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624 Journal of the American Musicological Society Alien Listening: Voyager’s Golden Record and Music from Earth, by Daniel K. L. Chua and Alexander Rehding. New York: Zone Books, 2021. 271 pp. Of the humanly created objects we have managed to propel far away from our pale blue dot of a planet, none have traveled further than the two Voy- ager spacecraft probes that were launched in 1977. In addition to their sci- entific instruments, each probe was fitted with a gold-plated copper record, thirty centimeters in diameter, that was inscribed with instructions for play- back by a stylus that was tucked behind it. Prepared over six weeks by a team led by Carl Sagan, the records were intended to introduce humanity to ex- traterrestrial beings. They contained audio recordings of human greetings in fifty-five languages, thirty-five sounds from the planet, and ninety minutes of music that foregrounded a number of European and US styles while also in- cluding a representative sampling from around the globe. There were also 115 sonified images depicting human activity and written introductions from US congresspersons and President Jimmy Carter. Cast into deep space, these sounds and images were completely decontextualized from the partic- ular
Journal of the American Musicological Society – University of California Press
Published: Dec 1, 2022
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