Not sure if this has ever been a thread for discussion. We have a pet cat. Her name is Mina. She sits in the sweet spot, on the floor, when my system is running, playing music. I swear she likes to listen to music! No, she doesn't tap her paw on the ground or anything like that, but to me it looks like she enjoys the music! Anyone else out there have a pet that listens to music with them? No official study, just curious.......
My Mitsy, a 24 lb white Spitz, absolutely listens. She knows where the sweet spot is: my armchair which she quickly jumps into when I get up to get something, but otherwise right in front.
She responds by twitching her ears and tilting and turning her head.
And, on certain records, she gets up and runs to one of the speakers and starts howling. This is especially true with the overture to Tommy by The Who, which makes her run from one speaker over to the other and back etc.
Since our high end audio speakers are supposed to reproduce up to 20K, beyond what the human ear can hear, I suspect some audio engineers are messin’ with us by putting some dog whistles in the soundtrack.
My cat Pepper will stay with me in the room until it gets really loud, especially in Mahler and Shostakovich. She and all of our past cats bolt the room when the bells on DSOM start.
Great question. I was wondering this too. My cat loves to sleep on top of my speakers while I am playing music. The volume level does not bother him. He has been around music since he was a kitten. He does pick up on music when he is not sleeping, but it is only certain high frequencies which he will turn his head or move his ears.
We had a Sheltie who was named after Mozart. Wolfie developed a deep appreciation for Schubert. While listening to Schubert's late quartets with me, he would occasionally throw his head back and belt out a sympathetic long, heartfelt howl. On occasion he would show a modicum of approval for Bach. Seemed not to like Beethoven much. Alas, my little buddy is no longer with us. My Aussie Mozzie, who was indirectly named after Mozart, shows no interest at all in music.
Had a cat once who would hop up on top of a speaker. Her ears would go back and forth with the music as if she was conducting. Very amusing.
Our cat find my system a rather shocking experience. He is not about to go anywhere near it. If you look at the picture of my speakers you will notice plastic mats wall to wall in front of the speakers. These hold a charge and give the animal a mild zap if it steps on them. Much better than the zap he would get behind those speakers = fried cat. But look at those speakers. Must be scratching post heaven.
We have four dogs. They get up sometime in the night to go outside 50% of the time. When I stream music overnight that number drops to near zero. The Dead seems to be the perfect choice (only need one or two songs) :-)
This is quite interesting! Pets listening to music appears to be very common, which is a good thing! I have a vacuum tube system, all Conrad Johnson. I also run a moving coil cartridge, Lyra Delos. I wonder if pets can discern between solid state or vacuum tube; or digital vs analog? Mina does not seem to discriminate against either digital or analog. She likes both forms of music presentation. Although, she is quite partial to Steely Dan.....
Of all my pets, only the boxer is really into music. When I start listening, she'll sit upright, in the sweetspot and stare straight ahead, ears twitching occasionally when things move about the soundstage.
2 cats who are both in the room right after the first notes are heard. They usually pick a sweet node sort to listen and just chill. Now they are both have guitar names so maybe that's why. Taylor and Gibson.
My new puppy - Zeppelin at 12 weeks just cocks his head and tries to figure out "where the other people are". My last dog would sing to Chet Baker, but only Chet Baker. Coulda been the heroin addiction, not sure.
Resonance control. She knew that the empty lower shelf was vibrating like crazy 😱 and wanted to dampen it. I’ll bet she took kit from the seasoned pile.
Our last hound mix dog Ally used to lay in front of the speakers whenever I played music even at loud volumes. When she was young she once came into the house with a piece of firewood in her mouth and placed it on the lower empty shelf of my audio rack. Always wondered what that was about. Put a nice chink in the wood shelf too:)
Depends on the music. Yesterday my dog (a Vizsla - Ridgeback cross) seemed to be listening attentively to Delibes. She'll tolerate the Beatles sometimes. Rolling Stones? She's liable to leave the room.
The cat seems to be oblivious to everything. "Just feed me, already."
Eddy, my tabby cat, is very fond of laid back saxophone. Cello seems be be alright as well. He will often be sprawled out on the floor in front of me. If it’s anything that is more “intense”, he’ll be on the couch, rolled into a ball with a paw covering his eyes.
I have a customer whose dog could recognize when he played a new piece of classical music that the dog hadn’t heard before. He would come running into the room and stare at the speakers (big SoundLab electrostats) with his head cocked to one side.
Our grey tabby, the late great Gandalf the Grey, liked solo bass guitarist Michael Manring.
Well I'll be! I had a hunch I wasn't the only one that had a pet that listened to the stereo! Ha! Now we need some expert in pet psychology to explain why they must like certain music types over others......
An ex-girlfriend had a fidgety, whiny cat that would stop dead in its tracks and listen whenever Johnny Cash's voice came on. If it was a duet, it would only sit up and pay attention when Johnny was singing.
.....contralto, to be exact. Very interesting question you ask about Gender Neutrality and your pet rock. Given the Chinese poetry origin of Das Lied’s text, the centuries old philosophical appreciation of rocks in Chinese culture should be pointed out as well. One should never underestimate one’s pet rock 😊
I purchased my Pet Rock a few decades ago and according to the little bio provided it was assigned a male gender. I am wondering, given the current societal emphasis on Gender Neutrality (Gender Ambiguity?) if a Pet Rock purchased today would have an identified gender. Regarding Das Lied von Der Erde, surely frogman is aware that the Composer allowed for the option of baritone or alto...
I have a Pet Rock. He currently is enjoying listening to Brahms Piano Quintet as performed by Leon Fleisher and the Emerson String Quartet, but he indicated that he had a preference for Fleisher’s earlier recording with the Juilliard Quartet
Without a doubt! I’ve had two pets that listened to my system. My golden retriever, Garbanzo was particularly fond of music that featured the clarinet or saxophone. I suspect that it was due in part to hearing me practice those instruments all day long. My son’s pet parakeet, Rudy would always get very excited and “sing” along with Mozart....any Mozart....ONLY Mozart. I kid you not. My current beagle, Artie couldn’t care less.
As long as the volume was kept low, one of my former Boston Terriers use to come to the room consistently and lay down on the floor too close to one of my sub-bass units. Kept it extra low to not hurt her sensitive ears. She would go to sleep almost immediately every time.
My boxer loves Bluegrass music. He has a special fondness for Doc Watson. As soon as the needle hits the record he runs up to listen and sits memorized in front of the speakers!!
One of our cats was a Siamese and she liked violin music.She would sit and listen as long as a violin was playing. No other instruments got her attention like that.
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