EXPERIMENTAL COMPOSITION FOR ORGAN CHANGES CHORDS, FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS

Hundreds of people flocked to a German church Saturday to hear an organ change chords for the first time in seven years (* Wow – how bored at home are THEY with the coronavirus?). The St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt is performing John Cage’s Organ (As Slow As Possible) on a special organ. The experimental piece, which consists of eight pages of music meant to be played very slowly, is intended to last for an entirety of 639 years – meaning it will end in 2640 if all goes according to plan. The piece officially started playing Sept. 5, 2001 but began without any sound – until Feb. 5, 2003, when the first chord change happened. Then the organ played the same chord for six years and 11 months before Saturday’s chord change. Cage was an experimental composer born in 1912, and died in 1992 at 79. He was certifiably insane.
* 639 years. How many Rhode Islands is that?
* He would have shortened the piece to 620 years, but he wanted to break the longest song record set by the live version of “Free Bird.”
* Pity the poor sucker who’s had to sit there holding the chord for the last seven years.
* The worst part – in November of 2016 he started getting hand cramps.
* I don’t like the new chord. I think it should have been a G-sharp.