639-year-long John Cage organ piece in German church changes chord

2024/02/06

Visitors and journalists have been coming to see the organ in the Burchardi Church to witness the sound change in the world's slowest piece of music. Matthias Bein/dpa

Twenty-two years into the slowest piece of music in the world, a significant musical development has taken place - a slight chord change.

The 639-year organ piece by experimental composer and philosopher John Cage has added a single tone to the chord in the church where it is being continuously played in the German town of Halberstadt.

The six-note chord, played in the Burchardi Church since February 2022, has now evolved into a seven-note one with the addition of a pipe playing a D note set to sound continuously for another four and a half years (until August 2028).

A specially built and automatically operated organ has been playing the ORGAN²/ASLSP ("As SLow aS Possible") piece continuously since September 2001, when the piece began with first sound - air filling the bellows of the organ.

It was not until February 2003, about a year and a half later, that the first three pipe tones were heard. To date, there have been several changes of sound, while the longest break between changes was seven years between 2013 and 2020.

Since the organ piece began it has become a musical landmark in Europe and several hundred guests turned out to witness the 16th musical change since the piece begun.

The latest change was performed on February 5 by the Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, Rainer O. Neugebauer, by inserting a new pipe into the organ.

Visitors to central Germany's Hartz mountains, where the church is located, can now witness the same sustained note for the next two years, until the next change is scheduled in August 2026, followed by further changes in October 2027 and April 2028, according to the John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt.

"Today we have twice as many cameras as we have pipes," says Neugebauer of the piece's growing fame, and says he himself experienced all but one of the piece's changes to date, and added a pipe back in 2004.

Cage, who died in 1992, "was concerned with the liberation of sounds," said Neugebauer, and said listeners were supposed to be able to empty their minds during the piece.

To further finance the project, the foundation is already selling so-called "final tickets" for the closing event on September 4 in the year 2640. One ticket costs €2,640.

The new pipe added to the organ resulted in the first change in sound in two years to the world's slowest piece of music. Matthias Bein/dpa

The performance of the piece "ORGAN2/ASLSP" by John Cage began on September 5, 2001, what would have been Cage's 89th birthday and is still going. Matthias Bein/dpa

The Burchardi church where the world's slowest piece of music is being played is located in the central German town of Halberstadt in the Harzt mountains. Matthias Bein/dpa