ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting (after Longplayer) musical performance yet undertaken.[1] Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his 1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70 minutes.[2]
An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due to end in 2640. This makes it the longest running non-computerized piece currently being performed. The most recent note was played on February 5, 2024. The next note will be played on August 5, 2026.
The Friends of the Maryland Summer Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts commissioned the piece for contemporary requirement of a piano competition. Cage used an open format to encourage that no two performances would be the same, and give judges a break from the consistency of most compositions. The score is eight pages.
Several attempts have been made for the longest known performance of this piece.
| Performer(s) | Duration in hours | Start time | Location | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Francesco Pio Gennarelli | 25.003 | 2025, March 4 14:10pm | The performance was also open to the public to walk in and listen at any time. It can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.[3] Current world record holder for longest live performance of a single musical piece performed by a human. | ||
| AllRequest_Live "Albert Wright" | 24.001 | 2022, February 4 12:00pm | Streamed Live on Twitch from an undisclosed location | The performance can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.[4] | |
| Alexander Meszler | 24 | 2023, January 29 5:00pm - January 30 5:00pm | Livestreamed and open to the public. Performed continuously for 24 hours on pipe organ.[5] [6] | ||
| Diane Luchese | 14.93 | 2009, February 5 8:45am | Until 2022, it was the longest completed performance.[7] | ||
| Alex Ross, Patrick Wedd, Adrian Foster | 8 | 2015 | World record holder for longest live performance of a single musical piece performed by a team of humans. | ||
| 3.5 | 2016 | Online | Performance was delivered online to an iPhone app for ArtsFest 2016 at Butler University. A thirty-five second snippet was posted each day for a year; the whole three and a half hour realization was played as a fixed media piece during the three-day Artsfest. The time used here is for the single performance of the entire piece [8] |
On March 8, 2022, Dr. Christopher Anderson performed what was believed to be a record-breaking 16-hour in-person public performance of ASLSP/2 at Perkins Chapel, Southern Methodist University, from 6am to 10pm. (Unbeknownst to other parties, a livestream of the work was happening around the same time on a podcast.) The work was livestreamed and also had a large public attendance in person. The effort was undertaken in coordination with Bridwell Library at SMU, which hosted an accompanying John Cage-honored festival called the "Festival of Form" that featured other concerts of Cage and Cage-affiliated composers, a special collections exhibit with Cage manuscripts, and a "Dinner in the Dark" at Bridwell Library, composed of all-mushroom dishes and recordings of Cage reciting haiku poetry. [9]
After several organists recognized the growing interest in ASLSP/2 and the desire to “stretch” the piece to its human limits, Dr. Anderson joined Kimberly Marshall, Diane Luchese, and Alexander Meszler to perform ASLSP/2 for 8 full days, 24 hours a day in 6-hour shifts. The 8 days, coming in at 192 hours total, now stands as the record for human group effort public performance. It lasted from noon on January 7 to noon on January 15 at the ASU Organ Hall.[10]
Musicians and philosophers discussed Cage's instruction to play "as slow as possible" at a conference in 1997, because a properly maintained pipe organ could sound indefinitely. The John Cage Organ Foundation Halberstadt decided to play the piece for 639 years, to mark the time between the first documented permanent organ installation in Halberstadt Cathedral, circa 1361, and the originally proposed start date of 2000. Because of a lack of money, the date was postponed by one year.[11] The chord changes of the first part which ends in 2072 were calculated by Christoph Bossert and Rainer O. Neugebauer. Until August 2021 the Foundation sold plaques commemorating the years through 2640 to fund the performance.[12] [13]
An organ was built specifically for the performance.[14] It is in the church's right transept, with the bellows in the left transept.
In 2011, the organ was encased in acrylic glass to reduce the volume, likely due to potential noise complaints.[15]
The Halberstadt performance started on September 5, 2001, with a rest lasting until February 5, 2003, when the first pipes played.[16] [17] Sandbags depress the organ's pedals to maintain the notes. On July 5, 2008, two more organ pipes were added alongside the four already installed and the tone became more complex at 15:33 local time. The bellows provide a constant supply of air to keep the pipes playing.[18] On July 5, 2012, two more organ pipes were taken out, and two were in the organ. The note last changed on February 5, 2024. The performance is scheduled to end on September 5, 2640. All notes are played on the 5th day of the month
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