Tracks
- Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
- Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
- Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
- Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
- “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
- Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
- Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
- Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
Explanation
I picked the 10 tracks listed above. I made my selection based on the fact that all of these tracks contain singing. I hope that by including the human voice and a range of languages in each of my 10 tracks it would provide beings from another world a little more insight into who we humans are. Our voices are an essential part of human language and expression.
Would the beings from another world be able to recognize the difference between a human voice and any other musical instrument? Humans are usually pretty good at this, so I am going to assume our friends from other planets will too.
Based on my review of the 27 pieces of music included in the Voyager Golden Records there were 11 tracks that contained singing. To solve this problem I decided that no language could be represented more than once. There were two songs in English. I opted to omit “Dark Was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson, because “Johnny B. Goode” has an electric guitar and I thought its invention says something profound about human ingenuity….or maybe I just like ‘Back to the Future’.
Having made my selection, it occurs to me now that my list skews slightly towards a Euro-centric representation of the world if we consider that English, German, Spanish, Bulgarian and Georgian (close to Indo-European language) are all represented on the list, although I think that is in part a legacy of the original record compilers. I am also cognizant of the fact that by privileging the human voice I am neglecting other aspects of human identity and communication that are equally valuable.