Cat organ
Acat organ(‹See Tfd›German:Katzenorgel,French:Orgue à chats), also calledcat piano(‹See Tfd›German:Katzenklavier,French:piano à chats), is a hypotheticalmusical instrumentwhich consists of a line of cats fixed in place with their tails stretched out underneath a keyboard so that they cry out when a key is pressed. The cats would be arranged according to the naturaltoneof their voices.
Origins
[edit]There is no official record of a cat organ actually being built; rather it is described in literature as a bizarre concept.
This supposed instrument was described by the French writerJean-Baptiste Weckerlinin his 1877 bookMusiciana, extraits d'ouvrages rares ou bizarres(Musiciana, descriptions of rare or bizarre inventions):[1]
When the King of SpainFelipe IIwas inBrusselsin 1549 visiting his father theEmperor Charles V,each saw the other rejoicing at the sight of a completely singular procession. At the head marched an enormous bull whose horns were burning, between which there was also a small devil. Behind the bull a young boy sewn into a bear skin rode on a horse whose ears and tail were cut off. Then came the archangel Saint Michael in bright clothing, and carrying a balance in his hand.
The most curious was on a chariot that carried the most singular music that can be imagined. It held a bear that played the organ; instead of pipes, there were sixteen cat heads each with its body confined; the tails were sticking out and were held to be played as the strings on a piano, if a key was pressed on the keyboard, the corresponding tail would be pulled hard, and it would produce each time a lamentablemeow.The historianJuan Christoval Calvete,noted the cats were arranged properly to produce a succession of notes from the octave... (chromatically,I think).
This abominable orchestra arranged itself inside a theatre where monkeys, wolves, deer and other animals danced to the sounds of this infernal music.[2]
The instrument was described by German physicianJohann Christian Reil(1759–1813) for the purpose of treating patients who had lost the ability to focus their attention. Reil believed that if they were forced to see and listen to this instrument, it would inevitably capture their attention and they would be cured: "A fugue played on this instrument--when the ill person is so placed that he cannot miss the expression on their faces and the play of these animals--must bring Lot's wife herself from her fixed state into conscious awareness."[3]
The instrument was first described byAthanasius Kircherin his 1650 workMusurgia Universalis,though the lack of an image may have left doubt in the minds of some writers. (The New York Times,for example, has carried an article claiming he described the instrument,[4]and another stating he did not describe it inMusurgia Universalis.[5]). His description appears in Book 6, Part 4, Chapter 1, under the heading "Corollaria," (emphasis added):
Constructum non ita pridem ad melancholiam magni cuiusdam Principis depellendam abinsigni ingeniosoque Histrione tale quodpiam instrumentum. Feles vivas accepit omnes differentis magnitudinis, quas cistae cuidam huic negotio dedita opera fabricatae ita inclusit ut caudae perforamina extentae, certis quibusdam cana, libus insererentur affixae, hisce subdidit palmulas subtilissimis ac uleis loco malleolorum instructas;Feles vero iuxta differentem magnitudinem tonatim ita disposuit;ut singulae palmulae singulis responderent felium caudis,instrumentumque ad relaxationem Principis praeparatum oportuno loco condidit, quod deinde pulsatum eam harmoniamredditit, qualemFeliumvoces reddere possunt.Nam palmulae digitis Organoe di depressae aculeis suis dumcaudas pungunt cattorumhi in rabiem acti miserabili voce, nunc gravem, modò acutam intonantes, eam ex felium vocibus compositam reddiderunt harmoniam, quaeetmoveret homines ad risum,etvel sorices ipsos ad saltum concitare posset.[6][a]
The citation is noted by Kircher's studentGaspar SchottinMagia Naturalis naturae et artis,Part 2, Book 6, Pragmatia 2, titled "Felium Musicam exhibere [Cat Concert]."[7]
Modern citations and reconstructions
[edit]In Herbet Rosendorfer's short story "The Career of Florenzo Waldweibel-Hostelli" (1970), the ormizellic cat organ (with 72 tied-up cats, arranged according to voice or better meow pitch) is mentioned.
Michael Betancourtcompares thesamplingof cats' meows used inJingle Cats' albums,Meowy Christmas(1993) andHere Comes Santa Claws(1994), to the cat organ,[8]in that both require cats, but diminish each performer's importance.
Kircher notes that the instrument can be used to reduce the melancholy of princes by moving them to laughter, almost exactly the situation that occurred in 2010 whenthe Prince of Waleswas greatly amused by a performance of the tune "Over the Rainbow"on an instrument recreated usingsqueaky toycats byHenry Daggfor agarden partyheld atClarence Housesupporting Charles'sStartinitiative for sustainable living.[9]
Terry Gilliam's 1988 filmThe Adventures of Baron Munchausenfeatures a scene with a similar organ that uses human prisoners instead of cats.
In 2009, the Australian animation studioThe People's Republic of Animation,released a short titledThe Cat Piano.This work tells the tale of a city of cats whose musicians are kidnapped by a human in order to make a cat piano.
See also
[edit]- Piganino— a similar, fictitious instrument using pigs
- Terry Jones– Monty Python's performer on a similar fictional instrument, the mouse organ (Musical Micesketch)[10]
- Marvin Suggs– a character fromThe Muppet Showwho plays a muppaphone, a collection of puppet characters with differently pitched "ows!" when hit on the head (watch YouTube).
- The Singing Dogs– a series of novelty recordings.
- Donald Barthelme– The character Mr. Peterson, in the story "A shower of gold", is visited by a tall, foreign-looking man with a huge switchblade, who announces himself as the cat-piano player.
- Fatso,better known as Keyboard Cat, a cat that played the piano
Notes
[edit]- ^Paraphrase: This remarkably clever instrument was built not so long ago to try to dispel the melancholy of the prince. Live cats of all sizes where placed in a box built for this purpose, containing sharp points near the tails so that they struck cats of different sizes, producing different pitches when different keys where pressed. The performance of this frenzy of cat voices in harmony, sometimes in misery, sometimes in anger, caused amusement.
References
[edit]- ^Weckerlin, Jean-Baptiste (1877).Musiciana, extraits d'ouvrages rares ou bizarres,p.349. Paris: Garnier Freres. Cited inVan Vechten, Carl (1 October 2004),The Tiger In The House,Kessinger,ISBN978-1-4179-6744-5
- ^Weckerlin, Jean-Baptiste(1877).Musiciana, extraits d'ouvrages rare ou bizarre.Paris. p. 349.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^"Richards".Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.Retrieved11 May2007.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)from Richards, Robert J. "Rhapsodies on a Cat-Piano, orJohann Christian Reiland the Foundations of Romantic Psychiatry ", 1998. - ^Boxer, Sarah (25 May 2002),"A Postmodernist Of the 1600s Is Back in Fashion",The New York Times,New York
- ^Schuessler, Jennifer (30 December 2012),"A 17th-Century Genius, a Quack, or Perhaps Both",The New York Times,New York
- ^Kircher, Athanasius(1650).Musurgia universalis(PDF).Rome. p. 519. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 25 December 2017.Retrieved25 December2017.
- ^Schott, Gaspar(1657).Magia universals naturae et artis.:TextandImageat Linda Hall Library.
- ^Betancourt, Michael (2011)."The Birth of Sampling | Vague Terrain".Archived from the original on 2 June 2013.Retrieved21 April2013.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^"Prince Charles' laughter over 'cat organ'".BBC.11 September 2010.
- ^Monty Python – mouse organ sketch(YouTube)Monty Python's Flying Circus,"Arthur Ewing and His Musical Mice," Season One, Episode Two.
Further reading
[edit]- Champfleury.Les Chats,Paris, 1870.
- Calvete de Estrella, Juan Christobal (1930).El Felicisimo Viaje del Muy Alto y Muy Poderoso Principe Don Felipe,p. 73–7. Madrid: La Sociedad de Bibliofilos Espanoles.
- de Estrella, Juan Christoval Calvete (1552).El Felicissimo Viaje d'el Muy Alto y Muy poderoso Principe Don Phelippe.Antwerp.
External links
[edit]- Interactive Katzenklavier,a project onScratchthat allows for the user to play a virtual Katzenklavier by pressing the keyboard.