And you thought elementary school band concerts took forever...
From Yahoo News:
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.
I am all for avant-garde musical performance. I like Cage's work, too. I especially like 4'33", because it's compelling and it says a lot for the artist's creativity. I wouldn't have thought of that.
The piece "opened" with one and a half years of silence. "Stop to smell the roses" is the old saying. I also agree that today's world is incredibly rushrush. But to have a "musical" piece which opens with a year and a half of silence? Isn't that just a tad pretentious?
This piece of art is supposed to help people "rediscover calm and slowness in today's fast-changing world". But I'd like my personal discoveries to be in MY lifetime, thank you very much. If it takes your descendants generations to learn peace and quiet, then I think you're a little beyond the normal boundaries of help. Maybe you should take a class.
Besides, who says the organ will last over 600 years?
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