The world’s longest performance of a piece of music is being played in Germany, and it will go on playing for another 639 years. The sole item on the programme is a piece of organ music by the revolutionary American composer
John Cage (1912-1992), entitled Organ2/ASLSP (='as slow as possible').
Some 360 spectators paid DM30 (UKŁ10) to see the recital's organist inflate his instrument's bellows and they'll have to come back in another 18 months time in order to hear him play the first chord - and one each year or so thereafter. Providing that sponsors can be found, the performance is scheduled to reach its finale in 2640, with a half time interval planned in 2319.
"We hope each generation will continue the project and as long as there are no more wars or other major disruptions, it will go on until its end," Michael Betzle, head of the John Cage Organ Foundation in Halberstadt, the small German town in which the performance takes place. The period of 639 years was chosen because the first of a series of famous organs in the town was completed 639 years ago.
The long period of performance was meant to form a contrast to the breathless pace of change in the modern-day world, Betzle said.
http://www.tiscali.co.za/news/news_c...05.390573.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1525792.stm
- tg
