As Slow as Possible

ORGAN²/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting musical performance yet undertaken.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[1]

An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. The next note will be played on February 5, 2024.

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.

Performances

Diane Luchese played Organ²/ASLSP from 8:45 am to 11:41 pm on February 5, 2009, at Towson University. This 14-hour-56-minute performance was the longest recorded individual performance until 2022.^[2] YouTube and Twitch channel 'AllRequest_Live' performed an adapted version of ASLSP to a live audience for 24 hours, from 12:00am on February 4, 2022 to 12:00am on February 5, 2022.^[3] Stephen Whittington performed an 8-hour version of ASLSP on the Elder Hall organ for John Cage Day in 2012 at the University of Adelaide.^[4][5][6][7] Organists Patrick Wedd, Adrian Foster, and Alex Ross gave a 12-hour team performance at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, in 2015. Composer Frank Felice orchestrated and recorded an electronic realization in 2015-2016 for a performance that 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.^[8] Daniel Cooper gave a 12-hour performance in Knox Church to mark the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice in 2019.^[9] Christopher Anderson gave a 16-hour performance, currently the second slowest performance and longest complete performance on record, on March 8, 2022 at Perkins Chapel on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

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.^[10] 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.^[11][12]

The instrument

An organ was built specifically for the performance.^[13] 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.^[14]

Performance

The Halberstadt performance started on September 5, 2001, with a rest lasting until February 5, 2003, when the first pipes played.^[15][16] Sandbags depress the organ's pedals to maintain the notes.^[1] 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.^[17] On July 5, 2012 two more organ pipes were taken out, and two were in the organ. The note last changed on February 5, 2022. The performance is scheduled to end on September 4, 2640.

"ASLSP, Halberstat, Jan 5 2006 note change"

The note change of January 5, 2006 takes place at 8:35 in this audio clip.

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See also

• AS Long as Possible, a GIF-based visual art work named in tribute to As Slow as Possible
• List of compositions by John Cage
• Longplayer

References

External links

• Website of the Halberstadt event (in German)
• As Slow As Possible, Performance Today feature (National Public Radio), September 2003^{[dead link]}
• Recordings of a nine-hour performance of ASLSP at ARTSaha! 2006 by Joseph Drew: Hour One, Hour Six, Hour Nine
• Die eingefrorene Zeit, Die Zeit, January 8, 2006 (in German)
• (JC{639}) Documentary Film by Sabine Groschup, 2006/20012
• Website of the documentary film ASAP by Scott Smith
• "World's longest concert will last 639 years" The Washington Post. November 21, 2011.
• A Visit to John Cage's 639-Year Organ Composition von Aaron Gonsher, Red Bull Music Academy, April 12, 2019
• The Longest Song, Newstalk Radio Dublin, The Sean Moncrieff Show, September 11, 2020
• Meet John Cage, the Innovative Composer Behind the 639-year-long Consert, HowStuffWorks, October 27, 2020
• Cage Conversation with Richard T. Eldridge, NAMM Show Believe in Music Week, January 2021
• How Slow Is Slow?, FutureStops. A project of the Royal Canadian College of Organists Podcast Episode 02, September 23, 2021
• “I think what we need in the field of music is a very long performance …”, Lecture at the Internationalen JAMA Symposium '75. ročník Milana Adamčiaka' in Baňská Štiavnica (Slovakia), October 23, 2021
• The John Cage Organ Project & the Climate Change, Interview with Warren Senders, Music 4 Climate Justice at 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow November 12, 2021
• The longest, slowest organ music ever, Interview with Bianca Hillier, The World (radio program), January 4, 2023