The world’s longest concert

[Bucky Ramone]

Three years down, 636 to go (from cnn.com)

Only 636 years left in longest concert
Germans playing John Cage organ work very slowly
Monday, July 5, 2004 Posted: 2:18 PM EDT (1818 GMT)

BERLIN, Germany (AP) — In an abandoned church in the German town of Halberstadt, the world’s longest concert was coming two notes closer to its end Monday: Three years down, 636 to go.

The addition of an E and E-sharp complement the G-sharp, B and G-sharp that have been playing since February 2003 in composer John Cage’s "Organ2/ASLSP" — or "Organ squared/As slow as possible."

The five notes are the initial sounds played on a specially built organ — one in which keys are held down by weights, and new organ pipes will be added as needed as the piece is stretched out to last generations.

The concert is more than just an avant-garde riff on Cage’s already avant-garde oeuvre, which includes a piece consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence and one for a piano rejiggered with screws and wood stuck between the strings.

"It has a philosophical background: in the hectic times in which we live, to find calm through this slowness," said Georg Bandarau, a businessman who helps run the private foundation behind the concert. "In 639 years, maybe they will only have peace."

The concert began Sept. 5, 2001 — the day Cage would have turned 89. The composition, originally written to last 20 minutes, starts with a silence, and the only sound for a first 1 1/2 years was air. The first notes were played in February 2003.

After debates in Germany about what exactly "as slow as possible" could mean — anywhere from a day to stretching on infinitely — the group of German music experts and organ builder behind the project chose the concert’s 639-year running time to commemorate to the creation of the city’s historic Blockwerk organ in 1361.

Halberstadt’s disused Burchardi church, once a monastery complex and now an appropriately simple and unadorned building, was chosen as a concert hall.

About 10,000 tourists visited the city, 60 miles southeast of Hanover, between April and September of last year to hear the first three notes, Bandarau said.

Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912, and like his teacher, Arnold Schoenberg, was influential both as a musician and a thinker. "Organ2/ASLSP" was composed in 1985 for piano, but two years later was rearranged for organ. Cage died in 1992.

The next change arrives in March 2006. The music then will become even simpler: Two notes are being taken away, Bandarau said.

The foundation is now seeking sponsors to fund the organ’s estimated $246,000 cost.

"We need to secure the future," Bandarau said.

[rambleon]

Quote:

and the only sound for a first 1 1/2 years was air.

… i hope they get that money b/c what if the organ breaks down

[FlyingCloud]

"Bucky Ramone" wrote:

After debates in Germany about what exactly "as slow as possible" could mean — anywhere from a day to stretching on infinitely — the group of German music experts and organ builder behind the project chose the concert’s 639-year running time

that’s typical –taking things like that literally
weird project, I’ve heard of it here in the press before, then and when.

[Author]

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