What a fun task this week! Similar to Carl Sagan (Taylor, 2019), I also consider myself a music critic and spend any moment I can with music. Whether I am driving, teaching, studying, exercising, or relaxing, I am always looking for the next opportunity to listen to music. I think music is such an overstated yet underestimated form of language. For both my ELL, English, and FSL students, I try to use music to teach them different topics like poetry, vocabulary, pronunciation, and intonation. This connection we have and the need to create music is arguably an humanistic trait or inhibition. Its a way to share emotion, connection, culture, language, and ideas.
For this task, I decided to proceed with my interpretation of humanity: our environment, our body, our mind, and our spirit. In my explanation for my choices, I will connect to how I think each song may reflect one of or multiple of these forms of humanity.
Track 2: Kinds of Flowers
I chose this song as I love the connection of flowers to emotions. This song closely connects to the environment and mind aspect of human beings. I love that it uses metaphors which reflect the human experience. Moreover, I think it sounds beautiful, yet fun.
Track 4: Pygmy Girls’ Initiation Song
In doing my research on this song, I believe that it is a song which discusses the initiation of womanhood. I feel like this encapsulates the body, spirit, and mind of human existence. It discusses our growth, evolution, and connection to our bodies and communities. Though I do not understand the lyrics, its upbeat radiates the feeling of being proud.
Track 5: Morning Star & Devil Bird
This song connects to both the spirit and the environment. Though I am unfamiliar with Arnhem Land spirituality, I would still consider myself spiritual. Personally, I think I related to the ideas of this song as they speak to an ancestor, not a deity. It’s this idea of talking to ‘something/someone’ out there that actually reflects the purpose of the voyager. For the Morning Star to be relative of the peoples, I interpreted it as interconnectedness of people, place, and time.
Track 6: El Cascabel
I can’t help but to want to dance when I hear this song! This song represents body and mind as it connects both parts of humanity seamlessly. It is fun, playful, and truly reflects that smiling feeling of dancing with your close ones to celebrate.
Track 14: Melancholy Blues
Though wordless, this classic represents more than just the Blues, it also represents resilience. I believe this song connects to mind and spirit as it uses raw emotion to connect to the human rights of freedom. This song symbolized the inequalities and segregation in the time, which I think is a shameful, yet important part of human history which can not be erased from history.
Track 16: Rite of Spring (Sacrificial Dance)
This intensity to this song is shocking yet intriguing. I connect it to body and mind as it is able to make people feel uncomfortable, confused, or cautious just by its juxtaposing sounds and quick rhythm. Though composed for a ballet, this song shows a new perspective on art and storytelling and I can see why people would have been furious to hear this when they were expecting a calming experience (Taylor, 2019). Though at first, I didn’t think harsh and abrasive sounding music would be appropriate for a first contact, I thought about how our interpretation of emotion from music is not just a generic human experience, but a very cultural, communal, and individual experience. A song that may sound happy to one society, may sound the opposite in another.
Track 19: Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin
Though I don’t think battle songs are the most ideal, this sound tells more of a tale of standing up to oppressors. I connect this to mind and environment, as this song represents the rebellion of a group of people in their homelands and their beliefs. The stunning vocals make this song captivating while also expressing the human need to be free.
Track 20: Night Chant
The sound of the dancers reflects the human need to dance. This is why I would connect it to the body as it also reflects ceremonial healing. This healing is then connected between the body and the universe so I also argue that it is also spiritually connected to. The voice singing together also reflects the human need to socialize and make relationships.
Track 24: Flowing Streams
Water is vital for not only human existence, but also all life on the planet. I don’t think this record would be appropriate if it didn’t connect to our connection to water. This song embodies our environment and the importance of sustaining life. The instruments are used to mimic the movement and flowing of water.
Track 27: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat
In terms of musical mastery and layering of complex sounds and tones, I think that this song is a perfect example of human excellence. I would connect this to mind and spirit specifically knowing the experience of the composer whilst making this. The experience of losing your hearing when your life revolves around music is an irony that I think many humans will never experience, but can momentarily grasp if you listen to his work. This song symbolizes how music can help us immerse ourselves in experiences, memories, and emotions.
I think if we were to do this again, the songs would look a lot different, not regionally, but more in terms of new songs coming up that people have connected to and identify with. As music becomes more and more accessible, not only to listen to, but now to make, I think there are songs that are able to encapsulate the human experience. I would also like to mention that though this song was more or less geographically, ethnically, and culturally diverse, there is some disparity in terms of gender. From my research, I identified that only around 6 artists/composers were women. Moreover, they used multiples of the same composers (Bach and Beethoven). With limited space, I think there could have been more opportunity for realistic representation of artists.
Reference:
Taylor, D. (2019). Voyager golden record. [Audio podcast episode]. In Twenty thousand hertz. Defacto Sound.
