639-year composition for organ

[rockefeller center]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2728595.stm

http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/

[Rooster_Ties]

Is anybody recording it???

[J Larsen]

Mosaic is doing a 12,000,000 cd box set, but at $16 a disc, I don't know that it will be selling too fast. $192 million is a lot to pay for one piece of music. Plus it's not on SACD.

[John B]

I'll wait for them to reissue the discs with alternate takes before buying a copy.

[Rooster_Ties]

Perhaps release it as a series of box-sets, perhaps in 1,000 CD increments - which would mean one new box-set every couple of months (1,000 CD's @ 79 minutes each, is about 55 days worth of continuous sound.)

Actually, anyone want to take bets on how long it takes before you can hear live-streaming-audio of the "performance", on the web?? I can see it now...

"Just 'click here' to hear the work in progress."

[Aggie87]

Maybe someone can clue Kenny G into this music. With his circular breathing techniques, he's a shoo-in to play this piece for the next 639 years, without a break.

A guy can hope, anyway.

[tonym]

You never know, Wim Wenders may get involved and we can see the foot-tapping 'behind the-scenes', 'right at the-heart', 'life-affirming' and 'uplifting' footage of the whole event.

[BruceH]

Mosaic is doing a 12,000,000 cd box set, but at $16 a disc, I don't know that it will be selling too fast. $192 million is a lot to pay for one piece of music. Plus it's not on SACD.

I'm waiting for the MP3 exabyte file.

[Jim Alfredson]

So they're going to tie up a 639 year old organ for the next 639 years playing one piece of music? That's really silly and incredibly ego-tistical.

[J Larsen]

I have a hunch that in a hundred years or so, that will become the prevailing attitude and they'll cut the piece short.

[rockefeller center]

Possible video clip: http://www.sudftw.com/contdcam.htm

[rockefeller center]

So they're going to tie up a 639 year old organ for the next 639 years playing one piece of music? That's really silly and incredibly ego-tistical.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...30entry301675

[Rooster_Ties]

Something a little more reasonable than 639 years...

CLICKY LINKY

[Rooster_Ties]

Second chord sounds in world's longest lasting concert

HALBERSTADT, Germany (AFP) - A new chord ( ) was scheduled to sound in the world's slowest and longest lasting concert that is taking a total 639 years to perform.

The abandoned Buchardi church in Halberstadt, eastern Germany, is the venue for a mind-boggling 639-year-long performance of a piece of music by US experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992).

Entitled "organ2/ASLSP" (or "As SLow aS Possible"), the performance began on September 5, 2001 and is scheduled to last until 2639.

The first year and half of the performance was total silence, with the first chord -- G-sharp, B and G-sharp -- not sounding until February 2, 2003.

Then in July 2004, two additional Es, an octave apart, were sounded and are scheduled to be released later this year on May 5.

But at 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Thursday, the first chord was due to progress to a second -- comprising A, C and F-sharp -- and is to be held down over the next few years by weights on an organ being built especially for the project.

Cage originally conceived "ASLSP" in 1985 as a 20-minute work for piano, subsequently transcribing it for organ in 1987.

But organisers of the John Cage Organ Project decided to take the composer at his word and stretch out the performance for 639 years, using Cage's transcription for organ.

The enormous running time was chosen to commemorate the creation of Halberstadt's historic Blockwerk organ in 1361 -- 639 years before the current project started.

That original organ, built by Nikolaus Faber for Halberstadt's cathedral, was the first organ ever to be used for liturgical purposes, ringing in a new era in which the organ has played a central role in church music ever since.

As part of Halberstadt's John Cage Organ Project, a brand-new organ is being built specially, with new pipes added in time for when new notes are scheduled to sound.

Cage was a pupil of one of the 20th century's most influential composers, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951).

Cage's avant-garde oeuvre includes works such as the notorious "4'33", a piece comprising four minutes and 33 seconds of total silence, all meticulously notated.

The organisers of the John Cage Organ Project say the record-breaking performance in Halberstadt also has a philosophical background -- to "rediscover calm and slowness in today's fast-changing world".

