I resonated with this task as my husband and I recently watched the Irish Documentary, The Farthest (2017), and learned about the journey of Voyager 1 and 2. The documentary features most of the original scientists who were a part of the NASA team and shared many insightful interviews and facts that were fascinating to learn about.
I’ve included the trailer below for anyone interested:
After listening to the album numerous times, I reflected on what a challenging task it must have been for the original committee chaired by Carl Sagan to decide how the different audio tracks would sufficiently represent worldly music genres and eras of songs. In addition, even the selection of languages, greetings and images would have been overwhelmingly difficult to choose from – how does one narrow down every language in the world to decide who ‘makes the cut’? I appreciated that Carl Sagan is quoted saying in the podcast ‘One was: Let’s cast a wide net. Let’s try to get music from all over the planet, and secondly: Let’s make a good record.” Inspired by Carl Sagan’s mentality, after much deliberation with my husband on which tracks our favourites, we narrowed it down to a selected ten. I felt these selections still allowed a broad range of genres and musical eras.
I chose:
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
- “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
- “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
- Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
- Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
- Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
- Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
- Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
- “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15