Task #8.  Voyager Gold Record

I did for one did not really enjoy this task as I find that this music is well dated and could be easily replaced with new music and better choices that represent the human culture differently.  I am a big NASA nut; however I find this project of the golden record just something for the American hype of the space race.  I will say, it is amazing that Voyager is still out there and could one day be found by someone or something is pretty exciting. (If you have watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture, hopefully it doesn’t turn against us) If we believe there are alien life out there, some which can travel around the galaxies and visit Earth being undetected I am positive they are way past the record player by now.  Heck, if we look at the supposed Roswell New Mexico incident, there are reports of the wreckage of the space craft being made up of indestructible materials.  If this was true we know for certain that aliens are beyond a record player heck even a VHS tape would have been better to launch out into space.  Anyway, enough of my ranting but here is what I pulled out of the list to create my own list.

The tracks I am picking for my condensed record will be;

1. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
2. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
3. Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37
4. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
5. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
6. Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
7. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
8. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
9. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
10. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30

Reasoning:

The reason why I selected these 10 pieces of music was; For one, I was aware of who the artists were and had listened to some of these pieces before and second a few of the pieces were representations of how music has influenced the cultures. However being an American project they could have included a few more different nations to have the entire Earth represented. So I would also say I based it on music that plays to ones emotions and how music is influencing cultures. For example, Johnny B. Goode was created by the father of rock and roll. Times were changing and these songs helped shape their time periods in the history of humanity. Instrumental, classical music are pieces of music that play to one’s emotions there are no words.  Hopefully if an alien species was out there and they are capable of having emotions the classical music could would help them realize and familiarize themselves with the human culture before contacting us. That being said, if aliens found this record they wouldn’t really know any of this as they would if they could only get the record to play the music.

I am including a clip of Star Trek for those of you that don’t get my Star Trek reference above:)