[syndicate]

[Fr. M.]

At 11:52 02/03/2003 +0100, Peter Luining wrote:



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March 1, 2003
World's Longest Concert Under Way
HALBERSTADT, Germany (AP) -- First there was silence -- 1 1/2 years of it. 
But that was just a brief lead-in for Friday's opening notes in what's 
planned as the world's longest concert, a 639-year piece being performed in 
a former church in east Germany.
With 72 years already mapped out, the concert inspired by the American 
avant-garde composer John Cage challenges the creativity of future 
generations to keep the music playing.
``This is a project that conveys optimism,'' said Michael Betzle, a 
businessman who helps run the private foundation behind the concert. ``When 
you start something like that, you're counting on people's creativity 200, 
300 years down the road.''
The three notes that can be heard since Friday -- G sharp, B, and G sharp 
-- are the debut for an organ built for Cage's music, with keys being held 
down by weights and with organ pipes to be added over the years for new notes.
The project, driven by a group of German music experts and an organ 
builder, is centered around a Cage piece called ``Organ2/ASLSP'' -- or 
``Organ squared/As slow as possible.''
The unused St. Burchard's church in Halberstadt, a town with a proud 
organ-building tradition dating to the Middle Ages, serves as the 
performance space and the inspiration for extending the piece over centuries.
As the idea took shape in 2000, backers counted back to the 1361 
inauguration of a famous organ in the Halberstadt cathedral -- 639 years 
earlier.
They then stretched Cage's piece from a 20-minute piano concert to last 
just as long.
The concert actually began Sept. 5, 2001, the day Cage -- who died in 1992 
-- would have turned 88.
But since the composition starts out with a rest -- music language for 
silence -- the only sound inside the church has been the tap-tap of the 
organ builders and the sound of air driven through the pipeless organ by an 
electric fan.
It's a concept that Cage surely would have appreciated. Born in Los Angeles 
in 1912 and a student of avant-garde composer Arnold Schoenberg, he once 
wrote a piece consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
Other Cage innovations included ``prepared piano'' performances, using a 
standard piano altered with noisemaking items like screws and wood placed 
between the strings.
Like with Cage, stretching the meaning of music is on the minds of the 
Halberstadt organizers. So is the idea of making people step back and 
reflect on the passage of time.
``Others have eternal flames,'' Betzle said. ``We have the eternal sound -- 
or at least 639 years.''
The foundation is seeking sponsors to fund the organ's estimated 200,000 
euro (US$215,000) cost. People can choose a year to sponsor with a 1,000 
euro (US$1,080) donation.
Just before midnight, Betzle opened the heavy double doors of the old stone 
church. Some 200 invited guests walked in as the first notes, set 
previously by the organ makers, rang out inside.
Anyone who missed Friday's gala, which included Germany's culture minister, 
has plenty of time to hear the opening E major chord, which will play 
continuously through August 2005. The next notes will be added in July 2004.
German music scholar Heinz-Klaus Metzger, who knew Cage and is one of the 
project's advisers, said he thought his friend would have loved the concept.
``I imagine he would have been amazed,'' Metzger said. ``Then he would have 
said: 'Yes, do it.'''
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On the Net:
http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de