UPDATED ON MAY 6, 2021

The longest musical performance in history is currently taking place in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany. The performance of John Cage’s “Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible)” started on Sept. 5, 2001, and is set to finish in 2640.

The first part of the song lacks a little in the area of excitement. It began on September 5, 2001, and for the next 518 days, it consisted of silence. The first notes weren’t struck until February 5, 2003, when the notes G♯₄, B₄, G♯₅ were formed as a chord that held, continuously, for the next 518 days.

As of this writing, May 6, 2021, the song has been playing for 19 years, 8 months, and one day. In that time, there have been 15 note changes. This averages out to one every 479 days. As scheduled to be played, however, the duration between note changes can be as long as 2,527 days or as mind-blowingly-brief as 30 days.

The scheduled note changes for Part 1 of the composition follow. For some reason, only the first 70 years of the 639-year song are listed. Perhaps they were unable to rent the church that holds the organ beyond that date.

While you are waiting for Part 2 to begin, you might as well make your way over to the theater and watch 100 Years, the movie that has been produced but won’t be released until November 18, 2115.

The official website (in German) of the Sankt Burchardi Church where this song is played gives more information about “Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible).”

For the true fans, you may purchase a 17-minute MP3 rendition of the song from Amazon Music here for $1.29. The site also lets you play a 30-second sample, which, to our untrained musical ears, sounds like horns blaring in rush hour traffic, but what do we know?

If you’d like to hear the song but don’t want to wait 6 centuries to get the full effect, you can listen to a vastly-sped-up rendition here: