Miss Cuddlywumps weighs the evidence on cats’ ability to appreciate music
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Humans have wondered various things about cats ever since
humans and cats first met. One thing humans have wondered about us is whether
we appreciate music. The answer to that question is quite simple:
Maybe. Under certain circumstances. If you play the correct
kind.
We (She of Little Talent and I) got to thinking about this
question after two recent studies about cats and music came to our attention.
The modern studies are interesting, but naturally we wondered what theories
might have dominated the exciting realm of music-loving cats a century (or so)
ago. We summarize our findings below.
First, the modern
One study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison found
that cats ignore human music and tend to prefer “cat music.” The cat music was
composed by David Teie to be played at a pitch and tempo intended to be
appealing to cats. If you have no idea what that means, go to musicforcats.com
and listen to the samples (the full-length tunes are also available for
purchase if you want to try them out on your cat).
The researchers visited the homes of various cats and played
two samples of classical music and two cat songs, noting the cats’ behavior.
They encountered the usual challenges in any attempt to study cats (“Some of
them needed to wake up and pay attention…”) but did find that the cats reacted
more positively to the cat music.
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A cat listening to
music during surgery.
Credit: Margaret Melling,
Editor, Journal of
Feline
Medicine and Surgery.
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The second study involved female cats under anesthesia for
spay surgery. The cats were fitted with headphones and listened to two minutes
each of Barber’s Adagio for Strings (op. 11), Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn,” and
AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” all while vets monitored their respiratory rate and
pupil diameter to track how deeply anesthetized they were. The cats were most
relaxed during the adagio and seemed more stressed during the AC/DC number.
Reactions to Natalie Imbruglia were somewhere in between.
None of that is surprising, but the results suggest that
perhaps playing relaxing music for cats during surgery could reduce the amount
of anesthesia needed. It doesn’t tell us, though, what musical genre cats would
prefer when awake.
Now, the historical
As proof that humans have long been intrigued by cats’
musical preferences, we dug up a few pertinent articles from the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
From The American Naturalist, February 1890
The author of this report provided several stories of cats
who responded to music. There was the cat who would respond to anyone who
whistled a “plaintive air” by jumping into their lap to examine their mouth. The
cat’s owner believed that the cat thought the whistler was in pain “and thus
endeavors to express her sympathy.”
Other cats were known to respond to whistling, some with
apparent pleasure, and some with uneasiness. We wonder if whistle-loving cats
interpret the sounds as birds chirping or mice squealing. And perhaps the
owners of whistle-averse cats just don’t whistle very well.
One English cat apparently loved piano music so much that
she would sometimes “jump on to the keys and rub herself against the hands of
the person playing.”
Another cat, this one from Washington, DC, enjoyed only
soft, low piano music and would become agitated at livelier numbers, sometimes
becoming so aggressive the player stopped out of fear of being scratched.
From The Roanoke Times, August 12, 1891
Here the writer claimed that cats were well known to enjoy the
piano. Cats exposed to piano playing
show every sign of feline enjoyment, purring, blinking their eyes and agitating their claws. Usually, too, they will venture on the piano keys themselves when they are alone, to find out what kind of harmony they can extract from the marvelous instrument.
Sometimes, according to the writer, cats “are not born
musicians, but can be educated.” Thus, a kitten who does not care for music can
grow into a cat who loves it. One such cat who grew into a love of music
preferred only the high notes and was somewhat afraid of bass notes.
(We must add that the same report claims that “cows cavort
in gladsome ungainliness when they hear sweet strains.”)
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Mark Twain holding
a kitten, 1907.
By Underwood &
Underwood
[Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons.
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From the Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 15,
1908
We’ll give the final word to Mark Twain, who said this about
the musical sensibilities of three kittens he “rented” one summer:
Hardly any cats are affected by music; but these are—when I sing they go reverently away, showing how deeply they feel it.
Or perhaps that reveals less about cats than about Mr.
Twain’s singing.
Sources
Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 15 March 1908. Chronicling
America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1908-03-15/ed-1/seq-29/>
SAGE Publications. "Cats relax to the sound of
music." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150330122530.htm
Stearns, Robert E. C. “Instances of the Effects of Musical
Sounds on Animals (Continued).” The
American Naturalist, vol. 24, no. 278 (Feb. 1890), pp. 123–30. Via JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2451437
The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.), 12 Aug. 1891. Chronicling
America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86071868/1891-08-12/ed-1/seq-5/>
University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Move over Mozart:
Study shows cats prefer their own beat." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150310160037.htm
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