Junior Rasmussen
The Voyager Golden Record is a message from Earth, carried on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which were launched by NASA in 1977. The record contains a variety of sounds, images, and greetings in 59 languages, intended to communicate a story of human life on Earth to extraterrestrials. One of the musical selections included on the record is the Wedding Song, recorded by folk singer and ethnomusicologist John Cohen, and attributed to an unknown artist, now identified as Young girl of Huancavelica. The inclusion of the Wedding Song on the Voyager Golden Record, along with other diverse musical selections, adds a human and emotional element to the message, with the hope that it will be understood and valued by any advanced spacefaring civilizations that may encounter it.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name of the Song | Wedding Song |
| Artist | John Cohen |
| Genre | Folk |
| Origin | South America |
| Reason for Inclusion | To represent South American tradition and evoke human emotion |
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What You'll Learn
- The Wedding Song was recorded by folk singer and ethnomusicologist John Cohen
- The song was recommended by Alan Lomax as it represented South American tradition
- The Voyager Golden Record contains 116 images and a variety of sounds
- The record is intended to communicate a story of the world of humans on Earth
- The record is expected to survive a billion years into the future
The Wedding Song was recorded by folk singer and ethnomusicologist John Cohen
The Wedding Song, recorded by folk singer and ethnomusicologist John Cohen, was included on the Voyager Golden Record, attached to the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in 1977. Cohen, a founding member of the New York-based string band, the New Lost City Ramblers, was also a photographer and filmmaker who documented traditional arts and music in the American South and in Peru.
Cohen's interest in Peru began in 1956 when he travelled to the Peruvian Andes to write his master's thesis on their weaving techniques. He visited the country eight times between 1956 and 2005, recording Andean music, making documentary films, and writing books about weaving, music, festivals, and dance. In Huancavelica, in 1964, Cohen and his wife, Penny, recorded a young woman singing The Wedding Song, which was selected for the Voyager record.
The Voyager Golden Record was a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of the world of humans on Earth to extraterrestrials. The inclusion of The Wedding Song on the record, therefore, gives a glimpse into human culture and tradition, specifically wedding rituals and the music associated with them. While the performer of The Wedding Song remains unknown, author Asif Siddiqi has pointed out that referring to her as an "unknown artist" is extremely dismissive of her contribution.
The Wedding Song is geographically relevant to the Voyager mission because, although neither Voyager spacecraft is heading toward any particular star, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light-years' distance of the star Gliese 445, currently in the constellation Camelopardalis, in about 40,000 years. Thus, the song, recorded in Peru, will travel through space and potentially reach another part of the galaxy, carrying with it a piece of human culture and history.
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The song was recommended by Alan Lomax as it represented South American tradition
In 1977, as preparations were being made for the launch of the two unmanned Voyager spacecraft, Carl Sagan, who was tasked by NASA to gather images, songs, and sounds that would represent Earth, contacted Alan Lomax for help with the musical selections. Lomax, an American ethnomusicologist, musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and filmmaker, was a persistent and vigorous advocate for including ethnic music in the Voyager Golden Record.
Lomax had just finished compiling an anthology of world songs, in which he and his colleagues chose 700 pieces that effectively illustrated the breadth and depth of human musical style. He contributed fifteen of the twenty-seven final performances that were featured on the Voyager record. One of these songs was a wedding song from Peru, recorded by John Cohen. This song was geographically relevant as it represented South American tradition and culture.
Lomax had a passion for collecting and preserving folk music traditions, and his work played an important role in the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. He collected songs and recordings from around the world, including Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean region, Italy, Spain, and the United States, using the latest recording technology. Lomax's contributions to the Voyager Golden Record helped to showcase the diversity of music and culture on Earth, and his selections, including the Peruvian wedding song, were chosen to represent the planet to any intelligent extraterrestrial life forms who may encounter the spacecraft.
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The Voyager Golden Record contains 116 images and a variety of sounds
The Voyager Golden Record is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disc containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The record is carried on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. The selection process took almost a year.
