Choices:
- Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor.
- Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown
- Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle.
- Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes.
- Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow
- Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi.
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes.
- Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen.
- China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu.
- India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar.
During her talk, just before she began to accept questions from her audience, Abby Smith Rumsey puts forward two questions which are, I think, vital to the understanding of which artifacts should be used to represent a particular culture or, in the case of the Golden Record, humanity’s musical culture as a whole. In essence, the questions relate to, first, what we want others, in the future, to know about us and, secondly, what we think those others would want to know about us. Even answering the first of these is fairly difficult, and answering the second, particularly for potential knowers very distant from us in time or space, is far more so. Therefore, I have attempted to narrow an already short list through geography so as to give potential listeners an opening on to the different types of music made in different parts of the world. Each of the pieces I have chosen is somehow unique, whether in the place it is produced, in any instruments used, or in the culture which produced it; the point is to show as wide a variety of music as possible so as to bring about an understanding of humanity’s music which is as broad as the limited number of selections permits.
