Links: Music

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Logo for band Transit of Venushttp://transitofvenusproject.com/
Transit of Venus is self-described as "Some kind of Glam Indie Pop Rock thing."  Download the free Morning Star soundtrack to the transit of Venus trailer (to be released mid-January 2012).  Also in production (as of August 2010) is new album that features LeGentil and fictional account of his wife.  Several songs and video available for free download, with more for sale.

Cover page of John Philip Sousa's http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/venus/venus-home.html
Music and literature, with emphasis on John Philip Sousa.  The Library of Congress section 'Browse Materials' has three links to
  1. Sousa's Score/parts, audio, sheet music. Contains sound recording performed by the Virginia Grand Military band in 2003 with Loris Schissel conducting; Transit of Venus March 1883 notated music with original 1883 scoring and instruments; and and Transit of Venus March notated music, an updated arrangement of Sousa's original 1883 score so that this march could be played on modern instruments. This score is a 12-page scoring in 23 parts and is available as a PDF file directly at the following URL http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/transit/100010996/100010996.pdf. Thanks go to the IMAGE satellite E&PO program and to Mr. Loris Schissel and Susan Clermont at the Performing Arts Reading Room.
  2. Essay by Dr. Sten Odenwald about the significance of the transit of Venus.
  3. Related materials, including 12 additional transit-related music resources.

The original music page from 2004 Sun-Earth Day is at http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/transit/sousa.php.


Penn High School Orchestra performs Sousa's Transit of Venus Marchhttp://youtu.be/-rNQFUqt49Q
Penn High School Orchestra performs John Philip Sousa's Transit of Venus March in 2004.

Guy Ottewell's 2004 Cover/education/the-arts/149-song-mackey
Song by New Zealand folksinger Willow Mackey, which she composed for 1969 bicentennial of James Cooks voyage.  From Guy Ottewell.  Musician Matt Rumley records Ballad of James Cook, from the words and music of Willow Mackey.  Art Gorman and Jeff Tuholski also perform Young James Cook.


Music: Transit Galophttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/venus/venus-othermusic.html
Collection of other 18th and 19th century music related to the transit of Venus.  From Library of Congress, Music Division.

Three Days Grace album: Transit of Venus
http://www.threedaysgrace.com/
Three Days Grace album entitled Transit of Venus.  "Venus is passing by..." in song Sign of the Times.  Songs on YouTube at http://youtu.be/2yIoby6dQuc.

Artwork for band Transit of Venushttp://www.transitvenus.com/
Two New York musicians release 2008 album for free download under the band name Transit Venus.

Read more: Links: Music

 

Song Commemorates James Cook & Transit of Venus

In his 2004 Astronomical Companion, Guy Otttewell shared this song by New Zealand folksinger Willow Mackey.  Reproduced with permission of Guy Ottewell.   Hear it performed by Matt Rumley at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3291192/Ballad-of-Captain-Cook.m4a. 

From the 2004 Astronomical Companion:

Text from Guy Ottewell's 2004 Astronomical Companion
Music by folksinger Willow Mackey
 

Sousa Composes Transit of Venus March & Novel

 Sheet music (piccolo) for Sousa's Transit of Venus MarchCover of Sousa's Transit of Venus MarchAmerican bandmaster John Philip Sousa originally composed a spirited Transit of Venus 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.

Images: Library of Congress, Music Division.




Illustration from Sousa's Cover of Sousa's 1920 Novel Decades later, Sousa also penned a 1920 novel,Transit of Venus about a fictional voyage by a group of misogynists who embark to photograph a transit of Venus.  Known as the Alimony Club, they purport to have disdain for women, until the ship's captain reveals a hidden passenger--his niece Miranda.

Images: Chuck Bueter