28th May Bielefeld to Potsdam/Berlin

This was another longish day but it had a purpose: to visit Halberstad. Now this is not a town usually on most people's itinerary but for me it does have a certain charm and cultural interest. It is to be found in the Harz Mountains area so the drive from the Hannover - Berlin motorway provided many interesting views. AS we approached the town from a distance of 4 or 5 miles, the huge Cathedral towered over everything else and stared out over the surrounding countryside.

My reason for the visit lies in a cultural curiosity, and one that many people, understandably, do not relate to with any certainty. On 5th September 2001 began the playing of a piece of music written in 1986 by John Cage and called ASLSP or As Slow as Possible. Originally written for piano Cage later adapted it for organ and it is this version that is being performed. An organ has the ability to make continuous sounds, which do not necessarily decay as on all other instruments. The performance will last for 639 years with new sounds being added every so often as determined by the score. The last sound was introduced in 2006 and the next sound will be played on the 5th October 2013. This process continues for, well, a further 627 years. You may wish to know that when the piece began it started with a rest!

Actually, the length of the music in terms of the sheets of music required to explain the notes is quite short. What is missing from the sheets is any clear indication of what Cage thought about the length of time to be taken by any performance of the piece. Except that it should be played ASLSP.

All of the above does raise, perhaps, a series of what might be thought of as philosophical question about, for example, the nature of music and what is meant by the use of the term music. Furthermore, there also arises the question performance, and what is it to be called a performance. And then again one wonders what is meant by time in this context.

What led to this performance was, in part, an attempt to answer the question, how slow is slow? One early performance lasted 29 minutes, but that was on a piano. I now have a recording which lasts 71 minutes. That length was determined by the CD format but clearly, anything is possible, albeit that one has to find a way of sustaining the sounds for or very long periods.

When we found the building, where the performance takes place the sound was muted, but reverberating in the ancient space. It is now restored but is empty of any furniture so the notes echo around the space. Actually, depending on where you stand, the note it self changes not so much in its tone but actually how one actually hears it as well as what one hears. Once a convent it has had many uses since the invasion by France in the early 19th century - eg barn, pig sty, warehouse and also being left derelict but now it's a cultural centre.

Later as we drove away towards Magdeburg and the road to Berlin, apart from having to sit in a long traffic jam, I mused on what seemed to me to be an interesting connection to this piece. Last week an Irish actor speaking on BBC radio discussed the challenge of presenting a Samuel Becket play called 'Not I'. When this was first produced sometime in the 1970's it apparently took about 25 minutes. Becket was really unhappy at this and told Billie Whitelaw, who was to present it some years later that it had to be performed as fast as possible. She duly met his demands and the performance time fell to about 14 minutes, which he thought was good. I have a feeling that I went to see this at the Royal Court at that time. It was a mesmerising experience as all you can see are two illuminated lips on a blacked out stage. In the latest version, the Irish actor performing it this week has cut the time to 9 minutes!

PS On Meryl's visit to Berlin, she saw some sculptures by Anish Kapoor. Whereas Cage is Slow and Becket Fast Kapoor's work is also slow as over time it changes; a new piece of it is added every six hours or so and this will continue until…..