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Sheesh, those guys at the Cage Institute completely misread his transcription. It was "ears" not "years" and was to be specifically performed for an audience of 319 plus one poor sod from a Tarantino movie.

[DTMX]

What's going to be bad is when someone flubs a chord and they have to start over.

That, and the 300-year long drum solo near the end.

Edited January 6, 2006 by DTMX

[Jim Alfredson]

So they're going to tie up a 639 year old organ for the next 639 years playing one piece of music? That's really silly and incredibly ego-tistical.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...30entry301675

And?

[ejp626]

All, I can say is thank goodness Cage didn't include a vocal part. Imagine knowing you were fated to replace one of your parents and stand there singing a handful of notes your entire life.

[brownie]

Progress report from The New York Times today:

AN ORGAN RECITAL FOR THE VERY, VERY PATIENT

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

Published: May 5, 2006

HALBERSTADT, Germany, May 4 — If you miss Friday's musical happening at St. Burchardi Church in this eastern German town, no worries. There is always 2008. And the next year. And the one after that.

"It doesn't sound like Beethoven," said Rainer Neugebauer, a member of the foundation behind the performance, scheduled to last 639 years.

In fact, you have about six more centuries to hear developments in the work being performed, a version of a composition by John Cage called "As Slow as Possible." A group of musicians and town boosters has given the title a ridiculously extreme interpretation, by stretching the performance to 639 years.

Like the imperceptible movement of a glacier, a chord change was planned for Friday. Two pipes were to be removed from the rudimentary organ (which is being built as the piece goes on, with pipes added and subtracted as needed), eliminating a pair of E's. Cage devotees, musicians and the curious have trickled in to Halberstadt, a town about two and a half hours southwest of Berlin by train known as the birthplace of canned hot dogs and home to a collection of 18,000 stuffed birds.

"In these times, acceleration spoils everything," said Heinz-Klaus Metzger, a prominent musicologist whose chance comments at an organ conference nine years ago sparked the project. "To begin a performance with the perspective of more than a half-millennium — it's just a kind of negation of the lifestyle of today."

The only limitations on the length of the performance are the durability of the organ and the will of future generations.

For anyone keeping records, the performance is probably already the world's longest, even though it has barely begun. The organ's bellows began their whoosh on Sept. 5, 2001, on what would have been Cage's 89th birthday. But nothing was heard because the musical arrangement begins with a rest — of 20 months. It was only on Feb. 5, 2003, that the first chord, two G sharps and a B in between, was struck. Notes are sounding or ceasing once or twice a year — sometimes at even longer intervals — always on the fifth day of the month, to honor Cage, who died in 1992.

There are eight movements, and Cage specified that at least one be repeated. Each movement lasts roughly 71 years, just four years shy of the life expectancy of the average German male. There is no need to wait for the end of a movement for late seating: St. Burchardi is open six days a week, and the notes have been sounding continuously.

A whine can be faintly hard outside the front door of the church, a 1,000-year-old building that was once part of a Cistercian monastery and served as a pigsty when Halberstadt was a neglected industrial town in East Germany.

A cool blast of air comes through the open door, and the sound grows louder. After one spends some time within the bare stone walls, the urge to hum in unison proves irresistible. An electric bellows — about the size of three double beds in a row — sits in the left transept. Underground piping brings air to the organ in the right transept, which at this point is a wooden frame with six pipes. Small weights hold down wooden tabs: the keys. A plexiglass case muffles the sound. Neighbors complained that they could not sleep after the first notes sounded.

The place attracts people seeking a peaceful moment or communion with Cage's spirit. One student from the Juilliard School asked to spend a night in the church, said Georg Bandarau, the town's marketing director and manager of the Cage project. A Canadian writer who is going blind and making journeys to experience his other senses arrived Thursday.