The record contains 116 images (one used for calibration) and a variety of sounds. The images are encoded in analogue form and composed of 512 vertical lines. The images detail human life on Earth and the planet itself. Many pictures are annotated with indications of scale, size, mass, and chemical composition. The remainder of the record is audio, designed to be played at 16+2/3 revolutions per minute.
The sounds on the record include natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder, and animals (including bird songs and whale songs). There are also human sounds, such as footsteps and laughter, and musical selections from different cultures and eras. The musical selection features works by composers such as J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky, as well as folk music from different regions. The record also includes spoken greetings in 59 languages (although one source states 55 languages) and printed messages from world leaders.
One notable musical selection on the Voyager Golden Record is the "Wedding Song", traditionally attributed to an unknown artist but now credited to "Young Girl of Huancavelica". The song is a South American folk song, and its inclusion on the record is intended to represent South American tradition and evoke human emotion. The identity of the performer of the "Wedding Song" is unknown, but it is believed that she may still be alive today.
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The record is intended to communicate a story of the world of humans on Earth
The Voyager Golden Record, carried on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, contains a variety of images and sounds selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University for NASA. The record is intended to communicate a story of the world of humans on Earth to potential extraterrestrials. It includes 116 images, some of which are annotated with indications of scale, size, mass, and chemical composition. The images depict human life on Earth and the planet itself.
The record also contains a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder, and animals, including bird songs and whale songs. Additionally, it features musical selections from different cultures and eras, with one notable example being the "Wedding Song," traditionally attributed to an unknown artist but now credited to "Young Girl of Huancavelica." The inclusion of this song, recommended by Alan Lomax, represents South American tradition and evokes a sense of humanity.
The Voyager record also includes spoken greetings in 59 languages, with the first greeting in Akkadian, spoken in Sumer about 6,000 years ago, and the last in Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Other human sounds like footsteps and laughter are also included. The record provides a glimpse into human feelings, thoughts, science, and music, with the hope that it will survive for a long time, even as Earth and its civilization undergo profound changes.
The record is a copper disk plated with nickel and gold, with an aluminium cover electroplated with a sample of the isotope uranium-238. This isotope has a half-life of 4.468 billion years, allowing potential recipients to determine the age of the record. The record is intended as a gift from a small, distant world, carrying a message of human existence and emotion across time and space.
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The record is expected to survive a billion years into the future
The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph record that was included on both the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. The record contains images and sounds that were selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended as a message to any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find it—a kind of time capsule. The contents of the record include 116 images, natural sounds, musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in 59 languages, human sounds like footsteps and laughter, and printed messages from political leaders. The record is expected to survive a billion years into the future, long after our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth is vastly changed.
The record was assembled by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University and included ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown. The selection of content for the record took almost a year. The musical selections include works by Chuck Berry, Blind Willie Johnson, and Valya Balkanska, among others. The record also includes a recording of the song "Wedding Song," performed by an artist who has traditionally been unknown but is now attributed to "Young Girl of Huancavelica." The inclusion of "Wedding Song" was likely due to its representation of South American tradition and its evocative and human sound.
The Voyager spacecraft are currently in interstellar space, the region between stars where galactic plasma is present. In about 40,000 years, they will come within about 1.8 light-years of two separate stars: Voyager 1 will approach the star Gliese 445 in the constellation Camelopardalis, and Voyager 2 will approach the star Ross 248 in the constellation Andromeda. The records are made of copper plated with nickel and gold, and their covers are aluminum with a sample of the isotope uranium-238 electroplated on them. Uranium-238 has a half-life of 4.468 billion years, which will allow any civilization that encounters the record to determine its age by measuring the ratio of remaining uranium to other elements.
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Frequently asked questions
The "Wedding Song" was included on the Voyager Golden Record to represent South American tradition and culture.
The Voyager Golden Record is a 12-inch copper disk, plated with nickel and gold, that was launched into space on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1977. It contains images, sounds, and music that represent human life on Earth and is intended to communicate with extraterrestrial life.
The music included on the Voyager Golden Record consisted of an eclectic mix of Eastern and Western classics, ethnic music, and folk music.
The music for the Voyager Golden Record was curated by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.
It is estimated that it will take about 40,000 years for the Voyager spacecraft to make a close approach to another planetary system.
