ORGAN2/ASLSP, John Cage (1912–1992)

Welcome to the Sundt Organ Studio at Luther College. If you only have a few moments to stick around, I encourage you to read the “About the Piece” notes on this page. Then, skip ahead to read “Ideas About What to Listen For. ” You can always read the “Personal Thoughts from the Organist” later if you’re still interested.

About the Piece:

John Cage (1912–1992) provides relatively little information to performers of his piece outside of how to read his specific notational style (I have reproduced the score’s entire preface on the next page). To summarize, this score does not have a specific duration, but because of its proportional notation, a duration (at least an approximate one) needs to be chosen before beginning to perform the work. This performance will last approximately 24 hours.

I have reproduced Cage’s explanation for how to read the unique musical notation below. Some may be surprised by the specificity of Cage’s notation very little in terms of when things happen during the piece is left to the performer’s discretion. Because I have chosen to actually measure the lengths of physical space on the score to calculate the proportions of time needed for each musical change, I can already predict (within a margin of about a minute or two error) when every musical action will occur within this 24-hour performance.

The score has 8 sections over four pages (Cage calls them “pieces”). Each section has two lines. Because this performance is 24 hours, each line will take 1 ½ hours, each section will take 3 hours, and each page will take 6 hours. At the end of each section there is a rest that takes somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes. I will use these, and several other moments throughout the piece to get up, stretch, eat, use the restroom, etc. Here is a sample of what the score looks like:

For this performance, the above excerpt will occur between roughly 3:30 A.M. and 5:00 A.M. The top two staves are for the right hand, the middle two for the left hand, and the bottom two are for the feet. Cage provides no indications for color or dynamics. Therefore, all stop choices and dynamics are at the organist’s discretion.

The piece was originally written for a piano competition, hence the built in variations you will see in Cage’s performance notes below. The piano piece, because of the natural decay of sound produced by vibrating strings, necessitated a much quicker tempo. Usually, the piano version lasts for less than 1 hour. The organ performance has ranged from very short performances to, famously, the 639-year performance currently happening in Halberstadt Germany (you can read much, much more about this online). There have already been many long organ performances. This will be, to my knowledge, the longest complete single performer performance of the work (AllRequest_Live performed part of the work on Twitch for 24 hours in the past).

Here’s what is printed on the front of the score:

Organ2/ASLSP for Gerd Zacher

New York City

June, 1987

Copyright 1987 by Henmar Press

About Organ2/ASLSPCage writes only:

Distinct from Aslsp,all eight pieces are to be played. However, any one of them may be repeated, though not necessarily, and as in Aslspthe repetition may be placed anywhere in the series.

He then reproduces performance notes from the original piano piece:

The title is an abbreviation of “as slow as possible.” It also refers to “Soft morning city! Lsp!” the first exclamations in the last paragraph of FinnegansWake(James Joyce).

There are eight pieces, anyone of which must be omitted and anyone of which must be repeated. The repetition may be placed anywhere (even before its appearance in the suite) but otherwise the order of the pieces as written shall be maintained.

Neither tempo nor dynamics have been notated. Time proportions are given (just as maps give proportional distances). Accidentals apply only to those pitches they directly precede.

Each hand plays its own part and is not to be assisted by the other. A diamondshaped note indicates a note to be depressed without sounding. All the notes have stems. The stem gives the point in time of the single note, interval or aggregate. Where there is insufficient horizontal space, the stems are splayed to accommodate the note heads. A closed note head tied to an open notehead indicates the end of a sustained sound. Sustained sounds are also notated sometimes with straight line-extensions.

In a performance a correspondence between space and time should be realized so that the music “sounds” as it “looks.”

I have left a couple journal articles about the piece if you’re interested in knowing more about this. Please return these when you’re finished reading them so that others can use them.