# Forever in E-flat major



## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I've been thinking of the Voyager spacecraft, each out beyond the orbit of Pluto, heading off into the galaxy in the infinitesimal hope that something sentient might someday stumble upon one of them before the universe goes dark. Each of them contains a phonograph recording, carefully assembled by a committee under the watchful eye of Carl Sagan. It contains several dozen musical selections - classical, popular, ethnic - surely internationally egalitarian and representative of humankind's immense diversity. But potentially confusing enough to leave aliens figuratively scratching the equivalent of their figurative heads.

So I think, if I were to broadcast a thousand space probes in a thousand different directions just before Earth explodes, like Krypton, what piece of music would I send out to let the universe know we were here?

Rules? First, no words. How would Arcturans deal with, or even figure out, a Latin mass text? Or the Ring cycle? Or "Louie Louie?" Also, something intellectually rigorous and intriguing that shows how human music can be organized but doesn't presume similar emotional responses. The Voyager recording includes the Cavatina from Beethoven's B-flat quartet, but how would we know that our alien would be able to "feel" it the way we do? Or the slow fugue from the c-sharp minor? Or the _heiligedankgesang_ movement from Opus 132?

I admit to being drawn to a quartet. I think four voices would be apprehensible - even with double stops. And that a sufficiently intelligent alien might even be able to derive the idea of bowed and plucked strings.

So, as I've hinted at before, I would send out into the reaches of our small corner of space, Beethoven's Quartet in E-flat, Opus 127. Aside from being one of my favorites, I think it perfectly and creatively demonstrates the amazingly delightful complexity with which human music can be organized -- its diatonicity, the departure from and return to key areas and the adventures through which this can be accomplished. The rough outlines of sonata form, theme and variations, binary scherzo and trio. And the masterful genius that Beethoven brought to the process, the little harmonic tricks, the tricky rhythms, the delayed resolutions - all within a fairly strict classical structure bent not quite to the breaking point. This shows that we were thinking, structured, creative beings.

As Sagan and other masters of alien psychology have posited, mathematics may be the Universal language of intelligent beings, but I believe this music demonstrates an artistry and creativity that really marks our place in the cosmos. I would, personally, die quite contentedly knowing that this was out there representing our legacy.

What would _you _send?

george


----------

