Choosing 10 pieces of music to represent humans to extraterrestrial life was a bit of a daunting task. There were a couple of takeaways from this week`s reading and podcast that shaped my selections. Dr. Leetaru’s visual map of the reduction of digital works archived over time because of copyright also brought to my attention the vast gap between materials archived between western nations and other countries. And Dr. Smith Rumsey made an important point regarding the challenge of curation being that we do not know in the present the value of artifacts in the future. With these two points in mind, I tried to avoid my personal bias and familiarity with western composer like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart and other familiar pieces and tried to select 10 pieces that would cover as much of the globe and different cultures as possible. These are the 10 pieces I selected. 

1. Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56 
2. Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26 
3. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14 
4. Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51 
5. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20 
6. Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57 
7. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38 
8. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37 
9. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30 
10. “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15