# As Slow As Possible **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [January 30, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660 "2022-01-30T20:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/1 "2022-01-30T20:34:48Z")
Inspired by this thread about the writer who spent his whole life completing one sentence. > [@Have you heard of the fictional writer who spent his whole life crafting one sentence?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-heard-of-the-fictional-writer-who-spent-his-whole-life-crafting-one-sentence/958658): > > I once heard a passing reference to a fictional writer who was such a perfectionist that he spent an entire lifetime writing and rewriting a single sentence. Does anyone know by chance what novel or story this comes from? I give you the performance of, “As Slow As Possible”, a musical piece that will run for 639 years. Continuously, not one note every now and then like that other performance. The next change is Feb 5th, 2022 - next week! I can barely wait. > **[As Slow as Possible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Slow_as_Possible)** > > Organ2/ASLSP has been playing in Halberstadt for > 22 years, 3 months, 4 weeks and 1 day > ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting musical performance yet undertaken.\[citation needed\] Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his 1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/2 "2022-01-30T20:51:02Z")
…and it’s G# !!! Wicked ! ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2022, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/3 "2022-01-30T21:44:21Z")
Here’s something I posted 7 years ago: > [@I pit John Cage's " 4'33" "](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-john-cages-433/697814/33): > > … I was actually in that church, and while I would hesitate to describe what I witnessed as music, the atmosphere was really special. It’s a great installation and performance art at the same time. … I find the whole thing interesting on a philosophical level - if we as a society can agree to uphold this for 600 more years (and hope to not have the church destroyed by some war) we must not be having many problems. To me, that’s an uplifting thought. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/4 "2022-02-01T03:17:21Z")
Oh ho! This should spark some outrage! Why, wait till Mad Magazine finds out about this! Or Kelly, the razor-sharp cartooninst for the Onion. He might at this very moment be preparing a takedown of Sicko Dead “Art” Pushers (heh heh heh)! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/5 "2022-02-01T03:55:23Z")
> [@I pit John Cage's " 4'33" "](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-john-cages-433/697814/33): > > …if we as a society can agree to uphold this for 600 more years (and hope to not have the church destroyed by some war) we must not be having many problems. To me, that’s an uplifting thought. Just like the strains of Nero’s fiddle playing meant that Rome must not have been having many problems. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2022, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-slow-as-possible/958660/6 "2022-02-01T03:58:49Z")
I thought, “This sounds like a John Cage thing” and I was right. Anyway, shortly after I graduated from college in 1994, I attended the first 30 minutes or so of “Vexations”, performed in honor of a retiring professor of piano. It was free, and people could come and go as they wished. > **[Vexations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexations)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Vexations is a musical work by Erik Satie. Apparently conceived for keyboard (although the single page of manuscript does not specify an instrument), it consists of a short theme in the bass whose four presentations are heard alternatingly unaccompanied and played with chords above. The theme and its accompanying chords are written using enharmonic notation. The piece is undated, but scholars usually assign a date around 1893–1894 on the basis o...