The Huffington Post on the centuries-long performance of John Cage's work:
The sheer expanse of time involved, the blind faith in the future--the expectation that 400 years from now the world will be the kind of place where someone will be keeping this performance going.
Felsenmusik points out the front page of the online New York Times has a picture of the John Cage installation playing his organ work for centuries. That work will have a chord change tomorrow. From the article:
"In these times, acceleration spoils everything," said Heinz-Klaus Metzger, a prominent musicologist whose chance comments at an organ conference nine years ago sparked the project. "To begin a performance with the perspective of more than a half-millennium — it's just a kind of negation of the lifestyle of today."
...
But its signifcance is lost on some. Rainer Neugebauer, another member of the foundation, said it was hard to convince some local people of the project's value. "It doesn't sound like Beethoven," he said.
I suppose the 24 hour stretch version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony can't really be considered an authentic interpretation...
Time rolls on. The playing of two new notes in the 639-year performance of John Cage's Organ2/ASLSP is getting good blogosphere reaction...
• In an abandoned church in the German town of Halberstadt, the world's longest concert moved two notes closer to its end Monday: Three years down, 636 to go. The addition of an E and E-sharp complement the G-sharp, B and G-sharp that have been playing since February 2003 in composer John Cage's "Organ2/ASLSP" — or "Organ squared/As slow as possible." Yahoo via chittah-chattah
• John Cage's "Organ2/ASLSP" or "Organ squared/As" adds two more
notes to the concert that has been playing for 3 years and is expected to last 639 years Composition. Brainhop News: Strange, funny and interesting news stories around the world.
• Largo to infinity:...The [work's] title comes from the tempo Cage had in mind when the work would be played: "as slow as possible." modwheel links to the NPR site covering the work, including a short Real sample of the first three notes from Halberstadt.
• Proof that the world will never forget John Cage! The Road Less Traveled
• It's not just avant-garde art, it's also the only fool-proof copy protection. Try downloading all 72 terabytes of this from KaZaA. followyourfish
• You know, part of me really loves John Cage. aberrantgirl
• Det er en sjov idé, med en lidt irriterende begrundelse: “Vi har så travlt i vores moderne liv, vi har brug for lidt mere langsomhed.” Koncerten foregår naturligvis også i en kirke, for ligesom at fremhæve tavsheden. Sludder, verden har brug for mere fart. Lars Hvidbergs digitale hukommelse I couldn't tell from a web translation if this was a positive or negative comment.
• Hell, the composer of the piece didn't even live long enough to witness its start. He died in 1992. Who knows if Germany will even be there in 639 years? Radical Cowboys.
Official description of the performance/installation (PDF).
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