As SLow aS Possible On that “Fatal Day”, “Fatal Day in Halberstadt”¹ (Thirteen sixty-one, February twenty-third), Nicholas Faber’s archetypal manual with five raised rear keys gathered semitones to form one twelve-part octave, equal tempered; into which strait jacket of stems we then bound all our music. Music slipped its straps at last, bled across the lines. Cowell, Carlos, Cage freed it with noise and silence. Now Gerald Woehl’s Cage Organ keens in Halberstadt, its six hundred thirty-nine year sentence: to play Cage “As SLow aS Possible”.² This work to be read for ever or five minutes, whichever comes first.
—Edward K. McGuire, December 24, 2011
1. Partch, Harry. “Genesis Of A Music, An Account Of A Creative Work, Its Roots And Its Fulfillments”. 1979.
2. Cage, John. “Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)”. 1987.
