With the Lord one day is like 639 years. (catholic tastes).

No need to worry about showing up late for this event. If you have to use the facilities in the middle of the concert, by all means, don't wait till the end. And certainly no one will think you're rude for falling asleep or walking out before the finale.

This concert is set to last for exactly 639 years. "The world's longest and slowest performance of a piece of music" hit its first three notes with an E-major chord in February. The sound, struck on an organ that is being constructed in the former Cistercian Abbey of St. Burchard in Halberstadt, Germany, will last for 17 months.

The piece, which will be performed through the year 2640, is a work by the late American avant-garde composer John Cage called [Organ.sup.2]/ASLSP. The ASLSP stands for "As Slow As Possible," and the organizers of the concert decided to take the composer's instruction literally. The project group--which included theologians, church musicians, music theorists, composers, an artist, and an organ builder--picked the 639-year length to commemorate that in the year 2000 the first modern Blockwerk organ--completed in 1361 in Halberstadt--was 639 years old.

The concert actually started on Sept. 5, 2001 with a 17-month initial rest that consisted of the inflating of the organ's bellows. On February 5, 2003 the first chord was played by an organist, but his work has since been taken over by weights that will hold down the organ keys until July 5, 2004.

The Rev. Klaus Rohring, one of the project organizers, recalls the famous passage of Ecclesiastes 3: "To everything there is a season." He adds, "In a time that is addicted to and threatens to perish from the mammon of sped-up time, we want to pass the message of this different experience of time on as an inheritance for future generations."

Next time your church organist gets carried away and plays too long or too slowly, just think of Halberstadt and count your blessings. (www.john-cage.halberstadt.de)