This task was very difficult for me, as I kept hearing Rumsey’s (2017) words in my head, “How do we reflect process of history making?”. One of the considerations that helped me to decide what to keep, was which songs on the Golden Record could give future listeners a glimpse into our imagination (Rumsey, 2017). When choosing songs that I felt could accomplish this feat, I tried to choose pieces that pushed boundaries musically, or ones that used different musical modes. My second thought, when choosing what songs to keep, was that I should select songs with different contexts. Although all music is composed within a certain context, I picked songs that displayed rights of passage or roused people for significant events, like battles. Because I could only pick 10 songs to go on the record, and I wanted to steer away from depicting a monoculture (Rumsey, 2017), I also tried to include music that belonged to communities, such as Indigenous and folk music songs. Although I chose my final list with the the three categories in mind, I was also aware that all of these songs belong to overlapping groups, making the process more complicated.
Here is my (not so confidently chosen) list of the songs that will stay on the Golden Record:
Category #1: Imagination
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor
- https://youtu.be/Z694TLir3qg
- Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
- https://youtu.be/kkKxN9QJ2wI
- Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska
- https://youtu.be/ZP29VyGOLnw
Category #2: Contexts
- Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen
- https://youtu.be/GcwPMeqS97Y
- “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson
- https://youtu.be/V8AuYmID4wc
- “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven
- https://youtu.be/FgcC_-R1Qnk
- Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow
- https://youtu.be/bV85zrndvdY
- Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown
- https://youtu.be/OxeJc857Qwo
Category #3 Communities
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes.
- https://youtu.be/hAZLQgvAhCs
- Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes
- https://youtu.be/ew6JKb4k7hE
Brown University. (2017, July 11). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?” [Video] YouTube. https://youtu.be/FBrahqg9ZMc