn both ways.

There are two reasons for me to create the “To-remind-Walter gongs:”

The cooperation with Paiste ended in 2010.

My main production is the Meinl gongs, but next to them I’m developing my own Oetken gongs, and, not the least, the Ollihess gongs.

That’s one of the main things:

It’s not very common — not everybody is able to do it. On the one side it is a very creative job, and on the other side, high accurateness is required.

Yes, you are right — it’s very time- and labor-intensive to build a gong. And yes, almost twice more time is needed to make a 40” rather than a 36”. Altogether, it’s hard to tell the time for each size.

To itemize the individual steps:

As a matter of principle, all three ways are possible — but there is also a fourth way:

There are different areas on a gong which are responsible for particular sound effects: I can imagine that some kind of development can achieve interesting effects. These are plans I have for the future. As of now, I’ve tried all ways except the third — just to hammer on a blank to see what happens is too expensive in my mind.

Alpaka is NS12. In my sense, alpaka is the best material for gongs.

I have a perception of some properties — but they may not be true in every case. Most of the time, with my imagination I was right, but I have also been disappointed in one try.

It’s different from case to case. In one case it is only one, and in another case I need more than one. For example, I have made a number of prototypes for Meinl, for them to be able to decide which range they wanted to offer. (Note from Alexis: Some prototypes of the Meinl series are offered for sale through some retailers.)

We tried to write some words about the sounds of the gongs on our Website. But it’s always hard to describe something as subjective as a sound sensation with words. We are living to see several reactions with different players while they are playing our gongs.

It’s similar with the sound files of gongs: You need the best equipment and you won’t get the real sound of the gong. You can’t catch the sound experience. That is the reason for us not to offer sound files.

If someone is interested in our gongs, we always find a way. :)

The idea for the heart gong comes from a customer (Note from Alexis: This customer is Graham Bater, in the UK.). In comparison with a symphonic gong, the sound of the heart gong is deeper and opens faster and more.

It isn’t tuned to a particular note. It’s possible to have two heart gongs with the same frequency, but we don’t check the note, because the sound characteristic is the main important feature. Like the symphonic gong — it isn’t tuned either.

Here we have the step we spoke about before: I wanted to attempt and see what would happen with the sound if I made a large gong, inspired by the Paiste Sound Creation #4 Water gong.

The idea for the Mjölnir gong was nearby:

We are living around one of the biggest trading centers of the Vikings (Note from Alexis: Oetken Gongs is based near Rendsburg in Northern Germany). Mjölnir was the hammer of Thor, and it’s a very strong symbol we can see very often here around. Thor protected the humans with Mjölnir’s help, and there is thunder when Thor uses it for hammering. The mythology tells that Mjölnir never miss it’s target ― therefore, the circle is closed back to the gong-making process!

In comparison with a symphonic gong, the sound of Mjölnir is deeper… you can imagine the roll of thunder.

The scrapes are bursting the surface tension and produce more flexibility in the gong.

We glow the material to make it a bit softer.

On the one hand it gets the hammering a little bit easier, and on the other hand, the risk of rupture is reduced.

Yes, but it is very difficult to describe which effect it has.

I don’t know.

There are more than these three components which have to be respected for the tuning. It is too complex to answer in just a few sentences.

Sadly, I can’t reply to this question easily, too. This is too complex to explain it in the context of this interview.

Sure, one part is hammering and testing, but it isn’t just hammering and holding the fingers crossed hoping to strike the right tone!

Right, that is the interesting part in gong-making: to have the experience of where and how strong to hammer to get the wanted result, to think about and then to check.

In the best of cases, two gongs could be like twins. But because of the hand-craft by a human being, there are almost always fine differences between them. But there are other important factors to consider, for example:

I’m not well-schooled in this, but I think that it’s fantastic what people can produce with gongs and use them for. We know people who are able to make persons “just” feel good, and on the other side, there are people who are able to help other with their pain. That’s fantastic!

Yes, but it’s too early to speak about it.

When there is something new, we’ll show it on Facebook or on our Website.

In July, we’ll have our next workshop “Metal Turns Sound,” with a lot of interesting people. In this workshop, people are welcome to try and feel gong-making (with a little help). We are looking forward to this week-end.

In the long-term future, my intention is to bring the development of gong-making further, to learn a lot about it, and to pass my knowledge to my employees, in order that this rare handcraft continues.

It’s amazing how many persons are interested in gongs and gong-making. We get to know a lot of great and nice people, and it’s fantastic to learn about several playing techniques, but also miscellaneous minds and feelings.

Thanks for you interest in my work. I hope that I was able to contribute to your understanding with my answers.

We wish you all the best for the future, and we are looking forward seeing you in our factory in Germany. Maybe you are around someday!

After this lengthy interview, I am under the pleasant impression that Broder Oetken is a gong-maker to keep an eye on! He makes beautiful gongs, and compared to other gong manufacturers, he is indubitably the more active in innovation and experimentation.

Since the time of this interview, Oetken Gongs has introduced two new gongs with non-scraped surfaces: the “Mermaid” gongs (“Himeropa” and “Himeropa Ligeia”), perfect to play with superball mallets. Moreover, most of the special gongs, formerly available only in very big diameter, are now available in more sizes.

I recommend that you check his Website http://www.oetken-gongs.de, as well as the Meinl and Ollihess Websites, for whom he develops and makes gongs. Moreover, on these last two Websites, you will find videos that will give you an idea of some of the sounds you can achieve on his gongs. At last, do not hesitate to follow him on Facebook to keep up-to-date with his work and new developments; he and his wife (who administers the Facebook page) are very nice people.

The gongs Broder make for Meinl are quite widespread and can be purchased in a variety of places, because they are widely available. The Ollihess gongs can be bought online on his Website. And if you are interested in a gong from the Oetken Gongs catalogue, you can purchase it either by contacting him directly on his Website, or in the UK through Julian Marsden at http://www.ecymbals.co.uk. Hencefort, Broder Oetken gongs are also available via Gongs Unlimited in the United States of America, on Meditation Gongs in Germany and on Shanti Sounds in Costa Rica.