WEBVTT - Short Stuff: John Cage's 639 Year Concert 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.280 Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.240 there's chalk and it's short stuff. Jerry's here too, Dave's 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.480 here Spirit short stuff. That's right. Shout out to our 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:18.280 old friends at houlstuffworks dot com and in particular Michelle Knstantinovski. 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.280 Great name, yeah for this piece on the six hundred 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:28.040 and thirty nine year long concert from a very no 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:29.920 longer with us he died nineteen nine two, but a 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.400 very avant guard, to say the least composer that you've 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:38.839 probably heard of named John Cage. Yeah, John Cage. I 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.320 knew his name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.320 it until I ran across his piece, or mention of 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.680 his piece, four thirty three. Yeah, four minutes and thirty 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.200 three seconds. And that in and of itself made John 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.760 Cage famous, even to people like me who aren't into 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:57.040 avant guard twentieth century American composing. He should say what 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.560 it is, because it really explains everything we need to 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:04.399 explain about John Cage. So thirty three is a composition 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.319 that's just four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence. 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.600 There's no instruments playing a single note whatsoever, Like if 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:14.560 you came out on stage and did four thirty three 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.839 at a piano, you'd just sit there for four minutes 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.240 and thirty three seconds. Have you watched it performed. I haven't. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.880 I'll bet it is really uncomfortable in a lot of ways. Well, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.760 it's interesting. It's it's performance art in a way, because 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.840 like you said, it's it's not like you can just 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:31.640 sit in a room and say that's your show. Like 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.160 it's it's to be performed. Like the German Philharmonic on 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.880 YouTube says, this is four thirty three. The conductor gets 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.279 up there, raises his hands, and then no one does anything. Wow. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.080 He goes into the second movement, indicates that with a 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:50.000 hand movement, then goes into the third movement and no 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.200 one does anything, and everyone rub you know, burst out 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.720 into applause at the end, and you can't help but 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:56.960 just sort of snicker a little bit. The thing is, though, 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.280 if you're like, I hate John Cage more than I've 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:02.080 ever hated anybody, just from hearing that, like that's just 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.480 so stupid, just stop. You need to hear from a 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:12.880 John Cage interpreter slash enthusiast named rainier O Nugebauer and 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.680 I think how stuff works. Interviewed Nugebauer for this article, 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.000 and Nusbauer explains, like four thirty three is not just 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:28.080 some goofy performance piece like John Cage created that, because 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.880 to him, that's not silence. It's there's no intentional sounds 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.800 being made, but there's plenty of sounds going on around you. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.880 And this is four minutes and thirty three seconds of 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:45.120 hearing completely unpredictable, unplanned sounds in the environment around you 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.639 while this composition is going on. And when you hear that, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.200 it's kind of like, um, it's kind of like that 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.920 moment when the psychedelics kick in on Homer and that 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.520 Chili Pepper episode. He's like, whoa, that's what happened to 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.400 me at least, And I suddenly am like, I like 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:04.600 John Cage a lot. He's very neat, and it just 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.560 keeps going from there. Really yeah, or in the case 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:09.600 of the performance in Journey that I watch, you would 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:15.919 hear right, are you in here? Vs? Dos? Vases dos? 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.280 What does that mean? Means? What is that? Okay? And 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.280 he also had another quote about him that I think 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.800 kind of sums it up to, which is what we 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.680 call silence for Cage means only the absence of intended sounds, right, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:32.880 So that was his jam, and that leads us to 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.760 the six hundred and thirty nine year long concert otherwise 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:44.800 known as Organ Squared Slash a sl SP, which stands 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:48.480 for as slow as possible. And if you're like, wait 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.480 a minute, just trust us. It stands for as slow 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.520 as possible. Yeah, so maybe let's take a break there 0:03:53.680 --> 0:04:21.720 and we'll explain all this gobbedygook. So getting to as 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.920 slow as possible as LSP. That wasn't the original name 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:26.560 for it. I don't know that there was an actual 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.159 name for it. I think in nineteen eighty five when 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.040 you first composed it, right, it was x y z PDQ, 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:34.840 So I think it was in nineteen eighty seven, two 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:36.520 years after he first composed that, he was like, we're 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.040 gonna call it as slow as Possible, and that became 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:42.040 not just the title for this piece, but the actual 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.560 purpose of the piece. So it was to take this 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:50.320 eight sheets of music that he composed that was as 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.640 LSP and play it as slowly as you could. And 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.240 it was very John Cage from what I understand to be, like, 0:04:58.400 --> 0:04:59.920 I'm not going to tell you how slow to do. 