REPEAT 840 TIMES.

REPEAT 840 TIMES. The epic tennis match reminded me of a Talk of the Town piece I read in the New Yorker, apparently in 1963. The piece described the performance of a musical composition by Eric Satie. This wikipedia article told me that the piece is called “Vexations.” The piece is noteworthy because it it consists of a manuscript of a single page, no instrument specified, with an instruction which appears to say that the piece should be repeated 840 times. Although probably written in 1893, it was first performed in September, 1963 by a team of 12 pianists, and that performance must be the one that the New Yorker piece reported on. The performance lasted almost 19 hours, but wikipedia says that when Armin Fuchs performs it, which he has several times, it takes 28 hours. If you would like to hear half of a Vexation, wikipedia gives this link. If you would like hear the 28-hour version, wikipedia gives this link. I remember that the Talk of the Town author interviewed one of the people who had sat through the entire piece, and got a quote that I recall as: “After a while I saw what he was getting at.”