Below is a list of the songs we have sent into space, forwarded by my friend Bill.

Is this the spacecraft that has the metal disc carved with a picture of a man and woman walking? In the new book The World Without Us (which I think is a mildly diverting read but certainly not worth the hype it has garnered) he has a chapter about that. If you look at the outline drawing of a man and woman walking it makes sense. I can't imagine, though, that any multi-eyed alien is going to know what to hell to make of it. That we are amoeba like, for instance.

(I think here is the "golden record". Or maybe this is the one with the music. I can't really sit through the flash animation. Shouldn't NASA do something else with its funding than make silly webpage flash animations like this?)

(It drives my wife nuts that I ask this often, but don't you think the space program is, simply, a waste of money?)

Sending mariachi music into space is not a waste of money, but why not send an entire mariachi band? (the opposite tactic has been tried before in NC politics)

I am encouraged that they didn't just send classical music to space, out of some misplaced idea that it is something someone actually wants to hear, and the inclusion of mariachi is truly commendable, but this list is somewhat painfully multicultural, isn't it?

Why, for instance, send unbearable Peruivan panpipe music rather than great Peruvian Huayno music? --so aliens get a taste of the major metropolitan office park complete with Peruvian Panpipers entertaining secretaries and tourists? And why a pygmy girls' initiation song? Is that really the best representation of world culture? And Navaho Indian chanting--that may be interesting ethnographically, and certainly is important to the Navaho, but is that something that is going to convince aliens to come down and give us a new post-oil future? And the New Guinea, men's house song? Don't they eat people in New Guinea? Is that the message we are trying to send to aliens? Why the mix of professional and folk music at all? If a snapshot of the world's music, where is the fiddle? That is an instrument played throughout the world. Why not Son Jarocho, one of man's greatest achievements? What about the banjo--this is a US spacecraft and that is the only truly American instrument. Why early British music? How painful. Why not Led Zeppelin? In particular, side 2 of Led Zeppelin IV.

And where, finally, is Ralph Stanley for pete's sake??

One thing we sent up is a brief recording of a "tame dog". Listen to it and tell me what possible lesson an alien will draw from this.


Voyager - Spacecraft - Golden Record - Music:

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