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====As slow as possible====

{{ fotos:halberstadt:burchardi.jpg?300}} You can attend a special
concert in the town of Halberstadt in Germany. It is an implementation
of //As slow as possible// by John Cage. The implementation of this
version will take 639 years. It thus transcends everything that a
person can achieve in his life. We can only visit the play, experience
a part of what is an eternity for us humans. The performance started
in 2001 and will therefore last until 2640. The piece lasts 639 years
because at the time the performance started it was 639 years ago that
the first organ was made. Because that first organ was also made in
Halberstadt, it is the place where the performance is now taking
place. The first organ was put into use in 1361. When you consider
what has happened in Germany since that day, it is almost unimaginable
that people dare to do this. Since 1361 the Thirty Years' War has
raged in Germany, Napolean passed by on his way to Moscow and the
misery ended with two world wars. So it's very optimistic to say now
// the next 639 we're going to have a concert //. The concert is an
expression of the confidence that it can also be played without
interruption for the next 600 years.

{{fotos:halberstadt:cage.jpg?200 }} John Cage actually did not intend
the piece for such a long performance. The piece was intended to be
performed on a piano. It is also not so slow to play on a piano that
it takes years. But with an organ there is no limitation. As long as
there is air pressure on the organ pipes, they produce a tone. This
offers the possibility to play the piece // really // as slowly as
possible. The concert started with a silence of a few years, after
which the organ played continuously. A change of tone is performed
once every few years. The organ will then play a different note. The
organ is also not complete. Only the pipes for the currently played
note, and perhaps the next note, are on the organ. Pipes that are no
longer needed are removed from the organ and placed in the side aisles
of the church. There are already a few pipes that have been used for
the first tones. The organ is therefore never finished during the
concert.

{{ fotos:halberstadt:orgel01.jpg?200}} It is not yet entirely clear
what the concert will sound like in the future.  There are a number of
moments of choice when future generations can decide what to play
next. Like many minimal music pieces //as slow as possible// leaves
choices to the performers what exactly is being played.

The same tone continuously sounds through the church when you attend
the church. The realization that that one note is only a very small
part of a piece of music that goes on long after you die makes the
church a very meditative place. IN the church there are pictures on
which people have put a message. You can buy such a picture to convey
your own message to future listeners. [[https://www.aslsp.org/| The
website of the concert]] tells more about the concert, the piece and
when you can listen to it.

{{tag> en:music en:place en:travel}}

{{geotag>lat:51.901379, lon:11.042130, placename:Halberstadt , country:Deutschland}}