Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?

Subject: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Áine
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 05:52 PM

The latest Mars probe seems doomed to permanent silence. The day it was to land, I heard on the radio that a publicly funded organization had raised money for an experiment to 'piggyback' on the probe. This experiment was to see if there was any 'ambient' sound on the planet and was equipped with two high-powered hearing aids that were to send back the 'natural' sounds, if there were any.

Now that it seems the world will have to wait for the 'real' thing, what do you Mudcatters think the planet of Mars sounds like? And how would you translate that sound into music? What instruments would you use for what kind of effect? If you were to write a song, would you use words, chants, or what?

Talk amongst yourselves and let's create the First Mudcat Cafe Mars Symphony!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: marcelloblues
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 06:49 PM

Once I started writing a song about this but then i dropped it, it was something like:

If the aliens ever come, Just let them know the Blues, If them aliens ever come, You let them know the Blues, They're gonna give Peace on Earth, And Blues all over the Universe.

Cheers from Mars

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 07:14 PM

All that way, just to hear the wind..... I've eaten baked beans, they could send it here for that!!

LTS (whoisratherpissedandinastrangeandsarcasticmood,havingbeendrinkingwiththecurate....)

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Áine
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 07:23 PM

Ah come on Liz! Play the game!! What you would reproduce *your* wind with? An oboe? A Low D flute? What??

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 07:55 PM

Probably a crumhorn.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 09:09 PM

for a wonderful song about Mars, which captures the spirit and 'mystique' ...get Jon Eberhart's tape/album from Sandy Paton...(lots of other great music on it too!)..Jon was a science writer for many years, and a fine musician, and used to cover the space missions at JPL....the liner notes are worth the price of admission....

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Mbo
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 09:20 PM

I think Gustav Holst does an excellent job of it. But, I would probably represent the sound of Mars with some Irish low pipes, maybe an Uillean pipe drone, a digeridoo, and those neat swirly noises you can make on a cymbal with a wire brush.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 09:40 PM

Ya know why I luvya Aine? 'Cause you're completely off the friggin' wall.

....and don't worry about Squeaks. She has a chest hair problem (me).

Spaw

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 09:50 PM

I'll bet the Martians sing some sort of probe dismantling shanties.

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Áine
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 09:58 PM

Good one there Birthday Girl!! Let's see, I'll start and y'all join in:

Yo ho, tip over the rover, Yo ho, and over it goes Yo ho, tip over the rover, And watch all the little nodes close!

NEXT????

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: MMario
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 10:02 PM

obviously the martians are so much more advanced then we that they are overiding the signals from our probes in an effort to convince the primitive earthlings that mars is uninhabited. Luckily E.R. Burroughs discovered the scheme and tipped people off in a cleverly disguised documentary series.

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: JedMarum
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 11:42 PM

I think ... sounds of silence

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Penny S.
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 05:39 AM

Knowing a demented terraformer, my friend and I would suggest "We'll build a world of our own"

Penny

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: danleighton
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 07:56 AM

A little ditty for the Martian Probe

To the tune of my Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

dan

my Probie lies in martian swamp land

my Probie aint listening to me

my Probie lies in martian swamp land

oh send back a signal to me!

send back, send back,

oh send back a signal to me, to me!

send back, send back,

oh send back a signal to me, to me!

my Probie has bent its antenna

my Probie seems awfully dead

my Probie has had a malfunction

it landed upside on its head

landed, landed,

it landed upside on its head, its head

landed, landed,

it landed upside on its head

my Probie cost 200 million

and this is what causes me pain

i think that another small error

has just flushed my cash down the drain

millions, millions,

200 million in flames, in flames

millions, millions,

200 million in flames

my next Probies just being built now

we've got it in parts in the shed

i'll just go and stick it together

this one better work or we're dead!

we're dead, we're dead,

if we lose another in outer space

we're dead, we're dead

if we lose another in space

my Probie is all built in metric

not inches, feet, yards or furlong

so entering imperial distance

will make its re-entry all wrong

burnt up, burnt up,

on entering atmosphere far too quick

burnt up, burnt up,

i think i am going to be sick

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 07:59 AM

That's Great Dan! I think you oughta send that in to NASA -- wouldn't it just *make* their day!

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: danleighton
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 08:58 AM

I thought I might just do that...

I wonder if they have a discussion forum?

I shall try it.

Dan

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: danleighton
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 09:05 AM

pity - I couldn't find anywhere to send it...

oh well...

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Áine
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 09:08 AM

Dan,

You could always mail it to them. Funny that, having to go 'low tech' to send something to NASA?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: danleighton
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 09:34 AM

I feel perhaps the low tech approach is what landed them in trouble with their Probe this time - poor little thing!

dan

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Penny S.
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 11:47 AM

Try this one

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/ask/question.html

NASA Mars site

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: danleighton
Date: 26 Nov 24 - 11:38 AM

Ha. This was prescient. Never did submit it to NASA!

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 27 Nov 24 - 04:54 PM

Lament for a Red Planet
Jonathan Eberhart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0WiSV7L5Q

Ten thousand times a hundred thousand dusty years ago
Where now extends the plain of gold did once my river flow
It stroked the stones and spoke in tongues and splashed against my face
Till ages rolled - the sun shown cold on this unholy place

So many stars bedeck my skies when once there were but few
But oh, to know again the clouds that hid them from my view
My ocre cliffs and rusted sands stand regal and serene
But oh my wan and wasted world I miss your blue and green

But it's just the weight of waiting not a death watch [f?]or a friend
Tomorrow has a starting as does yesterday an end
For the water of my river and the air that was my wind
Though bound in rocks and wintry wastes I pray ??? again

My ocre cliffs and rusted sands stand regal and serene
But oh my one and wasted world I miss your blue and green

Subject: RE: Music from Mars-How Would You Do It?
From: Pappy Fiddle
Date: 27 Nov 24 - 05:06 PM

Photos showed these wierd tracks in the Martian surface. A mystery. Finally, one of the landers captured a picture of a dust devil, mystery explained. So there is wind. The atmosphere is mostly CO2, and thin, but enough to have some wind. So you need some whooshy whirly wind sounds.

Also there are Marsquakes. Rocks are the same density as the sand, but when things shake a little, some sand slips down from above a rock to underneath. This has the effect that rocks buried in sand gradually rise to the surface. So you need some sandy streamy sounds, with occasional somethings as a rock comes to the surface.

Also the sand gets ripples and trails as the wind swirls around rock formations.

In my opinion, Mars has never had life. It was created bare, and will have life at some point. Right now it's in a holding orbit while God works with the earth. So your composition should look to the exciting future...