Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime

Haydn: Quartet no. 49 in b minor, Op. 64/2

David Ludwig: Pale Blue Dot (2014)

Beethoven: Quartet no. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130

In 1977, NASA sent the Voyager Golden Record, which included selections of images, music, speech and sounds from around the world, into outer space. Beethoven’s sublime Cavatina from his opus 130 quartet was the final piece of music, and the project was directed by Carl Sagan, whose request to turn the Voyager around to take a portrait of Earth looking back on us as it was leaving the solar system from six billion miles away inspired David Ludwig’s 2014 workPale Blue Dot. One of Haydn’s quartets from the time Beethoven studied with him completes this program. As Jimmy Carter said at the time of the Voyager’s launch, “This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”