Cats' response to music

[James]

In one of my previous posts I mentioned my interest in feline sensory skills. Although I have researched this subject in relation to human beings, the area of feline senses was new to me. What I did discover is that as with so many other skills, felines are extremely sophisticated little creatures.

Felines can pick up extremely high-frequency tones—about two octaves higher than those that humans can hear, and half an octave higher than those that dogs can hear. They can triangulate on the location of an individual sound by comparing the minute differences in its tone and arrival time at their two ears. An organ in the inner ear called the vestibular apparatus senses a cat's position in space and allows it to usually land on its feet when dropped.

Our beloved cat Dunkley was extremely interested in music and this prompted me to look at this area more closely and compare the findings with what I already know about human auditory sense.

In-common with most felines, Dunkley was more responsive to certain notes in the chromatic scale. The intervals between notes in the chromatic musical scale correspond to key human speech tones. These peaks allow us to recognise vowel sounds and may help explain why humans (and cats) appreciate certain tones as musical.

Researchers into music preferences expected to be able to map common voice modulation over commonly used scales, but the intervals were not the same. The team then turned to what are called 'formants'.

When an instrument produces a note, that note can be represented as a spectrum. Formants are the most important frequency components represented when an instrument, including the human voice box, generates a note. When a person speaks a vowel sound, it is those strongest pitches, or formants, that make the sound distinguishable from other vowel sounds. Analysis of spectra created by music and spoken vowels (the spectra were represented visually) revealed that 68 percent of the time, the same intervals that create the music deemed pleasing by humans across time and geography were also emphasised when people spoke vowel sounds.

The emphasised harmonics in human speech—the frequencies that harmonise and form what we recognise as a person speaking a vowel sound—are often the same as our chromatic musical intervals. In other words, the tones of music are actually embedded in our speech.

Cats respond with pleasure to familiar human speech and seem to prefer music which which corresponds with this common spectra. Dunkley was particularly fond of music that contained certain rhythmic patterns and frequency. She was especially responsive to recordings of me singing and she recognised my voice immediately, sitting as close to the floor-mounted speakers as possible.

I imagine that most cat servants here can relate interesting accounts of their cat(s) responses to certain sounds and it would be useful to draw up a list from contributors to this forum.All cats possess a highly developed suite of environmental sensors. This allows them to perceive the world differently (often more effectively) than humans.

[angieh]

That is very interesting James - I have often wondered how cats' ears can put up with what must seem an exceptionally loud world to them.

[dandysmom]

A lot of that is a bit technical for me, James, but interesting. As I said in an earlier post none of mine have reacted to music, which is playing constantly in my house. But their sense of hearing amazes me; Leia knew there was a mouse in the house before I had any idea; apparently she heard the minute noises it was making.

[Phoenix]

Dylan hates music - he will leave the room if any of us start playing music

[pookyandjo]

Great post James... my much love Tinky Winky... who was a 11 year old neutered male domestic short hair tabby LOVED music...
from when he was a kitten he would sit on top of the piano whilst i played... at first i tempered my playing but very quickly i just "let it rip" so to speak and he loved it!
He also liked Andrea Bocelli.. both my husband and i really enjoy his music and we have all of his CD's and some DVD's as well... when Tinky was in hospital in the week before he died ... I would put my ipod next to him and place the earphones near his head so he could hear Bocelli.. it relaxed him effectively

[dandysmom]

That's a touching story, Jo.

[angieh]

Yes, that's a wonderful story Jo. Glad that Tinky could take comfort that way.

I am interested that some cats obviously appreciate music and others don't. Just like people I think.

[James]

Many thanks for your story about Tinky Winky Jo. It serves to remind us (as if folk on this forum needed reminding !) that our feline companions are far more complex than the status they (and other non-humans) currently occupy in our society. I agree that cats are very similar to humans in that some love music, others tolerate it and some flee the room to get away from it
We were constantly amazed at how Dunkley discriminated between different sounds and responded according to her auditory taste. We enjoyed the privilege of 12 years in her company and in this time learned so much about the pattern and nature of her preferences. She was mainly attracted/repelled based on pitch and rhythm. To commemorate her love of music a close friend (who is a musician) has helped us to produce an album of some of her favourite tracks.
Below, is the cover illustration and the back cover track listing.

[angieh]

Dunkley did have a wide musical appreciation, James. Love the fact that a couple of the tracks actually have "kitten/cat" in the title!