Task: In 1977, NASA sent two phonograph records out into space aboard the Voyager spacecraft.
There are 27 pieces of music included on the Golden Record. For this activity, we want you to review the record's musical contents (Links to an external site.)and curate the 27 pieces down to 10 pieces only.
Pick 10, tell us which ones you pick, and explain what parameters and criteria you used to choose them. Three to five thoughtful sentences will suffice for your justification.
First off, this was an incredibly difficult task. It seems both weighty (don’t mess it up, this is for creatures that have never met humans!!) but also, in some ways, feels like it doesn’t matter at all (every piece of human media would be indicative of human-ness in one way or another).
When Ferris was originally choosing the music, he had only two criteria; "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." The final record includes “opera, rock 'n' roll, blues, classical music and field recordings selected by an ethnomusicologist” (Horowitz-Ghazi, 2017).
Something that stood out to me from Abby Smith’s lecture was her point about how impossible it is to know how things will be “read” in the future, even by other humans. She also talked about how context can be both a good thing, and a bad thing. That providing too much “context” is actually detrimental to the future viewer because it runs the risk of closing off alternative narratives, which we ourselves may believe to be the “wrong” ones, but which history may view differently (Brown University, 2017).
I do think the Golden Record is very indicative of its time because all the people who worked on this record were white men. They did do their best to include ethnic music and brought in an ethnographer (also a white, American man), so the record does include people of colour, which is amazing. However, with hindsight, it still reads as very “American” to me.
With an interest in uncovering some well known, era-specific biases, I decided that all my song choices would go towards pieces that were written or performed by women.(“Contents of the Voyager Golden Record,” 2022)
Wedding song - Peru
This song was performed by a young (unnamed) girl in Huancavelica, a city in Peru.
Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho
Sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar who was an Indian classical vocalist. She went on to become one of the most noted khayal singers of the second half of the 20th century.
Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin
Performed by Valya Mladenova Balkanska, a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope Mountains who specializes in folk songs.
The Magic Flute
This opera was composed by a man, but this particular piece is sung by German operatic soprano Edda Moser.
Ketawang: Puspåwårnå (Kinds of Flowers)
This song was composed by a man, but I can hear that there are female vocalists on it, though I was unable to find their names.
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro con brio
We’re officially out of female performers, so I chose this one because it was performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra which may have had female musicians in it, but was conducted by a man, Otto Klemperer. Composer was also a man, Ludwig van Bethoven.
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre Du Printemps), Part II: The Sacrifice: VI. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)
Same as above, this was performed by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. It was both composed and conducted by Igor Stravinsky, a man.
I know it said to choose ten, but there are only seven on the whole record with any kind of female affiliation. Even then, number 6 and 7 are a stretch, because it’s quite possible that prestigious orchestras didn’t allow female performers during the 1960’s and 70’s.
It’s also interesting to note that not one single song in the entire collection was composed by a woman (unless you count un-authored folk music, which I chose not to in this case). Also, none of the pieces were conducted, or even recorded by women.
Only five pieces include female voices, and one of those voices is an “unnamed girl” and another is an unnamed female voice. So actually there are only two named female performers out of the 27 tracks.
Thinking back to Abby Smith’s lecture, what we chose NOT to preserve says just as much about us as what we do (Brown University, 2017). Today, if we were to send a record into space, I guarantee that it would include more female voices. From conductors, to composers, ethnographers and musicians, women have worked very hard in the intervening years to be heard. Too bad their voices are still so small all the way out in space.
References
Brown University. (2017, July 11). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBrahqg9ZMc
Contents of the Voyager Golden Record. (2022). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Contents_of_the_Voyager_Golden_Record&oldid=1094094672
Horowitz-Ghazi, A. (2017, September 30). The Voyager Golden Record Finally Finds An Earthly Audience. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2017/09/30/554489944/the-voyager-golden-record-finally-finds-an-earthly-audience
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