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.359 Figure out how what that means to you the artist. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.200 You interpret it however you want. The point is just 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.200 play it as slow as you can. And that is 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.640 one of his I think one of his more famous 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.440 works as well too. Yeah, and this was I listened 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:21.360 to a like eighteen minute version today. It is an 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.040 organ piece, obviously, it's called organ squared. An organ is 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.320 key because you're not You can't count on someone to 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.960 blow into a saxophone for thirty minutes or three hours 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.960 or six hundred and thirty nine years, but an organ 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.839 as it makes a constant, consistent sound. And if you 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.880 play this thing over eighteen minutes or whatever, you will 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.600 hear chord changes and you will hear something. But it's 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.400 still like people like Brian Eno come around and I 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:51.960 get the feeling. John Kade just like you know, here, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.880 hold my absence of beer, my invisible beer. Because you 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.120 think you're doing something artsy and weird. Get a load 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.800 of this. I will think that probably John Cage is 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.120 one of Brian ENO's like like gods. Yeah, I think 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.760 they were buddies obviously. So so to kind of explain 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.839 this asl a s lsp um if you if you 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.560 had the notes da da da dah, right, and you 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.480 played them normally like that for as LSP that first 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.480 uh might last a minute and a half, and then 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.800 the next one might last five minutes, the next there 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.640 and then they're like you said, there's chord changes, but 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.479 they're just not close together. So it's like taking a 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:41.040 compressed like normal song and spreading it out. Um. But 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.560 you're doing this in a live performance, so it's really 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.559 cool and that's the basis of it. Um. But there's 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.640 there was an interpretation that came along of it that 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.000 we're talking about today that wasn't actually created by John Cage. 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:58.640 But it is the most John Cage idea that wasn't 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.400 created by John Cage. One of the greatest homages I've 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.320 ever heard to anybody. Yeah, I mean, if there's an 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.040 avant garde music heaven, John Cage is still smiling at 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.520 the idea that someone took his as slow as possible 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.160 thing and really ran with it. And this was at 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.040 the idea was sort of born. It sounds like at 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:22.240 a organ symposium in nineteen ninety eight when people were 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.960 kind of saying like, well, again, it's an organ piece, 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.400 we can go as slow as we want with this thing, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.080 because you can make that sound forever if you've got, 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.080 you know, a can of beans to sit on a key. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.400 And it's not like a piano string or it gets 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.640 har string or a woodwind that will eventually fade away 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.400 even with the most sustained. So like, where can we 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.600 take this thing? Like? How far into the future can 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.440 we take it? How long? They said, how far can 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:51.960 we take it? How long can we make it? There 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.120 should have been lyrics to this, and they said, well 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.560 how about this. There was this cathedral called Halberstots Cathedral 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:05.160 that was kind of where the organ was born, and 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.520 like the modern design for what we know as a 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.840 keyboard took place, and they said, what a perfect place 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.920 to do this thing. And I will let you explain 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.120 why it's six hundred and thirty nine years because that 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.200 is super kind of fun and John Cage would love it. 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.280 It's very generous of you, Chuck, thank you. Sure, I 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.040 will do that. So the reason it was the perfect 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.720 place was because that first keyboard was created in thirteen 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.920 sixty one and this organ symposium, I guess was happening 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:36.840 around two thousand and they decided that what they would 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.960 do is use the millennium as a fulcrum between past 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:43.640 and future. It's a good way to put it. Yeah, 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.240 and so they said, well, thirteen sixty one all the 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.840 way to two thousand is six hundred and thirty nine years. