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Transit of Venus Soundtrack
John Philip Sousa
Library of Congress Collection

Willow Mackey
Matt Rumley
The Chromatics
Franz Koklmann

Nigel Helyer and Simo Alitalo
The Singing Sun
Helioseismology
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Transit of Venus Soundtrack

label-audio.jpg (73630 bytes)http://analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate/transit.htm
The soundtrack to the Transit of Venus program is available for educators through the Great Lakes Planetarium Association (GLPA).  You can also view links to the audio CD contents and an order form

large imagehttp://www.rtaylor.co.uk/cgi-bin/buy/Operation/ItemLookup/ItemId/B0009FHLGM/
Once Around the Sun by Joby Talbot includes new song entitled "June: Transit of Venus."

John Philip Sousa

http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/ihas/
The Library of Congress has compiled a thorough collection of music related to the transit of Venus, including John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March.  You can see the entire history of Sousa's  piece, hear a modern orchestrated version, and download a FREE band score.  Sousa originally composed the march for the unveiling ceremony of the statue of Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.  The ceremony had been planned to occur before the 1882 transit, but didn't actually happen until April 19, 1883.  Henry, whose statue is now in front of the Smithsonian "Castle" in Washington, D.C., was on the U.S. Transit of Venus Commission.  (More info from Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum Venus Transit Background Reading- Music and Literature at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vtbackmusic.htm.

http://www.transitofvenus.org/phmband-intro.mp3
Megan Dowell, Family Readiness Leader of the 428th MP Company, and Chuck Bueter introduce John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March at the Spring Band Concert; (audio only).

http://www.transitofvenus.org/phmband.mp3
The PHM Band performs John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March at the Spring Band Concert; (audio only).

Cooks section pictures galleryhttp://johnwesleybarker.madasafish.com/compositions/transitofvenus.html
Transit of Venus for Flutes includes a solo study, a flute duet, and a concerto version, which commemorate the transit of Venus while noting the presence of flutes in the South Pacific as recorded by James Cook's expedition; from John Wesley Barker.  Image from http://transitofvenus.auckland.ac.nz/explorations/imggal/cooks_pg_arttahiti9.html. 

Image: Transit Galop Coverhttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/html/venus/venus-othermusic.html
The Library of Congress features other transit-related music within its holdings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/admin/emailfriend?contentId=A49214-2003Oct31&sent=no&referrer=emailarticle
Article in Washington Post details the efforts of Loras Schissel, the Virginia Grand Military Band, Sten Odenwald, and the Library of Congress to resurrect Sousa's Transit of Venus March. See Dusting Off a Rarity for Venus's Celestial March, by Reilly Capps, October 31, 2003. 

The Bovaco Catalog carries John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March band arrangement.  The march costs $25.00 (plus UPS shipping) for a reprint of each published part on 8.5 x 11-inch pages.  You may reproduce as many copies for your own use as necessary.  You may call them at (480) 948-9870 or write them at The Detroit Concert Band, Inc., 
7443 East Butherus, Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ 85260. 

http://www.dws.org/sousa/mid/transit.mid 
John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March; (MIDI file).  [Broken link, May 24, 2004] 
 

http://www.wgpark.com/page.asp?pid=10
John Philip Sousa, the famous bandmaster, wrote a 1920 novel Transit of Venus about an imaginary voyage to photograph the event.

Willow Mackey

ottewell.jpg (39996 bytes) The following is excerpted from the 2004 Astronomical Calendar, courtesy of Guy Ottewell.

Matt Rumley

The music of Matt Rumley is featured in the Transit of Venus program.  

The Chromatics

http://www.astrocappella.com/activities/
Meet the Neighbors: Planets Around Nearby Stars is an AstroCappella lesson plan to accompany their song Dance of the Planets.  High school students investigate the dimming caused by a transit; determine a planet's radius and orbital distance from transit data; and compare results of the extrasolar planetary system with our solar system; ( PDF file).

Franz Koklmann

http://www.jazzweekly.com/reviews/fkoglmann_venus.htm
Review of Franz Koklmann's Venus in Transit soundtrack.

Nigel Helyer and Simo Alitalo

Excerpted from http://www.abc.net.au/classic/lroom/stories/s386919.htm:

The Transit of Venus

Celebrating The Planets at night...An evocative radiophonic program exploring recorded observations on nature during the Transit of Venus and, most interestingly, contact and cohabitation with the peoples inhabiting the Pacific by those who travelled aboard Cook's Endeavour, as well as other voyagers like Bougainville. At the centre of this radiophonic meditation is the realised character of Herman Sporing, the Finnish draughtsman and naturalist who travelled with Cook.

The Singing Sun

________ http://solar-center.stanford.edu/singing/singing.html
Recordings of acoustical pressure waves (much like a bell) in the sun by SOHO spacecraft yield information about how the structure of the sun's interior shapes its surface.

Solar Music--Helioseismology

Computer image of cutaway of sun showing up and down pattern of one solar musical notehttp://www.noao.edu/education/ighelio/solar_music.html
Lesson plan on Solar Music- Helioseismology encourages students to listen to the Sun's heartbeat to learn about the inside of the Sun.

More Music

See also the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum's Music & Literature page at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/vtbackmusic.htm.  

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Loras Schissel and the Virginia Grand Military Band generously gave permission for their recording of Sousa's Transit of Venus March to be included in the Transit of Venus Program being compiled as part of a Toyota TAPESTRY grant for educators.  Visit the Transit of Venus clearinghouse at http://analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate/transit.htm for information on the distribution of this educational resource.

 

www.transitofvenus.org

Copyright ©2003-2008 Chuck Bueter.  All rights reserved.