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‘There’s a certain madness to it’ … fans await new chord in John Cage gig with 616 years left to run
Admirers of the avant-garde composer’s work hope the concert in the German church will stay the course – all the way to 2640
When Halberstadt’s St Burchardi church opens its doors for a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on Monday, some of the spectators streaming into the 11th-century building will have booked their tickets years in advance and crossed continents to get there. (The only musical performance that is forecast to last longer, Jem Finer’s Longplayer piece for singing bowls inside the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, has a head start of almost two years and is scheduled to wind up in 2999.) Photograph: Matthias Bein/APBut when the group considered Halberstadt as the site of their performance, they chanced on historic records claiming that its cathedral had once hosted the first organ with a modern keyboard arrangement for liturgical use, in 1361.
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