In a letter to the New York Times, John Cage scholar David Grubbs takes issue with the widespread assumption that Cage's As Slow as Possible, or ASLSP, which Daniel Wakin has amusingly and edifyingly covered in the Times, is the longest work in musical history. In fact, Grubbs points out, it is "but a blink of the eye of Parsifal (1882-39,969,364,735 A.D.), by the Canadian artist Rodney Graham. Mr. Graham's composition takes a short, supplementary passage of music prepared by Wagner's assistant, Engelbert Humperdinck, for the 1882 premiere of Parsifal and extends it more than 39 billion years. In his notes to the project, Mr. Graham cautions that this estimate as to the work's length does not take into consideration the projected extinction of our solar system."
