Nora the Cat on Classical Piano: Encore!

Posted By: leeduigonPosted On:

We don’t want to make too much of this–a cat soloing with a symphony orchestra. She’s only Nora the Piano Cat; she can’t play the spoons.

And I’m happy to be able to say that she’s still with us, still on YouTube–a genuine feline celebrity.

5 comments on “Nora the Cat on Classical Piano: Encore!”

  1. That really is amazing. Nora has a solid sense of timing, and I’m absolutely convinced that she is directly imitating humans she’s seen.

    I’ve spoken often about amazing animals I’ve seen in videos, and it just struck me, that when creation is restored, animal behavior that we see as extraordinary will probably be much, much more common.

    The cat that lets me live in her house 🙂 seems to like when I play guitar. She has also figured out that the motion of my right hand striking the strings is the source of the sound, and sometimes she will watch my right hand, attentively, while I play.

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    2. I had a cat that made an indignant sound, and left the room, when he heard me plug in an electric guitar. This cat loves music, even when I’ve had friends over and there were drums and a PA system, she’d stay on my chair and listen.

      One night, I woke up and knew that I couldn’t go back to sleep immediately, so I grabbed a solid-body electric, and played it, unplugged, while sitting on the bed, with the lights out. When I finished, I turned the lights on so I could return the guitar to its hanger, and was surprised to discover that my cat was about a foot away, facing me, and apparently listening. I also had a dog, at one time, that would lay down in front of the speakers and take it all in, whenever I put Jazz on the stereo.

      These examples, convinced me that animals can be aware of music, and appreciate it. Which brings me back to Nora, whom, I believe, is imitating something she has seen humans do, but the sense of evenly spaced rhythmic intervals seem to be happening. I guess that shouldn’t be surprising, birds create music, and obviously do it quite well, so it’s not impossible that another kind of animal could be capable of pressing piano keys, rhythmically.

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