story 010 · music · john cage, as slow as possible
this organ concert ends in 2640.
the short, written out
in an old church in germany, an organ has been playing one piece since 2001. it ends in 2640.
it’s john cage’s “as slow as possible”, and cage never said how slow.
so halberstadt went back to 1361, when its cathedral got what was probably the first big organ with all twelve notes on the keyboard. then they counted the same distance forward from the year 2000: six hundred and thirty-nine years.
the concert started on cage’s birthday, with a rest. for seventeen months, you could only hear the bellows.
sandbags hold the keys down. now and then, a pipe goes in or comes out. in august 2026, hundreds of people came to watch one go in: an a.
one pipe, a d-flat, has been sounding since 2011. it stops in 2071.
tickets for the last day, the fourth of september 2640, are already on sale.
the print that goes with it
ink wall
26 rounded bars stacked like a dry stone wall, bold brush, black and cream
no. 436 · 14″ to 28″ square · from $36.80 · see the print
sources
- the john cage organ foundation halberstadt (aslsp.org and its earlier site), its table of every change to 2072
- epd, 5 august 2026
- nd, 27 december 2024
- rob haskins, the conversation, 24 january 2024
- the spectator, 17 february 2024
- michael praetorius, theatrum instrumentorum (1620), boston public library copy on the internet archive
pictures
- the church, 2020, and the sandbags, 2020: akiramifune (cc by-sa 4.0)
- the bellows and the organ, 2015: clemensfranz (cc by-sa 4.0)
- john cage, 1988: rob croes / anefo, nationaal archief (cc0)
- the keyboards of halberstadt cathedral’s organ: michael praetorius, 1620 (public domain). the photographs are cropped, not retouched
every sentence of the short was checked against its sources before it went out.
