As Slow as Possible

Last updated

St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt, Germany Halberstadt St-Burchardi-Kirche.jpg
St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt, Germany

Organ2/ASLSP has been playing in Halberstadt for

23 years, 1 month, 4 weeks and 2 days

ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting (after Longplayer ) musical performance yet undertaken. [1] Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his 1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70 minutes. [2]

Contents

An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. This makes it the longest running non-computerized piece currently being performed. The most recent note was played on February 5, 2024. The next note will be played on August 5, 2026.

History

The Friends of the Maryland Summer Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts commissioned the piece for contemporary requirement of a piano competition. Cage used an open format to ensure no two performances would be the same, and give judges a break from the consistency of most compositions. The score is eight pages.

Completed Performances

Performer(s)Duration in hoursStart timeLocationNotes
AllRequest_Live "Albert Wright"24.0012022, February 4 12:00amStreamed Live on Twitch from an undisclosed locationCan be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. [3] Current record holder for longest live performance of a single musical piece performed by a human. [4]
Alexander Meszler242023, January 29 5:00pmDecorah, Iowa.Performance commemorated the completion of restorations to the school's organ [5]
Christopher Anderson162022, March 8Dallas, TXPerformed during SMU Bridwell Library's A Festival of Form: John Cage & the Infinite Human event in February 2022. One of the last notable performances before the renovation of the Perkin's Chapel organ in 2023. [6] [7]
Diane Luchese14.932009, February 5 8:45am Towson University was the longest completed performance until 2022. [8]
Daniel Cooper122019 Knox Church Performed to mark the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice [9]
Alex Ross, Patrick Wedd, Adrian Foster82015Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal Longest completed team performance on record
Frank Felice 3.52016onlinePerformance was delivered online to an iPhone app for ArtsFest 2016 at Butler University. A thirty-five second snippet was posted each day for a year; the whole three and a half hour realization was played as a fixed media piece during the three-day Artsfest. So the performances could be considered to take 35 seconds, 3.5 hours, 3 days, or 1 year (the time used here is for the single performance of the entire piece) [10]

Halberstadt performance

The bellows used for the Halberstadt performance HalberstadtBurchardiChurchBellows.jpg
The bellows used for the Halberstadt performance
The organ used for the Halberstadt performance HalberstadtBurchardiChurchOrganForOrgan2ASLSP.jpg
The organ used for the Halberstadt performance

Background

Musicians and philosophers discussed Cage's instruction to play "as slow as possible" at a conference in 1997, because a properly maintained pipe organ could sound indefinitely. The John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt decided to play the piece for 639 years, to mark the time between the first documented permanent organ installation in Halberstadt Cathedral, in 1361, and the originally proposed start date of 2000. Because of a lack of money, the date was postponed by one year. [11] The chord changes of the first part which ends in 2072 were calculated by Christoph Bossert and Rainer O. Neugebauer. Until August 2021 the Foundation sold plaques commemorating the years through 2640 to fund the performance. [12] [13]

The instrument

An organ was built specifically for the performance. [14] It is in the church's right transept, with the bellows in the left transept.

Until 2011, Acrylic glass encased it to reduce the volume, likely due to potential noise complaints. [15]

Performance

The Halberstadt performance started on September 5, 2001, with a rest lasting until February 5, 2003, when the first pipes played. [16] [17] Sandbags depress the organ's pedals to maintain the notes. [2] On July 5, 2008, two more organ pipes were added alongside the four already installed and the tone became more complex at 15:33 local time. The bellows provide a constant supply of air to keep the pipes playing. [18] On July 5, 2012, two more organ pipes were taken out, and two were in the organ. The note last changed on February 5, 2024. The performance is scheduled to end on September 4, 2640.

Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg
"ASLSP, Halberstat, Jan 5 2006 note change"
The note change of January 5, 2006, takes place at 8:35 in this audio clip.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
John Cage ORGAN2/ASLSP (639 years, part 1: 70 years) [19]
ImpulseActionNotesDateChord
length
1BeginnoneSeptember 5, 2001
2SoundG♯4, B4, G♯5February 5, 2003518 d
3SoundE3, E4July 5, 2004516 d
4ReleaseG♯4, B4July 5, 2005365 d
5SoundA4, C5, F♯5January 5, 2006184 d
6ReleaseE3, E4May 5, 2006120 d
7SoundC4, A♭4July 5, 2008792 d
8ReleaseC4November 5, 2008123 d
9SoundD4, E5February 5, 200992 d
10ReleaseE5July 5, 2010515 d
11ReleaseD4, G♯5February 5, 2011215 d
12SoundC4 (16′), D♭4 (16′)August 5, 2011181 d
ReleaseA♭4
13ReleaseA4, C5, F♯5July 5, 2012335 d
14SoundD♯4, A♯4, E5October 5, 2013457 d
15SoundG♯3, E4September 5, 20202,527 d
16ReleaseG♯3February 5, 2022518 d
17SoundD4February 5, 2024730 d
18SoundA4August 5, 2026912 d
19ReleaseE4October 5, 2027426 d
20SoundG3April 5, 2028183 d
21ReleaseD4August 5, 2028122 d
22ReleaseA4March 5, 2030577 d
23ReleaseD♯4, E5September 5, 2030184 d
24ReleaseG3May 5, 2033973 d
25SoundB3December 5, 2033214 d
26SoundF3, D4August 5, 2034243 d
27ReleaseF3, D4September 5, 203431 d
28ReleaseB3October 5, 203430 d
29SoundD♭5June 5, 2035243 d
30SoundA2 (16′)September 5, 2037823 d
ReleaseD♭5
31SoundA♭4, A♭5March 5, 2038181 d
32ReleaseA♭5July 5, 2038122 d
33ReleaseA♭4May 5, 2039304 d
ImpulseActionNotesDateChord
length
34SoundD4, A♭4December 5, 2039214 d
35ReleaseD4, A♭4April 5, 2040122 d
36SoundD♭3, B♭3January 5, 2041275 d
37ReleaseD♭3, B♭3March 5, 2042424 d
38ReleaseA2 (16′)November 5, 2043610 d
39SoundA3, D4July 5, 2044243 d
40SoundE4March 5, 2045243 d
ReleaseA♯4
41SoundB4, C5, A♯5March 5, 2046365 d
42ReleaseC4 (16′), B4, C5, A♯5October 5, 2047579 d
43SoundC3 (16′)February 5, 2049489 d
44SoundD♯4, A4April 5, 2050424 d
45ReleaseA3, D4, E4February 5, 2051306 d
46ReleaseD♯4, A4November 5, 2051273 d
47SoundE♭3, B3May 5, 2053547 d
48ReleaseC3 (16′)November 5, 2054549 d
49ReleaseE♭3, B3July 5, 2056608 d
50SoundB♭4August 5, 2057396 d
51SoundA2 (16′)May 5, 2058273 d
52ReleaseA2 (16′)November 5, 2059549 d
53SoundG♭4, C5, D♭5April 5, 2060152 d
54ReleaseG♭4, C5, D♭5June 5, 206061 d
55SoundE4November 5, 2060153 d
ReleaseB♭4
56SoundB4, C5, E♭5, C6February 5, 206192 d
57ReleaseC5, E♭5, C6April 5, 206159 d
58SoundD4September 5, 2061153 d
ReleaseE4
59SoundA♯3, D♯4, F♯4August 5, 2062334 d
60ReleaseA♯3, F♯4February 5, 2064549 d
61SoundA3, A4January 5, 20671,065 d
ReleaseD♯4
62ReleaseD4June 5, 2067151 d
63ReleaseA2, A4July 5, 2068396 d
64ReleaseD♭4 (16′)March 5, 2071973 d
65ReleaseB4July 5, 2071122 d

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Oltermann, Philip (2024-02-04). "'There's a certain madness to it' … fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years left to run". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  2. 1 2 Rosenberg, Steve (2008-07-05). "'World's longest concert' resumes" . Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  3. ↑ "AllRequest: As Slow As Possible 24 Hour Performance". YouTube. 2022-02-13. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  4. ↑ "A New Era of Performance: Albert Wright's Twitch Live Stream of Cage's Epic Piece". NY Weekly.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  5. ↑ Weis, Roz (2023-03-21). "Meszler completes 24-hour organ performance". driftless multimedia. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  6. ↑ "A Festival of Form: John Cage & the Infinite Human (March 7–9)". SMU Bridwell Library. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  7. ↑ "Office of Development Update: A New Organ for Perkins Chapel". SMU Perkins School of Theology. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  8. ↑ "The Towerlight, Fifteen hours at the organ". Media.www.thetowerlight.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  9. ↑ "John Cage: Organ2 / ASLSP". Music Canterburyn. 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  10. ↑ "John Cage ASLSP".
  11. ↑ "First notes for 639-year composition". 2003-02-05. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  12. ↑ Gonsher, Aaron. "A Visit to John Cage's 639-Year Organ Composition". redbullmusicacademy.com.
  13. ↑ "Alle Stiftertafeln sind vergeben". Archived from the original on 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
  14. ↑ "Sankt Burchardi Church Organ". atlasobscura.com. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  15. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "5 Min 48 sek von 639 Jahren: JOHN CAGE ORGAN 2 / ASLSP IN HALBERSTADT". YouTube. 2009-07-30.
  16. ↑ "News – John-Cage-Orgelprojekt Halberstadt". www.aslsp.org. Archived from the original on 2021-09-07. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
  17. ↑ "the Halberstadt event website". John-cage.halberstadt.de. 2004-11-19. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  18. ↑ "One Thousand Hear Change of Note in World's Longest Concert". Deutsche Welle . Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 2008-07-05. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  19. ↑ "Klangwechsel – John-Cage-Orgelprojekt Halberstadt". www.aslsp.org. Archived from the original on 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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