In 1977, NASA sent two phonograph records out into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft. For this activity, we have been asked to review  27 pieces of music included on the Golden Record and curate them down to 10 pieces only.

Here are the 10 pieces of music I have picked from the Voyager Golden Record:

  1. Track 1: Brandenburg Concerto (First Movement) Classical Music (Bach)
  2. Track 10: Gavotte en rondeaux Classical Music / Baroque Music (Bach)
  3. Track 11: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night aria) Classical Music / Opera (Mozart)
  4. Track 14: Melancholy Blues  Jazz, America’s classical music (Armstrong)
  5. Track 16: Rite of Spring (Sacrificial Dance) Classical Music / Ballet (Stravinsky)
  6. Track 17: The Well-Tempered Clavier Classical Music/Romantic Music (Bach)
  7. Track 18: Fifth Symphony (First Movement) Classical Music/ Romantic Music (Beethoven)
  8. Track 21: The Fairie Round Classical Music / Renaissance Music (Munrow)
  9. Track 25: Jaat Kahan Ho– Indian Classical Music (Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar)
  10. Track 27: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat  Classical Music / Romantic Music (Beethoven)

In the beginning, I wanted to select 10 music compositions based on the country and/or the continent where they originated. Upon observation, I have noticed that there are a lot of music compositions by Bach and Mozart on the list who are famous European composers. Although the Voyager Golden Record is said to be inclusive of different cultures, countries, and continents, it still made me wonder if the Euro-centric approach has been used to create this record?

I then decided not to focus on European composers and dismissed the idea of the world-famous Nasa being Euro-centric in any way and decided to curate the list down to 10 classical music pieces (please see above) and yet again, so many of them have originated from Europe and some pieces have been written by the same composer (3 compositions by Bach and 2 by Beethoven, for example). I am not saying that these composers and their music are not worth being included, it just makes me wonder why this has been the case and how the creators of the record would justify it?