> In theory, a pipe organ can sound indefinitely, so long as it receives adequate power and its pedals are pressed continually. [..] Thus, the only threats to this performance are the survival of the organ, the will of the unborn and the erratic tides of arts funding.
And, you know, power outages.
Part of the wonder with this work is thinking of how to overcome such a problem
It’s actually a very optimistic work for Cage. The idea that we could have a continuous performance for hundreds of years, without ever being interrupted by wars or disasters.
I think it is amazing that someone has risen to the challenge to try and perform this, and if they are successful what that means for us as a society that it was allowed to happen
I have a pessimistic outlook. All it will take is one bad actor to interrupt this performance that could potentially involve thousands to maintain. It feels inevitable that this will fail. Nevertheless, this in itself is a statement on us as a species and what a wonderful work this is to have provoked such a thing.
If it’s contemporary art, then they may well have planned to have someone come in with a sledgehammer and smash it to bits in front of audience who paid to hear the next note change or on some other date of significance.
It won’t be the first time an artist has done this.
If the music pauses for less than 1/64 note, has it really stopped?
TIL that there were no organ works in the history of humanity until electrical power was invented