Music Experiment – ​​The Finale in 2640

There are concerts where you can’t get tickets early enough. You have to book months in advance to get tickets for Taylor Swift’s performances or the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s concert. In the case of a musical performance in the Burchardikirche in Halberstadt, advance sales did not begin months before the event, nor years or decades. The tickets can be redeemed in just over six centuries, to be precise: on the evening of September 4th in the year 2640. An exact time is not given. The number of admission tickets is limited, says Rainer O. Neugebauer: “A maximum of 2,640 tickets will be issued.”

Neugebauer, who taught as a social scientist at the Harz University of Applied Sciences, is on the board of trustees of a foundation that is conducting an experiment in Halberstadt that is as impressive as it is crazy: the performance of a piece of music that lasts exactly 639 years. The tickets, which are etched metal plates in an elegant wooden slipcase, entitle you to attend the final act in a concert that has been running for more than 23 years. On September 5, 2001, the festive start to a musical adventure took place that is unparalleled anywhere in the world.

nd.Kompakt – our daily newsletter

Our daily newsletter nd.Compact brings order to the news madness. Every day you will receive an overview of the most exciting stories from the world Editorial team. Get your free subscription here.

As slowly as possible

That day would have been the birthday of the American composer John Cage. He is known and famous for compositions and sound experiments that are as stimulating as they are disturbing. One piece is called “4:33”. At its premiere, Cage sat down at a grand piano and didn’t play a note for four minutes and 33 seconds. Another is called “As slow as possible,” where the title is to be taken literally as a stage direction: the piece should be played as slowly as possible. It was originally composed for the piano, an instrument where played notes fade away. This set the minimum pace; the premiere lasts 22 minutes.

In Halberstadt the piece is played on an organ, which is why the performance ORGAN²/ASLSP is called. With this instrument, strings are not struck, but pipes are made to sound by a stream of air. If this wind does not subside, the tones will sound permanently. At a “Contemporary Organ Music Week” in 1997, participants considered how slow could be “as slow as possible” in this case. One night? One week? When the last listener has left the hall, the organist slides exhausted from his bench, the organ falls to pieces? It was decided to try a crazy experiment: a performance over several centuries. To determine the duration, a historical date was referred to. In 1361, an organ was inaugurated in Halberstadt Cathedral, which went down in music history because the octave was divided into twelve semitones for the first time. The birth of all Western music, say experts. From then until the turn of the millennium, 639 years passed. The slowest of all musical performances should extend just as far into the future: from the opening in 2001 to 2640.

In order to put the daring idea into practice, a few prerequisites were needed. One of them: a director’s plan. Before starting the project, it was Neugebauer who calculated how long the notes from Cage’s four-page score had to be played and how long the pauses had to be in the piece, which consists of seven parts, with any part having to be repeated. It’s not yet clear what that will be: “Future generations can decide that.”

Rumbling, tooting, whistling

At the Halberstadt performance there was initially 17 months of silence due to an opening: All that could be heard was the sound of the two bellows and the wind that blew around the Burchardikirche, which was once built as a monastery church, later temporarily used as a pigsty and now rededicated as a concert venue. Since then, 16 sound changes have followed, with individual pipes being placed or removed from the instrument at intervals of months or years: a simple wooden frame in which keys are held down by sandbags. There are currently seven whistles sounding, on August 5, 2026 an eighth will be added with the a’. “In the first part, which lasts until 2072, more than that never sounds at the same time,” says Neugebauer.

The noises that arise are fascinating: a rumble, a toot like the horn of a steamship, a whistle. Although they last for months, the tones are not uniform: they change depending on the listener’s location in the room, almost canceling each other out in some places, and sometimes rubbing against each other almost painfully. However, there is little that reminds us of an ordinary concert. “For many visitors, this only has a limited connection with music,” admits Neugebauer. »You expect rhythm and melody, emotions, meaning and meaning.« All of this is available at ORGAN²/ASLSP expressly not, and not just because of the extremely slow performance. Cage generally tried to free sound from “ballast,” says Neugebauer. His music, the composer wrote, “doesn’t necessarily have to be called music.” There is nothing to remember and no themes: “only activity of sound and silence.”

Cage fans who travel from all over the world to the sound changes know this. But many other visitors are much more enthusiastic about a side of the daring Halberstadt undertaking that has nothing to do with music. “The temporal aspect fascinates her,” says Neugebauer. “What appeals to her is that it’s a project that extends far beyond her own lifespan.”

In fact, the Halberstadt project, like few others, encourages people to think about the future: their own, that of the city, the world, and humanity. Anyone who delves into Cage’s sound world in the Burchardi Church can do so in the knowledge that their own children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren can hear the same piece. At a time when “many people rush from appointment to appointment to the point of exhaustion, so you literally have no time,” a project was started whose duration roughly corresponds to the total construction time of the Cologne Cathedral, the initiators write and attest to a ” philosophical-optimistic approach to time and the future.” In a sense, their motto is: It will be okay.

However, since the beginning of ORGAN²/ASLSP eventful years have passed. They only correspond to a fiftieth of the term. However, during this time there was a pandemic; there was a war in the middle of Europe; and the state of the world’s climate is deteriorating dramatically. Neugebauer admits that he is no longer quite as optimistic as he was at the beginning. At that time, he saw the “sticking points” for the success of the project as the question of whether it would be possible to pass the baton on a regular basis to younger enthusiasts or whether enough money could be raised. To keep the organ running, around 150,000 euros are necessary per year. There are hardly any public subsidies and no regular funding at all. “Next to the Bauhaus, we are the internationally best-known cultural project in Saxony-Anhalt,” says Neugebauer. “But we are purely privately financed.”

»What appeals to many people about our project is that it extends far beyond their own lifetime.«

Rainer O. NeugebauerCage Foundation

What does Halberstadt look like in the year 2640?

Years ago, Neugebauer also wondered whether Halberstadt might be too hot and too dry in 639 years to still live there and practice art. It was also noted that if the performance was successful, the Burchardi Church would “experience such a long-lasting peace as never before in history.” How fragile assumptions this hope was based on has recently become painfully clear, says Neugebauer. The war is back in Europe. There are also dangers for democratic societies in which the extreme right is gaining more and more influence and more and more people can no longer be won over with facts and arguments. Neugebauer, who turned 70 this year, says: “Looking back, we lived in an incredibly happy time.” It is not certain that it will last: “My skepticism has become a lot greater compared to 2001.”

Nevertheless, he does not want to give up his confidence. The tickets for the final evening of ORGAN are a symbol of this²/ASLSP on September 4, 2640 – which also brings a solution to a very practical problem closer. Initially, the project was financed by supporters being able to purchase “Sound Years” and immortalize themselves on one of the metal plaques that are attached to all the walls of the church. But there are now sponsors for all 639 years. We looked for a new idea for a long time. With the tickets, each of which costs 2,640 euros, you hope to have found her. With the proceeds, says Neugebauer, the foundation capital could be increased so that its income supports the project. And if one of the buyers is unable to attend in the summer of 2640, that won’t be a problem, he adds: “The tickets are of course transferable.”