Task 8 – The Golden Record

The thing that I noticed, listening to the podcast, was the progression or order that the music was listed. They started with the evolution of the planet, from big bang to humans using tools to modern transportation and launch of a space craft.  Then the music started in seemingly random order.  

In the podcast, Tim Ferris states that the order was chosen to represent various states of being, as well as human values (Voyager Golden Record, 2019, 09:13). As well, they wanted  “music from all around the world, not just from the culture that created the craft” (Voyager Golden Record, 2019,12:35). I wonder, though, while the intergalactic society may understand the music, would they understand the context? Like listening to a mystery sound, it is difficult to identify without any context. For this task, I decided to match the progression of the music with the progression of man and civilization though it’s music within an evolutionary frame.

Here, then, is my list, in evolutionary order.

1. Peru, Wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
2. Senegal, Percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
3. Peru, Panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
4. Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
5. Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
6. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
7. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera,
8. “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
9. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
10. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38

The Music

1. Peru “Wedding song” (John Cohen)

I chose this one first as the foundational piece, representing the beginnings of musical performance.  This haunting melody and acapella voice is simple and expressive. This aligns with the idea of “hauntingly beautiful” as Tim Ferris wanted, though it also represents one of the earliest forms of music.

2. Second is from Senegal “Percussion” (Charles Duvelle)

This is the natural progression from the voice is percussion, and this piece sounds like original percussion of people banging on things within their environment and using wind instruments like reeds and hollow tubes/flutes that are naturally found in their environment.

3. Peru, Panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima

From simple voice to percussion with natural instruments found in the environment, we move to more constructed instruments like panpipes. Rhythms and melody become more complex and layered as musical literacy progresses in a natural manner.

4. Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes

For the fourth selection, I chose to go with the Navajo piece, representing sophisticated tribal societies and the inclusion of spiritual themes with complex rhythm structures on top of simple instruments.

5. Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London.

Now we get into the development of larger city centres and expanded trade. The ‘Fairie Round” demonstrates increasing complexity in melody and rhythm and layers in terms of instruments and composition. Equating to the expansion of economic and societal intricacies in a burgeoning technological world.

6. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor.

In the podcast, Golden Record producer and astronomer Tim Ferris noted that one of the pieces should represent strong mathematical foundations (08:21), in case mathematics is a language that a future intergalactic being would understand.

7. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera,

Continuing with the theme of mathematically constructed music as humans progressed into greater technological advancement, we are presented with Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. The opera can be an example of how musical literacy was becoming more common and more accessible to the general public. This move towards more accessible performances to the general public is similar to how the printing press opened up a more literate world to the common person.

8. “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson

In a big leap over whole periods of musical development, we arrive at one of the grandfathers of blues. With it’s roots in folk traditions of the African culture, the Blues was the springboard for a wide variety of music in genres to come, so makes sense to include in such a foundational list of human achievements.

9. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven

With the popularity of blues in the 1900’s, it enabled more and more black artists to become popular (in Western Society) and jazz was introduced.  Jazz was a stepping stone for many of the forms of popular music we see in Western society today. So the next song in our musical evolutionary journey is the jazz inclusion from the late, great Louis Armstrong.

10. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry

And for the final track, I chose the most current song from the collection, popular rock & roll from the 1950’s. As the only rock and roll selection on the album, this had to be the last thought to bring us to the end of our very brief travel through the evolution of music on earth. While not all inclusive from a music of the world perspective, this list does provide a brief overview or snap shot of musical development on our planet.

Final Thoughts

It is amazingly difficult to put together any selection of music to represent the world. So many distinct cultural and societal influences happen to produce the music and sound that exists that it would be impossible to to chose just a few pieces and then to provide context for each one would be nigh impossible. There is an endless way to decide which songs go into such a collection, and endless ways of combining them. Would future intergalactic races understand mash-ups? In the decisions of what to keep, like Dr. Smith Rumsey (2017) states, what do we also lose? This will depend, of course, on the bias, whether conscious or not, of the person or people making the decisions, amoung other things that Dr. Smith Rumsey mentions around this subject.

References

Smith Rumsey, A. (2017, February 7). Why Digitize? •. CLIR. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80-2/

Taylor, D. (Host). (2019, April). Voyager golden record. Audio podcast episode]. In Twenty thousand hertz. Defacto Sound. 

Voyager’s Golden Record all songs. (n.d.). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3lxrIznkXXYS1K0PJ5_sou2QdE06Msve