Transit Music

[chukhung]

As I’m sure most Dopers realize, there will be a transit of Venus on June 8. This week’s edition of The Economist has an interesting article about the history of this phenomenon and its observation. One thing I found particularly intriguing in the article was this:

Nevertheless, the 1882 transit was a public sensation…*t was visible in both Europe and the United States. Thomas Hardy wrote a novel about it. John Philip Sousa wrote a bouncy march to mark the occasion. Telescopes were set up in town squares and millions of people had a look. After all, it was the last chance to see a transit of Venus until the 21st century…

Since some friends and I will be getting together to celebrate the current transit, I think it would be cool to have the appropriate music.

Does anybody know the name of the march Sousa wrote to commemorate the transit of Venus in 1882? Even better, can someone tell me if a recording of it is available on CD?

[panache45]

Yes, it’s called the Transit of Venus March (Sousa was never one for imaginative titles), and it sounds like most other Sousa Marches – BUM-pa-BUM-pa-BUM-pa-BUM-pa-BUM-pa-BUM-pa-BUM.

See this link:

http://www.transitofvenus.org/music.htm#sousa

[chukhung]

Great link, panache45. Thanks.

[Gyrate]

I’d go with Holst, personally. And maybe Wendy Carlos’s Digital Moonscapes, if synths are your bag.