March 3, 2012: Analog Arts Ensemble - Beginning - ASLSP

ANALOG ARTS ENSEMBLE: BEGINNING – ASLSP

 Written in 1985 for the University of Maryland International Piano Festival and Competition, ASLSP stands for “As SLow aS Possible”. The title also refers to the opening line in the final paragraph of Finnegan’s Wake, “Soft morning city. Lsp!”. The piece was commissioned by the Friends of the Maryland Summer Institute for the Creative and Performing Arts and dedicated to the memory of Madolyn Leonard.

Bearing in mind the utter tedium of competition judging, John Cage thought his open score would be as much a challenge for performers as it would be a change of pace for the judges. The piece consists of eight small movements, one of which is to be omitted, and one of which is to be repeated at the performer’s discretion, a format that ensured the competition judges would never hear the same performance twice. John Cage’s revision of the work, Organ2: ASLSP, is currently being performed in Halberstadt, Germany over the course of 639 years. In the same epic tradition, Joseph Drew performed the original for nine hours at ARTSaha! 2006.

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