ORGAN2/ASLAP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting (after Longplayer) musical performance yet undertaken.[1] 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.[2]
An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. This makes it the longest running non-computerized piece currently being performed. The most recent note was played on February 5, 2024. The next note will be played on August 5, 2026.
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.
| Performer(s) | Duration in hours | Start time | Location | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AllRequest_Live "Albert Wright" | 24.001 | 2022, February 4 12:00am | Streamed Live on Twitch from an undisclosed location | Can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.[3] Current record holder for longest live performance of a single musical piece performed by a human.[4] | |
| Alexander Meszler | 24 | 2023, January 29 5:00pm | Decorah, Iowa. | Performance commemorated the completion of restorations to the school's organ [5] | |
| Christopher Anderson | 16 | 2022, March 8 | Dallas, TX | Performed during SMU Bridwell Library's A Festival of Form: John Cage & the Infinite Human event in February 2022. One of the last notable performances before the renovation of the Perkin's Chapel organ in 2023.[6] [7] | |
| Diane Luchese | 14.93 | 2009, February 5 8:45am | was the longest completed performance until 2022.[8] | ||
| Daniel Cooper | 12 | 2019 | Performed to mark the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice[9] | ||
| Alex Ross, Patrick Wedd, Adrian Foster | 8 | 2015 | Longest completed team performance on record | ||
| 3.5 | 2016 | online | Performance 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. So the performances could be considered to take 35 seconds, 3.5 hours, 3 days, or 1 year (the time used here is for the single performance of the entire piece) [10] |
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.[11] 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.[12] [13]
An organ was built specifically for the performance.[14] 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, likely due to potential noise complaints.[15]
The Halberstadt performance started on September 5, 2001, with a rest lasting until February 5, 2003, when the first pipes played.[16] [17] Sandbags depress the organ's pedals to maintain the notes. 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.[18] On July 5, 2012, two more organ pipes were taken out, and two were in the organ. The note last changed on February 5, 2024. The performance is scheduled to end on September 4, 2640.
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