The slowest song in the world

Hi, it’s Rich Dale.  When I think of a slow song, my mind goes to Morris Albert’s “Feelings” or Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” or Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”.  But those songs move at blinding speed and are microscopic in length compared to John Cage’s “Organ/ASLSP” (which is short for As Slow As Possible).

And last weekend, hundreds of people gathered in Germany to hear a single chord change.  It happened during a “performance” of the song which has been going on for the last 19 years, with the last note change happening back in 2013.  On Sunday, the specially-built organ performing the piece changed chords for the first time in 2,527 days.

“Organ/ASLSP” will take over 639 years to complete, playing its final note in the year 2640!

Kind of a cool thought that that organ might still be there in 2640.  People can get there for the last note in their flying cars.  (Maybe we’ll actually have those by then.)