Germany organ piece to keep playing until 2640

A single composition in a former convent church in Halberstadt is scheduled to keep sounding until 2640, making the work a 639-year performance that began on Sept. 5, 2001. In a culture built around speed, the project has drawn music lovers, tourists and curious visitors to St. Burchardi Church for something far rarer than a concert: a chance to witness time passing at a scale larger than a lifetime.

The piece is John Cage’s ORGAN²/ASLSP, short for “As Slow As Possible,” performed on the John Cage Organ Project in Halberstadt, Saxony-Anhalt. Cage’s original score dates to 1985, but the Halberstadt version has stretched the idea into a civic ritual, with each chord change treated as a moment worth traveling for. A change on Sept. 5, 2020 marked another step in a work that will not finish until 2640.

The project’s appeal lies partly in its setting. St. Burchardi is the former Cistercian convent church, and its ruinous, contemplative atmosphere has become part of the artwork’s meaning. The church does not frame a normal recital hall experience. It frames a long human pause, one that asks visitors to think less about a performance they can finish in an hour than about something a town chooses to preserve for people who are not yet born.

That patience was visible again in February 2024, when the piece changed chord for the first time in two years and drew crowds back to the church. The rare event underscored how the project has evolved from an experimental idea into a destination with its own calendar of milestones. The performance is managed by the John-Cage-Orgel-Kunst-Projekt Halberstadt, which has kept the work alive across generations of organizers, donors and visitors.

In 2026, the project marked its 25th year and said Burchardi Church and access to the concert would remain closed on Aug. 4 for organizational reasons. Even that note reflects the unusual discipline behind the undertaking: a composition that moves at a glacial pace still requires maintenance, scheduling and stewardship. In Halberstadt, the act of preserving the work has become part of the work itself.