Three organists are preparing to break a world record tomorrow with a 12-hour performance of John Cage's Organ²/ASLSP at First Congregational Church in downtown Kalamazoo. The performance, which runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., is free and open to the public.
The organists taking on this musical challenge are Graeme Shields, director of music at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minneapolis; Kory Heitzig, organist at First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo; and composer Jack Langdon of the Vital Organ Project. The performance aims to set the record for the longest continuous performance by a team of musicians, Heitzig tells Cara Lieurance in an interview.
The title "ASLSP" stands for "as slow as possible," which Shields explains "tells you everything that you need to know right there." The piece consists of just four pages of music with eight sections, using proportional notation rather than traditional measures and bar lines.
"There's no measure numbers or bar lines. Instead you might see a note that has a duration that looks like it's maybe about an inch on the page and then you'll see another duration that's two inches and what you know is that that second duration needs to be twice the length of the first one," Shields explains.
Heitzig describes how holding a position at the organ will be a challenge. "Sitting at the pipe organ, it's really unnatural. It is not a comfortable instrument to sit at because you have to remember that you're sitting on a hard plank bench and you're really unable to support yourself because you're using your feet as well." At this glacial speed, sustained sounds will take on different qualities as the organ adjusts to the pressure. "As the temperature changes in the room, this stop might go a little sharp and this stop might go a little flat. So they're kind of competing with one another. So all of a sudden you're hearing these beats that you may not expect."
Shields adds that slowing it down "makes any change at all in pitch or even just the absence of pitch so much more significant than it otherwise would be — any little change is vast."
The performance takes place in First Congregational Church's sanctuary, which is approaching its 100th anniversary. Heitzig describes the space as "almost like a jewel box" filled with unique artwork, including stained glass featuring dinosaurs, Joan of Arc, and Abraham Lincoln, as well as frescoes painted by Lucinda Ballard, who later won a Tony Award for costume design for the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music.
Both Shields and the third organist, Jack Landon, are part of the Vital Organ Project, which is focused on "performance and education of and creation of new music that focuses on the characteristics of the pipe organ."
Claude AI was used to help summarize the interview. It was edited by the author.
