Music and animals

[cuberdrift]

Have you ever experienced a non-human creature respond to music? I've heard several accounts of pet dogs responding/howling to particular pieces. And singing parrots still fascinate me.

Have they any concept of "musicality"?

[outin]

I have a cat that responds especially to singing, but also to piano music sometimes. We haven't really discussed her concept of musicality though...

[cuberdrift]

I have a cat that responds especially to singing, but also to piano music sometimes. We haven't really discussed her concept of musicality though...

How does it react? And how is it different from reacting to 'noise'?

[outin]

How does it react? And how is it different from reacting to 'noise'?

When I sing certain songs she comes and does what cats do when they are very happy. Sometimes she does that to the speakers when I play piano recorded piano music.

She does not react that way to my acoustic, I think it's too loud.

[indianajo]

I owned a cat once, that when I would start singing sitting down, she would try to crawl up on me and scratch my face.  She would also do that cat growling/yowling thing.  That is how she took it, as an invitation to a fight. 
Other than that, she was a very nice cat. 

[outin]

That is how she took it, as an invitation to a fight. 

I'd love to hear a sample of your singing

[outin]

Interesting...I was playing Gaspard  (from the stereo system, not on the piano

The cat in question became extremely restless, walking around endlessly under the loudpreakers. When the piece stopped she stopped and calmed down.

This I haven't seen her do with anything else...

[amytsuda]

I am a major cat lady! I tend to attract cats in general. (I don't like dogs...)

In my previous house, there were many outdoor cats in the neighborhood. One day, I saw a stray cat sleeping outside of the window right next to where my Clavinova was located. I started to feed the stray cat. Then, she started to come and sit right outside of the window when I play on the Clavinova. She simply sat and close her eyes as if she was listening.  But 2 months later, she stopped visiting me completely. I never saw her again.

Then, I replaced Clavinova with a real grand piano. One week into the grand piano arrived, I was playing it while my husband was in a garage with a door open. The neighbor's cat, Rocky, came through the door straight into the house and came under the grand piano I was playing. Then, he started eating the vinyl tape on the floor, so I scolded him and picked him back to outside. He got so upset he never visited me again.

I think some cats do like piano sounds. Anyway, since my husband is a tenor who is allergic to cats, I can't have cats. But if I can, I'd go to SPCA and play some piano music and pick the one who comes forward 

[starlady]

Many of my pet birds have responded dramatically to music.  One budgie would sing along to 'Glad'*, all 8 minutes of it--he ignored all other songs but would stop whatever he was doing and chirp to 'Glad'.  I won money betting that he would do it.   And I had a canary that I swear was in love with Anna Netrebko.   

 I have no birds now, only a cat that barely tolerates piano music and actively hates Bartok.   Sigh. --s.

*in case you youngsters don't recognize that, look up 'John Barleycorn must die', 1970, great album, yes I am that old. 

[richardb]

Elephants seem to be quite musical.  Check this out

And this:

[chopincat]

My cat always rolls on the floor and starts purring every time I play Debussy's Arabesque #1!

[Bob]

Here's a bird keeping time and he's got to have some kind of phrase going in his mind.

I was surprised when I saw that the first time.  I think that bird is keeping its own beat and matching the person, not just imitating the person.  It's messing up the phrase a bit, but it sounds like it's got a phrase in mind, the motive it keeps repeating.


And there are several videos of people playing jazz for cows....

[Bob]

Dogs with perfect pitch...

[1piano4joe]

Hi cuberdrift,

I was playing acoustic guitar in a park one day. The guitar was in the car for some reason I don't remember.

On this particular day I felt like going for a walk and drove down to one of the local parks. I went for my walk.

I got back to my car and had this overwhelming urge to play the guitar. I took it out of the car and sat on the curb in the mostly empty parking lot.

I was playing Led Zeppelin when I noticed this seagull had been listening to me play. The longer I played the closer he came to me and the guitar.

At one point he was just one foot away from my right hip just sitting there. He wasn't singing but I thought I saw him nodding his head!  

He would NOT leave. I kept playing and playing. Eventually, a stranger came by and thought it most peculiar as well. She took a picture of me and the seagull. I wish I had it.

We talked briefly about music and animals. This seagull didn't seem to mind her presence even though she was standing so close.

This bird didn't fly away when I stopped playing but rather tilted it's head and just looked at me as if asking for an encore! It seemed to respond to different songs as if it really liked some and others less so.

One of the songs made him walk around in circles!

This was one very, very strange experience.

I wish I could relive that experience or remember it better, Joe.  

P.S. I found it remarkable that a WILD animal and NOT a pet would be so moved. What is it they say? Is it music soothes the savage beast?