# Cage: ASLSP [1987]



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

John Cage's _ASLSP_ -- _As Slow As Possible_ -- is one of his best-known compositions (here is the wikipedia article about it). It's currently on the 62nd tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works, putting it in the 80th percentile of the works there.

No doubt the best-known performance of it is taking place in the Halberstadt Cathedral, which is scheduled to continue until the year 2640. The most recent note change took place on September 15th, 2020 (here is a video of it), and the next will take place on February 5th, 2022. (The wikipedia article above has the full list of scheduled note changes.)

Somewhat more accessibly, I have enjoyed the Sabine Liebner recording for NEOS, and there are several others out there. I wonder whether anyone prefers a different one?

I realize that Cage's oeuvre, this work not excepted, is controversial -- a euphemism, of course, for loved by some but furiously hated by others. If you want to express your disapproval, it would not be inappropriate to do so very briefly here, but on the whole _*this thread is intended to be for people who enjoy or are interested in learning about this work*_, and I'd ask you to carry on any extended campaigns of negativity, especially if they do not pertain precisely _*to this work in particular*_, in one of the many other threads dedicated to that purpose. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and restraint in this matter.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Actually, those more interested in the controversy than in discussing the work itself will enjoy this thread, originally from 2017, dedicated to the question of whether ASLSP is music.


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## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

I know discussion of this work always revolves around the one ongoing performance at Halberstadt that is supposed to last for centuries. I would like to point out that Cage did not actually specify a tempo beyond the instruction "as slow as possible". I have a recording of the work by Giancarlo Simonacci that lasts around 20 minutes. I don't think Cage intended that the performance should go on for centuries (though I have no doubt that he would have been okay with it if he had been alive when the performance started). So the decision to stretch that one performance out for so long probably didn't lie with Cage, but with someone else.

As I posted in the thread that science linked to in post 2, I think this is actually one of Cage's more conventional works. It was composed using normal music notation for a standard, unaltered instrument (piano or organ). There are no aleotoric elements involved in its performance. I would say it is relatively conservative by Cage's standards.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

> John Cage composed ASLSP for piano solo in 1985. In 1987, at the suggestion of the
> organist Gerd Zacher, he made his now legendary arrangement for organ, entitled
> Organ 2/ASLSP. The letters ASLSP stand for "as slow as possible". It is an expression mark that has confronted performers with a conundrum. The opposite extreme,
> which Cage gives us in his Freeman Etudes, is "as fast as possible". This is, of course,
> ...


Who could fail to be inspired by



> Whatever the case, there is one
> thing that the letters of the title ASLSP do not contain: a question mark. Instead, they
> harbour an irrational literary allusion: "Soft morning city! Lsp!" - the opening cries
> of the final section in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake


*Soft morning, city! Lsp! I am leafy speafing. Lpf! Folty and folty all the nights have failed on to long my hair. Not a sound, falling. Lispn!*


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

*Cage: ASLSP [1987]*

I'm waiting for the vinyl LP release.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

Here's a 20-minute version of the work on youtube, played by Rene Aalbers.

I would say that if you keep the length of this work to 20-40 minutes, then this piece feels like it's along the lines of some of Cage's Number Pieces. It has a drone music aesthetic. I would say that something like this Eliane Radigue does a better job of exploring a drone texture.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

science said:


> John Cage's _ASLSP_ -- _As Slow As Possible_ -- is one of his best-known compositions (here is the wikipedia article about it). It's currently on the 62nd tier of the Talk Classical community's favorite and most highly recommended works, putting it in the 80th percentile of the works there.
> 
> No doubt the best-known performance of it is taking place in the Halberstadt Cathedral, which is scheduled to continue until the year 2640. The most recent note change took place on September 15th, 2020 (here is a video of it), and the next will take place on February 5th, 2022. (The wikipedia article above has the full list of scheduled note changes.)
> 
> ...


John Cage's _ASLSP_ -- _As SLow aS Possible_ - fascinating work.

My primarily knowledge of the work is from *Sabine Liebner*'s NEOS recording. The piano, with its natural decay, I think, enhances the color and texture of the work's clustered harmonies. Although, the recording by *Piergiovanni Domeninghini* on organ, lasting about 17 minutes, is also excellent, and allows for the drone quality to be more prominent.


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2020)

SONNET CLV said:


> *Cage: ASLSP [1987]*
> I'm waiting for the vinyl LP release.


Hah! How many square metres do you live in?


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