Hundreds of fans attended a special kind of musical happening on Sept. 5 at a church in Germany: a chord change in an organ piece that is supposed to last for an entirety of 639 years. The performance of the ORGAN2/ASLSP, or As Slow As Possible, composition began in September 2001 at the St. Burchardi Church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640 if all goes well.
The music piece by the American composer John Cage is played on a special organ inside the medieval church. The last sound has been the same one for the last six years and 11 months, and therefore the chord change on Saturday last week was a big event among fans of the John Cage Organ Project.
A chord change means that the sound of the organ pipes changes either because new sounds are added or existing sounds end. On Sept. 5, two new organ pipes were added. Organizers say the performance is “one of the slowest realizations of an organ musical piece.”
照片：美聯社 Photo: AP
A compressor in the basement creates energy to blow air into the organ to create a continuous sound. When a chord change happens, it’s done manually. On Sept. 5, soprano singer Johanna Vargas and organist Julian Lembke changed the chord. The new sound reminded some listeners of the metallic buzz inside a big ship’s engine room.
The next chord change is planned for Feb. 5, 2022, the German news agency DPA reported. When the piece officially started on Sept. 5, 2001, it began without any sound. It was only on Feb. 5, 2003, the day of the first chord change, that the first organ pipe chords could actually be heard inside the church.
Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912 and died in New York in 1992. He’s known not only as a composer, but also as a music theorist, artist and philosopher.
照片：美聯社 Photo: AP
The St. Burchardi church has a long, checkered history. It was built around 1050, and was used for more than 600 years as a Cistercian monastery. It was partially destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War, later rebuilt, at some point secularized and over the centuries also served as a barn, a distillery and a pigsty, the John Cage Organ Project said on its website.
Chord changes usually draw several thousand visitors to Halberstadt, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of guests allowed into the church was limited this year.
(AP)
數百名樂迷在九月五日齊聚德國一間教堂，參加一場特別的音樂活動：預計持續演奏整整六百三十九年的一首管風琴作品，在當天改變了和弦。這首名為《ORGAN2/ASLSP》，又名《愈慢愈好》的作品，從二○○一年九月開始在德國東部小鎮哈柏斯塔的聖布爾夏迪教堂演奏。如果一切順利，演奏將會於二六四○年結束。
這首樂曲是由美國作曲家約翰‧凱吉所作，在這座中世紀教堂內由一台特製管風琴演奏。在過去六年又十一個月之間，這首樂曲一直持續著相同的聲音，也因此上週六轉換和弦，對「約翰‧凱吉管風琴計畫」的樂迷而言堪稱一大盛事。
轉換和弦意味著管風琴音管的聲音改變，變化來自於新聲音加入，或是原本持續的聲音停止。在九月五號當天，管風琴裝上了兩根新的音管。主辦單位則表示，這場演出是「實現一部最慢的管風琴音樂作品。」
教堂地下室有一台壓縮機製造出動能，將氣體吹入管風琴，創造出持續不斷的聲音。當和弦改變時，這個任務則是以手動完成。當天，女高音喬安娜‧瓦加斯以及管風琴演奏家朱利安‧藍布克一起改變和弦。新的聲音讓某些聽眾聯想到大船引擎室裡帶有金屬感的嗡嗡聲。
根據德國新聞媒體《德新社》報導，下一次的和弦改變預計於二○二二年二月五日進行。這首樂曲最初在二○○一年九月五日正式開演，開始時沒有聲音。一直到二○○三年二月五日，也就是第一次改變和弦那天，第一個管風琴和弦才真正能在教堂中聽到。
約翰‧凱吉於一九一二年生於洛杉磯，一九九二年於紐約逝世。他不只是以作曲家的身分聞名，同時也是一位音樂理論家、藝術家和哲學家。
聖布爾夏迪教堂有著悠久而興衰無常的歷史。教堂大約是在一○五○年間建造，六百多年來被用作天主教熙篤會的修道院。根據「約翰‧凱吉管風琴計畫」網站的介紹，該教堂在三十年戰爭期間部分遭到摧毀，後來經過重建，從某個時間點開始作為世俗用途。好幾個世紀以來，建築被用來作為穀倉、釀酒廠、豬舍。
和弦改變通常會吸引數千名觀眾前往哈柏斯塔朝聖，然而因為武漢肺炎（新冠病毒，COVID-19）全球大流行，今年獲准進入教堂躬逢其盛的觀眾人數受到限制。
（台北時報章厚明譯）
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