The Golden Record – The most epic album of all time.

After listening to the podcast and reading more about The Golden Record, I was intrigued to compile my curated list of 10 songs that I determined would best represent the music on our planet Earth. In the podcast, Voyager Golden Record, Timothy Ferris, who led the music selection for The Golden Record, stated that he wanted to select music that represented strong mathematical features and could properly introduce us by representing our human values. 

When listening through the list of songs included in the Voyager record and deciding how to narrow down my capsule to 10 songs,  three notable factors played a role in my selection process:

1. The Country of origin
2. The selection of musical instruments used in the piece 
3. The emotional response the piece of music elicited 

Unlike Timothy Ferris, I did not attribute a mathematical element to my collection as to me, music is an emotional rather than logical experience. Because music is an artform which can elicit different responses from different people, it is naturally challenging to have the same experience as another person, let alone another lifeform. Still, I wanted to use music that represented a variety of emotions including joy, fear, calm, excitement, melancholy and serenity.  I found it challenging to choose only 10 pieces that represented all parts of the Earth while also representing different emotions and exhibiting unique instrument sounds. I wanted to ensure that there was a variety of musical instruments from the different instrument families (percussion, string, brass, woodwind), including both female and male vocals. It was challenging to encapsulate these criteria with only 10 pieces, while equally representing the different geographical locations across the globe.

According to the Nasa website, songs on the Golden Record were “selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth”. With that in mind, and using the criteria aforementioned,  I chose to represent the diversity of Earth’s people, cultures and sounds with the following 10 selections:

1. Greetings from Earth –  To represent all the language sounds experienced across all geographical regions of our planet.
2. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
3. Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
4. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
5. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
6. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
7. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
8. Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
9. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
10. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05

References

NASA. (n.d.). What are the contents of the Golden Record?. Voyager. https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden- record/whats-on-the-record/

Taylor, D. (Host). (2016-present). Voyager Golden Record [Audio podcast episode]. Twenty Thousand Hertz. https://www.20k.org/episodes/voyagergoldenrecord?rq=golden%20record