The Good Musician

John Cage: ORGAN2/ASLSP

by csnowden on July 3rd, 2008

John Cage composed music that regularly transgressed the boundaries of convention. A pupil of Schoenberg and Cowell, Cage came into his own during the 1960’s while teaching at the U of Illinois. He invented the prepared piano, a compositional technique to alter the sound of a single or several notes by using non-conventional items directly on either the strings or felt hammers, such as thumb tacks, or erasers placed between or among the piano strings.

For instance, you could assign an octave in the middle range the instructions: place thumb tacks on the hammers of the black keys from middle C to C1. Then insert erasers among the white key strings from middle C to C1. Which reminds me of the cembalo we heard in Budapest.

ORGAN2/ASLSP As Slow as Possible is the longest, slowest composition ever. A special organ was built in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany expressly to play this piece. The idea is that the piece will play continuously for the next 639 years (adjust for age of article) to commemorate the original organ in that church, which just so happened to be the very FIRST organ ever built, ever. So–the longest, slowest composition ever for the very first organ ever.

I think that is a dazzlingly cool idea. So then check out 4′ 33″

I played his Three Pieces for Two Flutes (1935) with a fellow flutist in college. An unexpectedly beautiful composition. I highly recommend it for students level 5-6 and up.

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POSTED IN: 20th Century, Ethnomusicology, Music education, Performance practices, music history, musicology