Chiverin

Songs in Space

“Perhaps the safest thing to do at the outset, if technology permits, is to send music. This language may be the best we have for explaining what we are like to others in space, with least ambiguity. I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging, of course, but it is surely excusable for us to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later. And, to do ourselves justice, music would give a fairer picture of what we are really like than some of the other things we might be sending, like Time, say, or a history of the U.N. or Presidential speeches. We could send out our science, of course, but just think of the wincing at this end when the polite comments arrive two hundred years from now. Whatever we offer as today’s items of liveliest interest are bound to be out of date and irrelevant, maybe even ridiculous. I think we should stick to music.”

Lewis Thomas in his 1974 publication The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher.

The idea of sending Bach as showing off was reiterated by Freeman Dyson in the Carl Sagan led discussions over which music should in fact be sent to space on the Golden Record… a discussion that made its way into popular culture via Douglas Adams; and later Stephen Fry on QI.

Ultimately the following songs were chosen and sent aboard Voyager in 1977.

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» Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
» Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
» Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
» Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
» Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
» Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
» “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
» New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
» Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
» Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
» Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
» Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
» Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
» “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
» Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
» Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
» Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
» Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
» Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
» Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
» Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
» Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
» Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
» China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
» India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
» “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
» Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37

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