The Cat Piano
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Jean-Baptiste (sois béni!) sent me a link to the Cat Piano.
In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a sharp spike into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of meows that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy. |
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Chill out, PETA. The cat piano was the work of a German scholar over 350 years ago. Athanasius Kircher designed the cat piano and documented it in the Musurgia Universalis in 1650. The piano was designed to raise the spirits... Read More
This strange music instrument was featured today at Régine's blog. “In order to raise the spirits of... Read More
In the 17th century a German Jesuit scholar called Athanasius Kircher made a Cat Piano. The invention was described in the book Musurgia Universalis published in two volumes in Rome in 1650. In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened ... Read More
In the 17th century a German Jesuit scholar called Athanasius Kircher made a Cat Piano. The invention was described in the book Musurgia Universalis published in two volumes in Rome in 1650. In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened ... Read More
that's so great, yes. siegfried zielinski was talking about the same piece when he was lecturing here. he didn't mention the desperation of the cats successively re-tuning the piano, though. ;)
I wonder if this is what inspired the Human Organ used to play "The Torturer's Apprentice" in Terry Gilliam's Baron Munchausen...
One of the Terrys (Jones or Gilliam) also had a similar sketch on MPFC, performed with mice and mallets.
And the Muppet Show, season 1 had a man pounding on fuzzy spherical critters who said "OW!"
Interesting that what people currently think of as an idea so depraved it can only be ridiculed was previously considered a marvelous amusement.
Maybe we are maturing, as a species, after all.
That's so awesome! I have to show a friend of mine this link - she and I had always wanted to make a handbell choir out of guniea pigs of various sizes, that would produce different notes when squeezed.
Amazing. The Late Bob Moog could have made an electronic version of this.
messed up. just very messed up. i don't like people or anyone that harms animals- especially pets like cats, dogs or birds...
messed up. just very messed up. i don't like people or anyone that harms animals- especially pets like cats, dogs or birds...
The real name for this instrument is the "Mewphonium" and I unearthed it way back in early 2001
I SO want one.
Could this be considered the first Mellotron?
One thing I don't get though, there's 30 keys, but only 7 cats - how's that supposed to work?
Nathan, I presume the theory of octave equivalence comes in to play. However, by that reckoning, there should be 11 cats, not 7. Unless you play everything in C major. Which is, I suppose, fitting.
The earlier models would occasionally rip tails off, sometimes taking entrails along for the ride. That's about the same time as when the performers started calling those instruments "organs".
pulp fiction veteran hugh cave used this in a novel, i think--'tales of the werewolf clan'.
This seems like a Baroque direct ancestor of the Jingle Cats (http://www.jinglecats.com/).
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. I have in this box twenty-three white mice. Mice which have been painstakingly trained over the past few years, to squeak at a selected pitch. (he raises a mouse by its tail) This is E sharp... and this one is G. You get the general idea. Now these mice are so arranged upon this rack, that when played in the correct order they will squeak 'The Bells of St Mary's'. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you on the mouse organ 'The Bells of St Mary's'. Thank you.
He produces two mallets. He starts striking the mice while singing quietly 'The Bells of St Mary's'. Each downward stroke of the mallet brings a terribly squashing sound and the expiring squeak. It is quite clear that he is slaughtering the mice. The musical effect is poor. After the first few notes people are shouting 'Stop it, stop him someone, Oh my God'. He cheerfully takes a bow. He is hauled off by the floor manager.
Heeheeheeheehee!
Maybe they should have stuck a nail in the guy instead.
Or just the Iron Maiden would do.
Crewl extremly .... Crewl
Picture looks cute, until you realise what actually makes the sounds from the piano!
He must have been a very sadistic prince.
Wow, it's weird how the people freaking out about this are universally those with the worst spelling and grammar. And why are they all double-posting? Here's a tip, kids; rapid-fire clicking on Post won't speed up the loading process.
Oh, shit, dude. I had the book this picture is from. It's amazing. LOL
Crewl? Do you per chance mean "Cruel"?
per chance? do u perhaps mean perchance?
Come on people! This was during the 1600's. Do you really think they thought or cared about animal cruelty?!
all of the people replying to this news article;if you want to call it one,are fucking assholes!there is nothing funny or cool about any cruelty to animals.let someone hit you in your ass with a nail fuckers!
Crosius, and others--
Your comment that we are evolving as a species "after all" takes the assumption that there weren't people who found it horrific in the Renaissance (almost certainly false), and that there aren't hundreds of people on the web right now spreading this picture around accompanied by chuckles (demonstrably false), and that there aren't plenty of "socially acceptable" forms of 'entertaining' and/or otherwise purposeful forms of animal cruelty taken the same or exponentially greater extents (patently false). Hopefully the comments above mine on this very same blog should adequately demonstrate what I'm talking about.
I love it - what a great idea. Very funny!!! And hey: Who cares about cats?