Hundreds gather to hear organ change chords decades into 639-year-long piece

As It Happens6:41Organ performing 639-year-long piece just changed chords for 1st time in years

About 500 people gathered inside an 11th-century church in Halberstadt, Germany, on Monday to listen to an organ switch from one chord to another.

The instrument — a makeshift device that uses sandbags to hold down the keys — is 23 years into a 639-year-long performance of a composition by the late avant garde musician John Cage. 

Monday marked its first chord change in two years.

“It was a magic moment,” Rainer Neugebauer told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

As slow as possible

Neugebauer is the head of the John Cage Organ