Top Ten Songs (In No Particular Order)
- Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
- This is an instrumental orchestra piece. I enjoyed listening to all the different instruments that were showcased throughout the piece. While I kept this piece, I did not keep the other two pieces by Bach as I wanted there to be some variety in the top ten.
- Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
- This piece is all percussion and I found it to be a fun to listen to. I enjoyed hearing the different percussion instruments and the upbeat nature of it. The song has a good beat and shows a range of percussion instruments.
- Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
- Panpipes are an interesting instrument that I am unfamiliar with. I liked the drumming beat in the background with the panpipes. I think it is good to showcase instruments from different parts of the world.
- “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
- This piece was familiar to me from movies and advertisements in my cultural realm. I enjoyed the trumpet and the fact that this song sounded different than the other pieces on the record.
- Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
- This piece was unfamiliar to me. I have never heard bagpipes sound this way as I have only ever heard Scottish bagpipes. These bagpipes are a very different sound and I wanted to include them on the record as a result.
- Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
- This piece was another orchestra piece, but very different from the other orchestra piece I kept. I liked that you could hear different instruments and melodies within the piece.
- Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
- This song immediately brought me back to being a kid and watching Bugs Bunny be a conductor. I love the variety in loud and soft sounds and the variety of instruments.
- Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
- The flutes were beautiful to listen to. They have such a pretty sound to them and the song is upbeat, which I also enjoyed.
- Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
- These panpipes sound very different to the panpipes from Peru, on the other side of the world. These panpipes almost remind me more of a recorder sound. Because they were from a different area of the world and sounded different, I kept this piece.
- China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
- This piece was a sound I have never heard before. I had to look it up and found out the sound was from a guqin, a seven-string instrument. I wanted to keep this piece as it was unlike the others.
I am not a musically inclined person, nor do I have much background information related to music or musical instruments. As as a result, I found this task challenging. To choose just ten of the pieces, I first listened to each of the pieces and jotted down my initial reaction. Was the song instrumental or were their vocals? Did I know the instrument being used? How did I enjoy the song? Was it similar to other songs? After listening to each song and taking notes, I created criteria to narrow down the songs. I read over my notes and noticed that some of the songs were by the same composer. This lead to my first criteria: Each piece of music would have a different composer/artist. With so many musicians in the world, there is no need to have multiple piece by the same person. I eliminated songs so that there was only one song for a composer. I then noticed that half of the pieces that were left had vocals, while the other half were instrumental. I debated back and forth about what I should keep. Should I focus on areas of the world? Male/female representation? Vocals and/or instrumental? This lead to my second criteria: Songs will not have vocals in them. I made the decision to cut the songs with vocals because I wanted the songs to be representative of the world and without a language being spoken, I felt that songs were more universal. It is the music that is the universal language, not the voices and words within them. Also, because there is also a track with people saying hello in different languages, voices are already represented in space. That left two songs to cut. At this point, I listened to the remaining songs and decided on my third criteria: Songs with a variety of instruments would have priority. I felt that the record should showcase a variety of instruments from the world.
Smith discusses what we can afford to lose as opposed to what we save (Brown University, 2017). Instead of thinking of creating a Golden Record as saving resources to share with those out in space, we can also think of the Golden Record as losing resources. There are millions and millions of songs that are a part of our world, yet the record only has 27. If Earth disappeared, the only music left would be those songs that were on the Golden Record. Are we ok to lose all the other music from planet Earth? Does the Golden Record represent all world and the music of various cultures? This makes me think about how different the Golden Record would be if it were created in today’s day and age, almost 45 years later. Would there be more variety in the representation of artists/songs – age, gender, culture etc.? Would any of the same songs still be on the record? How different would the selection process be now? So much has changed in our world in the last 45 years and I think this would really change what was chosen to represent the world!
References
Brown University. (2017, July 11). Abby smith rumsey: “digital memory: what can we afford to lose?” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrahqg9ZMc