The Music On Voyager?

Subject: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 May 99 - 05:24 PM

The BBC is showing a series at the moment called The Planets. This week it was about the Voyager missions. The poor old thing is still travelling it's lonely course to 'God knows where'.

On board are some things that will tell who ever finds it, something about us. If you CLICKY HERE you will see a list of the music that is being taken as representitive.

What would you take off and what would you replace it with?

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 May 99 - 07:09 PM

Rick

Louis Armstrong and the Hot Seven are out of this world!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Banjer
Date: 14 May 99 - 08:59 PM

That's all they sent??? Hell, there ain't no Bluegrass, no Appalachian Mountain music, not even any Carter Family, or the Stanley Brothers, or Lester an' Earl....How is whoever finds and plays that there thingy gonna know we'uns is cultured?? Lord a mercy, Maw, git down to Mabels an' see can call them there Voyager fellers an' ask 'em to send up annuther one o' them there things an' this time put some real music on it!! By gum, thet ain't how Earl woulda did it.....

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 May 99 - 02:26 AM

In their defence, in was launched in 1977. So we are spared quite a lot.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Llanfair
Date: 15 May 99 - 07:45 PM

Oh, THAT Voyager!!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 16 May 99 - 02:01 AM

Yes, I'm sorry. I did not think of the Star Trek angle when I wrote the title of the thread.

Mind you The music to that is pretty good too.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:11 PM

Along with the music, we sent them a nuclear reactor with plutonium?

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:30 PM

I think the selections are pretty good; western 'classical' music is over-represented, I think. Seems like that's what they used to represent western Europe. I would have liked to see more folk music, myself. But I see Azeri bagpipes, so I'm happy. >:)

They also sent greetings to the space folk in 55 languages. In Amoy, the greeting translates as: "Friends of space, how are you all? Have you eaten yet? Come visit us if you have time." Eeek!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: GUEST,rusty
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:34 PM

At least the spice girls ar'nt on it, eh!!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:36 PM

Pretty good range of music. Of the things I know there's nothing I'd want to ditch. Well, I'd swap the Stravinsky for more Mozart. Things to add? I'd want some Irish (maybe Dordán could play the extra Mozart), some French hurdy-gurdy, and Pete Seeger playing Goofing-off suite. For a start.

But it looks pretty good. Can you get it on CD without living in Alpha Centauri?

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Mbo
Date: 29 Jun 00 - 07:46 PM

Yeah, McGrath, I was disappointed with the classical music myself!
I DO like the Prelude & Fugue in C by Bach, but Brandenburg Concerto No.2? The 3rd Movement to No.3 is sooo much cooler, especially when played by the Moog Synthesizer on "Switched On Bach."
I would have swapped out that particular Stravinsky in favor of "Danse Infernale du Katchei Roi". Or maybe some Orff...
The Mozart is okay....I like "Non Pui Andrai" from Figaro better than the Queen of the Night. Actually, I'd rather have Puccini opera than Mozart.
The Violin Partita NEEDS to go...where is the classical guitar music?? Put "Recuerdos Del Alhambra" by Albeniz in there, maybe some Villa-Lobos, or perhaps Torroba?
I'm rambling....

--Mbo

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 04:12 PM

I thought with the news this week that it was now 8 thousand million miles away, it may be a idea to refresh this thread for some more views.......

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Sibelius
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 04:23 PM

I always thought my 5th Symphony was rather good!

Failing that, how about the 'Portsmouth Symphonia'? That should keep us happily isolated from other life-forms for another few trillion years.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Devilmaster
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 04:36 PM

After looking at the list, (and now wanting to go find all this music that I don't have) i realized that NASA probably spent a ton on money to have experts pick and choose what to send.

Without having heard all pieces, (or at least thinking i haven't) do you think that they strived to get a general 'feel' to the selection? Any thoughts?

And why haven't they ever thought of putting this out on CD, tape or LP? The space geeks probably would go ape over something like this? Could have saved the American taxpayer a tidy penny.

Steve

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Don Firth
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 05:29 PM

8,000,000,000 miles. Well, if I did my sums right, that works out to about 1/3000th of the way to Alpha Centauri, if indeed, it's even going in that direction, which I suspect it isn't. Unless there are some Klingons, Moties, or other li'l green folks roaming around out there, it may be awhile before the critical notices come in.

Yeah, I might have made a few other choices, but in general, within space(!) limitations, the list looks pretty good to me.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 21 Aug 02 - 06:30 PM

Quote from Capt Janeway on last night's Voyager "get those Klingons off my tail".

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: fogie
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 05:14 AM

You know they should have musical clickies on the voyager site so we can hear what Peruvian fertility thong songs are all about, Someones had a broad musical education, I bet its those nice girls on Radio 3 at 10.30.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: C-flat
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 06:41 AM

Given that it will take about forty thousand years before it reaches another solar system (even travelling at a million miles a day), whatever we chose to put on it would not likely be representative of earth and its occupants should it be discovered by another sentient species somewhere in deep space.
If it were to somehow crash land back on earth in forty thousand years time the people of the world would probably not know what to make of it!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Crane Driver
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 01:57 PM

Given that it was launched back in 1977, the chances are that if it came back to Earth NOW most of us wouldn't be able to play the music on it. What format is it in? Not CD, obviously. Was it digital, or analogue? What are the chances of any truly alien species having a compatible music playback system, or even of recognising it as music? Perhaps aliens prefer the Spice Girls (someone has to). Perhaps Mozart will translate into alien as a declaration of war (I know a few pubs like that). Thankfully the chances of it ever being seen again by anything are several orders of magnitude less than those of me winning the British National Lottery, and I don't buy tickets.

Isn't space science exciting?

Andrew

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Aug 02 - 04:44 PM

Very disappointing list. NO slack key guitar!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: C-flat
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 06:38 PM

Crane Driver, I bet it's on 8-track!
I miss those wobbly old suckers!

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Aug 02 - 08:56 PM

No late renaissance-early baroque polyphony; a number of major choral masterpieces here. And where is "In the Pines" and "Blue Yodel No. 2"? All in all, a disappointing list.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 02:12 PM

I was just thinking of Carl Sagan's novel Contact and the subsequent movie, in which the aliens (or whoever) transmitted instructions for building a space/time traveling device. Suppose whoever finds Voyager doesn't recognize the music as music, assumes that it's instructions on how to build something, and then proceeds to build it. What, I wonder, might they come up with?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 24 Aug 02 - 02:47 PM

If the music don't get 'em, the plutonium will.

Subject: RE: The Music On Voyager?
From: The Shambles
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:27 PM

The link does not seem to work now – so here is another and the list of the music itself.
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html

Music On Voyager Record
 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