Task # 8: Golden Record Curation Assignment

Although I found this week’s task to be very interesting and unique, I also found it quite challenging. It was extremely difficult for me to narrow down the musical contents from 27 tracks to 10. I felt a lot of pressure trying to choose songs that I felt would best represent Earth in terms of its diversity. The tracks I ended up choosing (along with some notes that I jotted down while listening to them) can be found below:

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Track # 6: Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43

• • Very unique tribal type music – Indonesian folk song
  • Instruments and singing
  • No consistent rhythm or beat
  • Sounds random
    

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Track # 8: Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56

• • Yodeling like (many voices ) performed in the Rainforests of the Congo
  • No instruments
    

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Track # 9: Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26

• • Instrument only at the beginning, then singing starts
  • Low pitched
  • Eerie feel
    

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Track # 15: Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55

• • Voice and music used – Opera style
  • High pitched
    

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Track # 16: Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18

• • Multiple voices – choir
  • Consistent humming in the background
  • No instruments used – voice/singing only
    

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Track # 18: “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05

• • Jazz-like music
  • Instruments (high quality ones used)
  • No voice/singing
    

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Track # 23: Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59

• • Continuous music from instruments
  • Voice singing
  • Sad music – after loss of something
    

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Track # 26: Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12

• • Instruments only no voice
  • Light/airy feel
  • Not digitalized
    

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Track # 27: Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38

• • Voice only, emotional
    

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Track # 29: India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30

• • Slow music with slow singing
  • Sad
  • Connected to the Voyager’s journey
    

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Orange text – Instruments ONLY, no voice/singing

Blue text – Combination of voice/singing and music

Green text – Voice ONLY, no instruments

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I tried to pick tracks that were extremely diverse in terms of their composition as well as where they originated from. I chose tracks that were voice or singing only, tracks that were music only composed using various instruments, and then lastly, tracks that were a combination of both music and voice/signing. I also chose a mix of tracks that were upbeat and fast and ones that were slow and soft. I felt by providing a diverse range of tracks we could maximize our ability to communicate with Extra-terrestrial life forms. Additionally, I tried to choose tracks that were from different places on Earth composed using a variety of instruments and singing in different languages. I chose tracks from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Although they were not included in the assignment’s list, I would have also included Tracks 1-5 in my Golden Record which were: Greetings given in different languages, whale sounds, sounds of Earth and other planets composed mathematically, and the sounds of Pre-historic Earth including the sounds of human life.