Posted on 01/06/2006 4:42:30 PM PST by Borges
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".
Why not?
A few years a go the masterpiece "Lights turning on and off in a empty room" won a hefty monetary prize.
The piece consisted of, you guessed it, lights turning on and off in a empty room.
I can't attend the live performance, so I'm waiting for the 4.8 million disk set.
DEVELOPING.....
I was part of the original orchestra that played this. During recital I kept coming in exactly 2 days too early, and they canned me...Thought I had my big break too...
I've got the first CD (of the 4.8 million set to come). It sounds a lot like 4'33".
"That would be funny.
I just wonder what you would SEE on stage at a performance of Cage's 4'33".
Would it be an empty stage, or would you see an entire orchestra up there following the conductor in a performance of absolutely nothing?"
Don't be silly, it's a piano piece!
Cage also "wrote" a piece called "In C." Another piano "piece" consisting of nothing but hammmerstroke C octaves. After several minutes, people tried leaving the theater only to find speakers in the lobby and those C octaves. Outside the theater and running for several block were more speakers. People were actually running to get away from the performance.
Ah those kookie avante garde ouvre "composers"
Top sends
Great can be a relative term.
Oscar Brand was (on occasion) crude rude and vulgar ... but sure sounded good doing it.
It's a shame this performance didn't start 639 years ago and just ending now. Then we could have portraits, sketches and/or photos of all the great composers throughout history pointing and laughing.
Are you sure he's not going for "69"?
How stupid.
Or "72" (that's "69" with 3 spectators)
Ha! Cage's song last 639 years, while Camille's only seem to last that long :)
I believe you are talking "shades of gray."
[One of the paintings was a large canvas painted stark white. There was a small red dot precisely in the center of the canvas. That's it. A big white canvas with a small red dot in the center.]
About three years ago we were discussing this type of "art" at the factory where I work, and one of my coworkers suggested that we could create "sculptures" by taking the solidified plastic residue from around the nozzles of our injection molding machines and pretend they represent some abstract concept.
I now have two of these "sculptures" in my home and I tell visitors in my most serious voice that the one on the shelf by the front door is called "The Raping Bed" and the one hanging on the wall is called "American Imperialist".
I have witnessed only two types of reactions and I get them in about equal proportions:
1) "Yeah, I see what the artist intended. How deep!"
2) "What a piece of crap. I could root through the garbage and find better art."
LibWhacker's review: A piece of music whose every chord bores you to death.
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