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.080 So what we're going to do is honor both John 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.040 Cage and the creation of the modern keyboard back in 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:02.800 thirteen sixty one by putting on a performance in Halberstat 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.800 where the organ was first created or the modern one 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:10.120 was of as LSP that will last six hundred and 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:15.040 thirty nine years. Pretty great. And again I'm sure John 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.360 Cage out there in the in the ether is just 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:23.040 loving this. Just a couple of years ago, in September 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.280 of twenty twenty, they were like, it's time to change 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.280 the chord. And that's I don't know. Do you know 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:33.760 if they have a set, did they literally divide it out? Yeah, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.160 they're okay, So it's it's at an exactly timed yes, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.520 interval between this one and the last one. Yeah, under 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.280 normal circumstances, if you were playing as LSP, like you 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:45.840 just play it as slow as you wanted to. But 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.319 because now they're trying to contain it within a certain time, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.400 they would have had to have calculated ahead of time, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:52.960 so they did the math to make it even Stephen, 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.440 I guess, and the chord change came up, came due 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.280 on September five, twenty twenty and a bunch of people. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.679 There's a couple of videos of it, one which is 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:05.200 the real thing. Another I don't know if you saw 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.280 this one, but it had the whole ceremony leading up 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.160 to it, and right when it got to the chord 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.600 change and went to a metal song. Oh really like 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.360 the they overdubbed it. Yeah, I got to see that one. 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:21.080 It's very surprising, all of it. So, yeah, so if 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.600 you were in this, if you visit this church in Halberstot, 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.400 you're just going to you there's an organ there that's 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.720 playing a single note and has been playing it for 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.120 maybe years. And actually, Chuck, I saw that the most 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.000 recent chord change was February fifth, twenty twenty two. So 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.720 there's been a more recent one. Okay, yeah, so the 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.160 first one I think seven years before that, and then 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.480 two years after that. I'm not sure when the next 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.280 chord changes, but I'm sure you could find out. I 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.959 couldn't find out, but maybe you can. Oh, so it's 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.240 not at a regular interval. Then no, so no, I'm sorry, 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:59.040 it's not so they basically are playing it. Yeah, they yes, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.800 it's not a regular interval. It's they figured out, like 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.960 this note should last this long, this note should last 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.280 so that the whole piece ends in twenty six forty 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.680 six hundred and thirty nine years after it started. Okay, wow, amazing. 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:14.959 It is amazing. Doesn't that make it even more amazing 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.840 that it's not at regular intervals? Yeah? I figured it 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.000 was like, you know, every one hundred and three years 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.400 will change the corrid or whatever. Yeah, no, I'm sorry 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.520 I didn't catch that. But that's so you can go 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.320 to this church and Halberd Stott and visit this organ. 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.760 That's right now as we speak, playing a single note, 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.680 and we'll be playing that note for probably years to come, 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.200 until the next chord change. I wonder if the interval 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.880 was based on the original squashed composition, like I wonder 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.680 if there was an interval that Cage had. In other words, yeah, 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.080 I wonder too. All right, not to look that up, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.880 but it's pretty cool. So so one person put it 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:53.920 that the work is no longer on a human time scale, 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.080 and it can't be played by a single person any longer, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.800 which is really cool because they say, like they likened 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.920 it to building monuments in cathedrals, that those things took 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.320 hundreds of years in some cases and now no one, 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.040 single person or group of people built them. Generations did 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:16.320 and that's what's going to happen with this composition being played. Amazing. 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.360 I think so too. It's good stuff, good pick, Chuck. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.520 This is one of the coolest how Stuff Works articles 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.200 I've ever run across, So thanks for it. If you 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:25.679 want to know more about it, go check it out 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:27.560 on How Stuff Works John Cage in the six hundred 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:30.480 and thirty Year Long Concert, and then also check out 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:34.559 Universes in Universe. They have a little article on it 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:37.640 which is pretty informative. And since I said it's premie 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.440 informative everybody and Chuck said, yeah, that means short stuffs out. 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.080 Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.320 more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.280 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.