The project's spirit is firmly in keeping with the proclivities of Cage, whose works pushed the boundaries of music and sought to meld life and art. One of his cardinal principles was to give the performer wide leeway. His most famous work may be "4' 33" " — in which the performer or performers sit silently for 4 minutes 33 seconds. Some consider him as much a philosopher as a musician.

Indeed, the Cage organ project is part serious musical endeavor, part intellectual exercise and part tourist attraction, the sort of thing that happens when the local worthies of a European town join with ambitious artists. And it has come to mean different things to different people.

For Christof Hallegger, it is a statement more about time than about music, and a reminder of mortality. "It's man-made, and it's longer than your own life," said Mr. Hallegger, the town's leading architect and a board member of the foundation behind the project.

Mr. Bandarau sees the performance as a tourist draw. "This town can profit from this project," he said.

Hans-Ola Ericsson, a Swedish organ professor who helped arrange the score, called it a symbol of possibility to a depressed region. "It brought hope, to very many people, of a future," he said.

But its signifcance is lost on some. Rainer Neugebauer, another member of the foundation, said it was hard to convince some local people of the project's value. "It doesn't sound like Beethoven," he said.

With German reunification, the government poured money into Halberstadt's renovation, but the East's economic problems continue to dog the town. Unemployment runs at more than 20 percent.

Cage wrote the piece for piano as "As Slow as Possible," or "ASLSP," in 1985, then adapted it for organ two years later, when it became known as "Organ2/ASLSP." The idea for the latest version was born in 1997, at an organ conference in the Black Forest town of Trossingen.

At a panel before a performance of "ASLSP," Mr. Metzger posed a question: since, in theory, an organ note can sound indefinitely, as long as a key is pressed, what is the limit for a piece like "ASLSP"? Days? Weeks? Years? Cage had not specified a length. "I mentioned that almost as a joke," he said.

Organists took up the discussion. "It means as long as an organ lives," Mr. Ericsson shouted, according to others present. Some suggested 1,000 years, but that idea was quashed.

"We have not had a good experience with 'a thousand years' in Germany," said the composer Jakob Ullman, referring to Hitler's Reich.

The other question was where to perform the piece. Mr. Ullman had an idea. As a boy, he would visit churches with his father, and he remembered clambering over the ruins of St. Burchardi. He knew Johann-Peter Hinz, a prominent sculptor in Halberstadt, and took the idea to him. Mr. Hinz, who suffered a stroke and fell into a coma shortly after the first chord sounded, agreed to push for it. A core group of organizers was formed, and the town let them use the church.

But the question remained: How long should the piece be? The first organ performance was 29 minutes. A recent recording lasts 71 minutes.

The group hit on a serendipitous fact: Michael Praetorius, a composer of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, had written that an organ with the first modern keyboard arrangement had been built in Halberstadt's cathedral in 1361. Subtract that number from the millennial year 2000, and the result is 639. Voilà. Problem solved.

The project has not been without disagreements. Some supporters wanted to build the organ all at once. Others wanted to pursue major contributors. Individuals can now sponsor one year of the piece for 1,000 euros and receive a plaque; nearly 100,000 euros ($127,000) have been raised, including other donations. A local businessman on the board was ousted for trying to take over the project, Mr. Hallegger said.

Others objected to what they saw as commercialization, and even to the establishment of the John Cage Academy, a center for the study of contemporary music, next door. "Only John Cage's piece is the thing that should be realized," said Mr. Ullman, who dropped out of the project early on. "I did a lot of work to think about what this performance could mean. Nobody read my papers."

All agree that nothing should interfere with the music. Solar power cells and a backup generator are on hand in case the electricity is interrupted. So far, the notes have flowed unimpeded.

"It's very important," Mr. Bandarau said. "It's what John Cage wrote."

Edited May 5, 2006 by brownie

[tatifan]

And what the heck, Cage won't be around for the reviews when it's all over! Being an organ, at least one can put a couple of bricks on the appropriate keys when it's time to grab a sandwich!

It would be pretty hard for a performer to say he has that piece in his repertoire, eh? I guess there are probably a few repeat signs in that one!

Edited May 5, 2006 by tatifan