As Slow as Possible

ORGAN ² / ASLSP (often also written Organ2/ASLSP ) is a piece of music for organ by John Cage in 1987. ASLSP The abbreviation stands for as slow as possible and is the instruction to play the eight-sided score as slowly as possible. At the premiere in 1989 in Metz, the organist Gerd Zacher played the organ piece with a length of 29 minutes.

Since 2001, it comes in Santa Burchardi church in Halberstadt slowest and long -lasting piece of music in the world with a total length of 639 years to the performance.

Formation

John Cage composed the piece in 1985 with the help of a random program to the computer. Originally composed for piano, he wrote it in 1987 for the organist Gerd Zacher for organ by. The composer used in the original the term As Slow (ly ) and Soft (ly ) as Possible, which it refers to the quote " Soft morning city. Lsp! "Referred from the novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. The work is divided into eight equal pieces.

Performance in Halberstadt

Prehistory

In an organ symposium in 1997 in Trossingen the idea of ​​giving as slow as possible was even more literally than to take in the premiere. The choice for the venue fell on Halberstadt, since one of the oldest documented organs of modern times was built in Halberstadt Cathedral in 1361. The gothic organ of the Cathedral of Halberstadt is described by the organizers as "the first large organ in the world ." Because the dome is however used as a house of worship, they departed from the time of its unused Santa Burchardi Church in the former Monastery of San Burchardi.

The eight-sided score was extrapolated for the performance of the targeted cycle time of 639 years. This period resulted from the difference of installing the old ( non-preserved ) Cathedral organ of 1361 in the Halberstadt Cathedral and the initially planned performance beginning in 2000. The arc thus spans from 1361 to 2000 in the year 2639th The actual performance of the work however, could begin due to delays, on September 5, 2001 and will accordingly also end until the year 2640.

Organ

The current organ of Saint - Burchardi Church was built specifically for the production of the play. It stands in the right transept of the church, while the bellows is in the left transept. In addition, an old choir stalls is available. Since the organ is heard without interruption, it is covered by an acrylic glass box, to reduce the self-noise. To prevent fading of the Orgeltons during a power failure, an emergency generator is connected. In the organ multiple organ pipes can be introduced. The so-called Tonwechseln these are exchanged according to the course of the score.

Performance

The performance of the play began on 5 September 2001. Since it began with a break of one and a half years, the first sound of the organ on 5 February 2003 was heard.

The tone changes, see generally encourage public encouragement, so that at these times, many visitors arrive. On 5 July 2010 faded away after 17 months, the e ". After the onset of dis ', ais ' and e " on 5 October 2013, the next note change will only take place after seven years on September 5, 2020.

The tone changes January 5, 2006 gis " / e / e ' → gis " / e / e' / a '/ c ' / fis " is available as an audio file i (the actual change in tone from 8 min 30 s).

Dates of the change in tone of the first part

Plaques

In the church memorial plaques can be mounted on a stainless steel band for each performance year. Each donor and each donor group that donate more than 1000 EUR, a blackboard can retrieve and set out the text. On the project website you can see which years are still available.