St. Burchardi church

New thrills with Cage’s “As Slow As Possible”

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  Mark your calendars. Something thrilling is going to happen in St. Burchardi’s church in Halberstadt, Germany on August 5, 2026… Since my original essay on John Cage’s famous — and famously long — composition was written in July 2013, when I’d been blogging for less than six months, odds are high only a few … Read more

John Cage’s “As Slow As Possible”

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John Cage’s organ composition “As Slow As Possible” is, at the risk of sounding obvious, intended to be played slowly. Its 1987 premier lasted twenty-nine minutes. A subsequent performance lasted seventy-one minutes. Some musicians have made it last for over eight hours. But a few years after Cage’s death in 1992, a group of musicologists, … Read more