MOTM

A little tidbit from the world of the avant garde:

		The world's longest performance of a piece of music began at
midnight in a small German town - and will last a staggering 639 years. The
sole item on the programme is an organ composition by the revolutionary
American composer John Cage (1912-1992), entitled Organ2/ASLSP. It was
originally a piece for piano lasting just 20 minutes and entitled ASLSP (As
Slow As Possible), but the organisers of the concert decided to take the
American composer John Cage quite literally. The audience gathering at the
former Buchardi monastery in Halberstadt will not hear the first chord for
another year and a half. All they will get is the mellow sound of the
organ's bellows being inflated. If that fails to take the audience's breath
away, the organisers, the John Cage Project, have laid on a dance
performance and two connected organ concerts conducted at a more sprightly
pace to fill the gap. The organisers say the lengthy performance is supposed
to contrast with the hectic pace of change in the modern world. Halberstadt
is known for its famous organs, and the duration of the piece was chosen to
reflect the building of the first of a series, 639 years ago. If everything
goes to plan, the audience could be allowed an interval for refreshments and
a nip to the loo in about three centuries. Allowing for a couple of curtain
calls, they will probably spill out onto the streets looking for a taxi in
the second half of the millennium.  
	
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1525000/1525792.stm
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1525000/1525792.stm>