What is the longest instrument?

Answer 1

If you are talking about Musical Instruments, then it is the pipe organ in the Macy's store in Center City Philadelphia. That is the largest functioning musical instrument.

The actual largest musical instrument is the pipe organ in the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. it is much bigger, but only about 10% functioning.

Answer 2

According to a Classic FM magazine, it is 639 years long, and is played on the organ. They started playing it in 2000The piece referred to in this answer is John Cage's Organ2/ASLSP, currently being played in the St Buchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany. The tempo marking for the piece is "As slowly as possible", which the performers chose to take quite literally. The performance began on 5 September 2001 with 17 months of silence (the piece begins with a rest) and the first sound to be heard was an E major chord on 5 February 2003. The performance time will, as stated above, be some 639 years, meaning that the piece will end, assuming that it's not terminated or interrupted by some unforeseen event, some time in the year 2640.

Just browsing the internet has produced results showing even longer pieces:

Jem Finer, founder member of The Pogues and award-winning composer, has written a computer-generated work called Longplayer which is designed to last 1000 years.

British composer Mel (real name Dr Ian D Mellish) has composed a piece called Olitsky, which is for four tape loops, each of different lengths. The four loops are started together. As each loop ends and re-starts it becomes out of synch with the others. The first time all four loops end and re-start simultaneously (and so come back into synch again) is after 1,648,171 years, 7 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 23 minutes and 33 seconds, which is the length of the piece.

As one internet commentator has said - what's the point of a piece of music if there's no possibility that you will ever hear the whole thing? With that in mind, here's a brief list of long pieces that you may get the chance to hear:

Vexations, for solo piano by Erik Satie (first public performance, instigated by John Cage, in New York in 1963, 18 hours 40 minutes)

The Veil of the Temple, an 'all-night vigil' for solo singers, choirs and orchestra by John Tavener (full version c. 7 hours, concert version 2 hours 40 minutes)

Sting Quartet II by Morton Feldman (CD and DVD recording by the FLUX Quartet, 6 hours, 7 minutes and 7 seconds)

Montag aus Licht, Opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen (CD recording 4 hours 42 minutes)

Symphony Number 3 by Gustav Mahler (c. 1 hour 40 minutes) - the longest symphony in the standard repertoire

Piano Concerto by Ferrucio Busoni (c. 1 hour 10 minutes) - not in the standard repertoire but CD recordings are available

Answer 3

götterdämmerung

Answer 4

alphorn

Answer 5

Trembita

Answer 6

the alphorn