WORLD’S SLOWEST MUSICAL COMPOSITION CHANGES CHORD

Does anybody remember the story from years ago about a musical composition that is going to take 640 years to play? On Monday, it changed chord for the first time in two years. The experimental piece by experimental composer John Cage, entitled “As Slow as Possible,” began playing on an organ at the Burchardi Church in the German town of Halberstadt in 2001. The score is made up of eight pages of music, designed to be played on either the piano or organ. The instruction is for the piece to be played as slowly as possible. While the composition officially started in 2001 – it began with 18 months of silence, and the first notes only rang out in 2003. It is not set to finish playing until the year 2640. So far, there have been 16 chord changes, including on Monday. The last time the chord was changed was February 5th, 2022. The next scheduled change will be on August 5th, 2026. Crowds come to witness the chord change. Some people booked tickets years in advance to experience Monday’s chord change.
* If the player hits a wrong note, they have to wait 23 months to change it.
* I don’t like the new chord. I think it should have been a G-sharp.
* It’s amazing that anyone can play with their organ this long.
* Weird Al Yankovic is writing a parody of the song. He’s been working on it since 2005.
* It’s the longest song known in existence, second only to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
* I once worked at a station where you’d put this song on if you needed a bathroom break.
* The joke is, if you play it quickly, it comes out as “Shave and a haircut, two bits.”