John Cage Orgel Project - Halberstadt

On 5 September 2000 a concert began in the church of St Buchardi in the central-German town of Halberstadt which, when completed, will have been the longest the world has ever heard.

The programme of this extraordinary concert contains just one work, John Cage's Organ2/ASLSP, and the performance is due to end in the year 2640. ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible) is a meditation on stillness, a protest at relentless hurry. But how slow, exactly, is it possible to go? The 17th-century composer Michael Pretorius wrote that an organ with the first modern keyboard design had been built in Halberstadt's cathedral in 1361. This organ was the first one with a manual organized in patterns of 12 notes, the familiar manual used on our keyboard instruments today. One might say, therefore, that the cradle of modern music was in Halberstadt. From 1361 to the first year of the performance of ASLSP in Halberstadt is 639 years - so a performance of this length was taken as the widest definition of possibility

In its Halberstadt realization, ASLSP is a massively optimistic statement of confidence in the future; a 'musical apple tree' planted to bear more than half a millennium of fruit.

For further information on the John Cage Organ Project in Halberstadt, visit the project website.

Click here for the Edition Peters John Cage homepage

Click here for the John Cage Trust website

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Click here to view the score of ASLSP online

For further information on the John Cage Organ Project in Halberstadt, visit the project website.