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John Cage organ project: longest piece of music ever


cedar

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Won"t make me visit Halberstadt.

 

Last time I played there, the proprietor of the club had his skull fractured by a handful of Nazis who stormed the party at three a.m.

 

Everybody there shrugged it off as normality when we were told at breakfast the next morning.

 

Oh, and a week or two later, eight Neonazis beat some cast members of the Rocky Horror Show into the hospital.

 

Lovely place.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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  • 2 weeks later...

Longest piece of music ever? Ha. Here's one that started earlier and is scheduled to outlast this one by 300 years.

 

Longplayer

 

You're welcome. :D

 

mike

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Colbert's a card; he clearly new about the John Cage piece and was making an inside joke knowing that Rush likely had the same awareness.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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This guy is just such a tool. I guess there has to be one guy in the world who does these sorts of things.

I love that, after sixty years, there are *still* people offended at some level by the questions John Cage asked about the limits of what could be called "music".

 

I like toying with the idea that there is a manmade musical composition specifically tailored to a length where no human would â even theoretically â ever be able to hear it in its entirety.

 

Calling its composer a "tool" seems a rather ⦠limited perspective.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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"Calling its composer a "tool" seems a rather ⦠limited perspective."

 

Seriously. It's bad enough to see and hear to those comments from non musicians (along with with similar ones about artists like Jackson Pollack where people say "I could do that"), but it's especially sad to see a musician dismiss the work entirely, let alone call him, of all things a "tool". To not like the piece is one thing (although, really, how do you know? We'll all be long dead by the first chorus!), but to imply that Cage is a bad person, or somehow deceiving his audiences, is nonsense. Especially from a musician.

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This guy is just such a tool. I guess there has to be one guy in the world who does these sorts of things.

 

+1

I quite agree - a perfectly reasonable opinion. IMO.

 

 

....I love that, after sixty years, there are *still* people offended at some level by the questions John Cage asked about the limits of what could be called "music".

 

So you are pleased he has this opinion then...

 

like toying with the idea that there is a manmade musical composition specifically tailored to a length where no human would â even theoretically â ever be able to hear it in its entirety.

 

I don"t see anyone stopping you doing this.

 

 

Calling its composer a "tool" seems a rather ⦠limited perspective.

 

So you"re NOT pleased he has this opinion then?

 

Would 'limited perspective' be your way of expressing that you don"t think BRW is very intelligent? That"s a bit unfair don"t you think. Perhaps I misunderstand you, with my 'limited perspective'.

 

 

Cage wasn"t always appreciative of his fellow musicians it seems, quote from Wikipedia (yes I know...)

 

'Cage's artistic life went through a crisis in mid-1940s. The composer was experiencing a growing disillusionment with the idea of music as means of communication: the public rarely accepted his work, and Cage himself, too, had trouble understanding the music of his colleagues'

 

So maybe the guy just had a problem generally......

 

To be clear, I am not a stranger to 'avant-garde' though, having been exposed to such a performance at a relatively young age, when just leaving school.

 

At the end of my final year at Secondary (High) School in the late 1970s there was, as always, an end of year concert which suitably talented pupils could choose to perform at. It was not a music school and the music education on offer at that time had been somewhat limited, which might explain some of the choices mentioned next.

 

A friend who was a naturally talented and accomplished piano player, who had written and performed some rather good pieces over the years, said he would like to play a composition called ' 'art! ' - note the apostrophe, as that is pertinent.

 

The staff assumed it would be a 'piano piece' of some sort.

 

When time came to perform he walked up to, and then past the piano to the microphone set in a stand at mid-stage.

 

Removing the mic he placed it behind his 'rear end' and proceeded to emit a very loud nearly 2 second long fart!

 

At the conclusion he calmly replaced the mic in the stand, bowed slightly and left the stage to a stunned silence and walked through the hall and out of the main door to the outside.

 

The note he 'emitted' was close to, but not quite reaching a 'C' - thus leaving the performance a little uhh flat, being truthful. I suppose proper 'lip control' in those circumstances might have been a tad tricky.

 

As it didn"t quite make 2 seconds in length and with no beats apparent, it was difficult to determine the intended time signature TBH.

 

The girl that was to follow, was hurried onto the stage to sing.

 

She wasn"t really heard too well though, as she seemed to be holding the (same) mic at arms length, for some reason....

 

Interestingly I have in fact in the past, actually tried to perform 4" 33' myself.

 

TBH, I made a bit of a hash of it by rushing and finishing in 4" 28'.

 

So, if I try again in the future, I"ll have to practice, practice, practice until I get it right I suppose....

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If you plan to visit, can you call ahead and find out what notes will be playing so you can be there for your favorites?

I"m going the entire month of September 2024, to celebrate my 70th birthday. They"re playing the Eb.

 

There"s a tavern down the road a bit where a band is scheduled to play all of American Pie. Promises to be a hoot.

I would like to apologize to anyone I have not yet offended. Please be patient and I will get to you shortly.
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This guy is just such a tool. I guess there has to be one guy in the world who does these sorts of things.

 

+1

I quite agree - a perfectly reasonable opinion. IMO.

 

 

....I love that, after sixty years, there are *still* people offended at some level by the questions John Cage asked about the limits of what could be called "music".

 

So you are pleased he has this opinion thenâ¦

It pleases me that he has AN opinion.

 

I believe that the strength of opinion, necessitating an insult to the composer â and in fact, making you feel like you need to register just to validate it â is testament to Cage's success.

 

Getting worked up over art completely validates its purpose. The irony here is that by doing so, YOU are the composer's "tools".

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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I believe that the strength of opinion, necessitating an insult to the composer â and in fact, making you feel like you need to register just to validate it â is testament to Cage's success.

 

Getting worked up over art completely validates its purpose. The irony here is that by doing so, YOU are the composer's "tools".

 

'...and in fact, making you feel like you need to register just to validate it...'

 

Wow you put a high value on yourself don"t you - you assume I would register just to reply to you! ð

 

'....The irony here is that by doing so, YOU are the composer's "tools"....'

 

I assume you might own a mirror, have a look in there for a rather rude 'tool'.

 

I can assure you that Cage took people for fools. Enjoy.

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I wonder how it's written out and when they know when to do something like play the next note or chord or whatever.

 

And what happens if they come in late? Does that throw the timing of everything else after it off? :D

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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