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#1 2009-07-30 00:12:35
- ABRAXAS
- Member
- Registered: 2009-01-17
- Posts: 353
Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
From: http://www.filter27.com/archives/2007/05/longplayer.php
Longplayer is a 1000 year long piece of music which started to play on January 1st of 2000 and will continue to play, without repetition, until December 31st 2999, when it will come back to the point at which it began - and begin again.
Crazy? Probably.
Longplayer takes an existing recorded piece of music and uses this as source material, which is processed by computer using a simple algorithm. The software then simultaneously plays 6 loops taken from it, each at a different position a different pitch.
It's exactly the same principle as taking six copies of a record and playing them on six turntables, each one rotating at a different speed.
Every two minutes this procedure is repeated and in this way each two-minute section gradually moves through the entire duration of the source music. And by the way.. the increments are carefully worked out so that no combination of the six loops will ever be repeated until exactly 1000 years has elapsed.
The source music is primarily Tibetan singing bowls (also known as Tibetan Prayer Bowls, 'Himalayan bowls' or 'rin gongs' in Japan) of various sizes, and gongs.
You can listen to the "song" globally via a live online stream.
http://longplayer.org/
Last edited by ABRAXAS (2009-07-30 00:13:51)
"Shakuhachi music stirs up both gods and demons." -- Ikkyu.
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#2 2009-07-30 00:23:45
- Tairaku 太楽
- Administrator/Performer
- From: Tasmania
- Registered: 2005-10-07
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Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
I am negotiating with them to bring it to Tasmania for my MONA FOMA festival.
John Cage also has an organ work which takes centuries but I'm not sure if it's shorter or longer than this one.
'Progress means simplifying, not complicating' : Bruno Munari
http://www.myspace.com/tairakubrianritchie
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#3 2009-07-30 00:38:01
- edosan
- Edomologist
- From: Salt Lake City
- Registered: 2005-10-09
- Posts: 2185
Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
ABRAXAS wrote:
Crazy? Probably.
They'd better get an independent power source on that thing. Affordable oil and coal will be long gone before the proposed end date. And what happens when some toddler trips over the cord and pulls the plug? In the sky, all the stars will begin to wink out...
Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.
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#4 2009-07-30 01:09:40
- radi0gnome
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- From: Kingston NY
- Registered: 2006-12-29
- Posts: 1030
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Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
edosan wrote:
ABRAXAS wrote:
Crazy? Probably.
They'd better get an independent power source on that thing. Affordable oil and coal will be long gone before the proposed end date. And what happens when some toddler trips over the cord and pulls the plug? In the sky, all the stars will begin to wink out...
It looks like they already thought about that. This is from the website:
"Technology
At present, Longplayer is being performed by a computer. However, it was created with a full awareness of the inevitable obsolescence of this technology, and is not in itself bound to the computer or any other technological form.
Although the computer is a cheap and accurate device on which Longplayer can play, it is important – in order to legislate for its survival – that a medium outside the digital realm be found. To this end, one objective from the earliest stages of its development has been to research alternative methods of performance, including mechanical, non-electrical and human-operated versions. Among these is a graphical score for six people and 234 singing bowls. A live performance from this score is being prepared for September 2009. See here for more information"
Looks like somebody is going to be doing a lot of pedaling 
"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580
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#5 2009-07-30 09:13:06
- purehappiness
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- From: Connecticut USA
- Registered: 2009-01-13
- Posts: 528
Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
Cool. I was just looking at getting a singing bowl now I can listen to these until 2999.
I was not conscious whether I was riding on the wind or the wind was riding on me.
Lieh-tzu
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#7 2009-07-30 11:41:05
- ABRAXAS
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- Registered: 2009-01-17
- Posts: 353
Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
Tairaku wrote:
I am negotiating with them to bring it to Tasmania for my MONA FOMA festival.
John Cage also has an organ work which takes centuries but I'm not sure if it's shorter or longer than this one.
Excellent!
...and thanks for the heads-up on Cage. I'm a fan but have barely scratched the surface of his recordings and writing.
"Shakuhachi music stirs up both gods and demons." -- Ikkyu.
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#9 2009-07-30 11:59:11
- rpowers
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- From: San Francisco
- Registered: 2005-10-09
- Posts: 285
Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
Tairaku wrote:
John Cage also has an organ work which takes centuries but I'm not sure if it's shorter or longer than this one.
It is actually the current performance that is on pace to take 639 years. It has been performed in as little as 20 minutes. Cage is rather flexible.
http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/new/index.php?l=e
The title? ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible).
"Shut up 'n' play . . . " -- Frank Zappa
"Gonna blow some . . ." -- Junior Walker
"It's not the flute." -- Riley Lee
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#10 2009-07-30 13:53:53
- lowonthetotem
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- From: Cape Coral, FL
- Registered: 2008-04-05
- Posts: 529
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Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
Oh, Ed. Designer Bourbon, really?
"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."
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#11 2009-07-30 16:50:11
- edosan
- Edomologist
- From: Salt Lake City
- Registered: 2005-10-09
- Posts: 2185
Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
lowonthetotem wrote:
Oh, Ed. Designer Bourbon, really?
That's just Tairaku, doin' his Tairaku thing.
I don't get much more 'elitist' than Wild Turkey, and I scarcely imbibe these days, anyway. An annual Gin and Tonic with Bombay Sapphire or similar's about it. Used to be a pretty bad beer snob though, after I went to England
Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to attain nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.
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#12 2009-07-30 19:26:59
- radi0gnome
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- From: Kingston NY
- Registered: 2006-12-29
- Posts: 1030
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Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
Tairaku wrote:
I am negotiating with them to bring it to Tasmania for my MONA FOMA festival.
I'm still trying to figure out what it is. The website doesn't really say. Is it a mechanical device striking the bells with arms controlled by a computer?
"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580
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#13 2009-07-31 09:06:07
- lowonthetotem
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- From: Cape Coral, FL
- Registered: 2008-04-05
- Posts: 529
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Re: Longplayer - Longest song ever written?
'elitist' than Wild Turkey
Seems a shame to be a beer snob when a shot of the kickin' chicken and a cold bud are so good at cutting through the summer heat. I wonder how hot summers will be in 2999. My house is likely to be under water by then. Maybe we could save some money on this 1000 year long song and start a fund to get me a place on stilts with a whirley bird pad. Seems like a more sensible use of funds, of course I may be speaking out of self interest.
"Turn like a wheel inside a wheel."
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