Sheet Music of the Week: Curiosity 1901 Edition

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"A signal from Mars," by Raymond Taylor. Arranged by E.T. Paull. New York: E. T. Paull Music Co., 1901.

The intelligent universe has been fascinated with the images coming from Tuesday’s landing of Curiosity, the new Mars rover.  Man’s fascination with celestial objects is as old as civilization itself, and 20th century musical ruminations on the planets range from Holst’s 1916 orchestral suite The Planets to jazz iconoclast Sun Ra’s “Interplanetary Music” on the 1967 album We travel the spaceways   to Paul McCartney and Wings’  1975 album Venus and Mars. But 20th century musical space may have been rung in by Raymond Taylor’s 1901 piece.  ”A signal from Mars” describes exactly what the world has been watching for this week, and  is it just a coincidence that the piece is arranged by “E. T.” Paull?

One Comment

  1. Eric Myers
    August 7, 2012 at 10:47 pm

    What a great cover!! I love early 20th Century depictions of Mars, space and other scientific wonders.. Cheers!

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