Charts & Graphs

Voyager’s Infinite Playlist

The songs sent into space on the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft.

Selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan, these songs were etched into a 12-inch, gold-plated copper record that was placed aboard the two spaceships in 1977.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F, first movement (4:40)
  • Java: court gamelan, “Kind of Flowers” (4:43)
  • Senegal: percussion (2:08)
  • Zaire: Pygmy girls’ initiation song (0:56)
  • Australia: Aboriginal songs “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird” (0:56)
  • Mexico: “El Cascabel” (0:56)
  • Chuck Berry: “Johnny B. Goode” (2:38)
  • New Guinea: men’s house song (2:38)
  • Japan: flute, “Crane’s Nest” (2:38)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No. 3 in E major for violin, Gavotte en rondeau (2:38)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute, “Queen of the Night” aria (2:55)
  • Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic: chorus, “Tchakrulo” (2:18)
  • Peru: panpipes and drums (0:52)
  • Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven: “Melancholy Blues” (3:05)
  • Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic: bagpipes (2:30)
  • Igor Stravinsky: Rites of Spring, sacrificial dance (4:35)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No. 1 (4:48)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: Fifth Symphony, first movement (7:20)
  • Bulgaria: “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin” (4:59)
  • Navajo Indians: night chant (0:57)
  • Anthony Holborne: “The Fairie Round” (1:17)
  • Solomon Islands: panpipes (1:12)
  • Peru: wedding song (0:38)
  • China: “Flowing Streams” (7:37)
  • India: raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho” (3:30)
  • Blind Willie Johnson: “Dark Was the Night” (3:15)
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Op. 130, Cavatina (6:37)