The Pop Corporation

As well you know – John Cage is a little bugger. One of his most famous compositions is a silent piece, but another that we’re mildly obsessed by is called ‘As Slow As Possible’ – and that’s because it’s a piece that, on completion, it will have been performed for 639 years.

Yesterday, the piece changed chord and a crowd gathered in the German church where it’s taking place. That’s the first time it’s happened in two whole years! And the piece will finish in the year 2640 when we’re all thoroughly dead. We expect a music critic to be on-hand to say something like ‘I’ve heard longer’ or something.

The new chord was heard at the Burchardi Church in the town of Halberstadt, which first started in 2001. Impishly, the initial section was silent, with the first notes only happening in 2003.

Now, there’s no tempo on the music score itself, and the first rendition of the piece lasted just half an hour. Another performance, just shy of 15 hours. This version is, well, more like it. Of course, there’s no one human sitting at the organ pressing the keys down FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIFE, but rather, a special mechanical organ and the pipes are changed for each new section.

Here’s a video of a note change in 2020 and, honestly, more stuff like this please – it’s great! And yes, we did publish this piece a 4:33 as a little inside joke if you spotted that.