[wordup] 639 year-long music ...

[Adam Shand]

Well today has been a frivolous day for word up.  Don't doubt that there's
still plenty of bad shit going on in the world but I thought we could all
do with a pick me up.

I love crazy shit like this but I have to say ...  "Thank god I don't live
next door." :-)

Via: The Eristocracy <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010905/wl/germany_endless_concert_1.html

German Church Hosts Cage Concert

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - A performance of an organ piece by American
composer John Cage that is meant to last 639 years began in an eastern
German church with 16 months of silence.

The project honoring Cage's avant-garde work started at midnight Tuesday
in Halberstadt and foresees taking the composer at his word by stretching
Organ2/ASLSP - the letters stand for As Slow As Possible - over centuries.

``We hope each generation will continue the project and as long as there
are no more wars or other major disruptions, it will go on until its
end,'' Michael Betzle, head of the John Cage Organ Foundation in
Halberstadt, said by telephone Wednesday.

``We know that it may sound like a utopian dream, but we believe that it
can be done.''

Only the bellows are ready so far on the organ being built for the
extended concert in the St. Burchardi Church, 125 miles west of Berlin.

That's no problem, since the first three notes won't be played until Jan.
5, 2003. Until then, time will be marked by the sound of air rushing
through the bellows.

Three hundred people attended the opening of the concert, which marked
Cage's birthday. He died in 1992 at age 79.

Before the whoosh of the bellows began, other Cage pieces and a modern
ballet were performed.

The fifth of the month will serve as the date for all musical changes -
such as going from a rest to a note - which will be done by an organist.
Afterward, weights on the keyboard are to secure the combination of the
notes until the next change.

The church is open every day to visitors.

John Cage: http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de