“An entire album of music designed for cats is to be released by a major record label” in October, writes Matt Payton in Saturday’s (9/3) Independent (U.K.). David Teie, a cellist in the Washington, D.C.-based National Symphony Orchestra who is also a scientist, “composed five different combinations of classical music and sounds to help calm distressed and troubled cats. Universal Music will release Music for Cats after a Kickstarter campaign raised [$241,651] and sold 10,000 records independently. Describing the sounds, Mr. Teie, who is allergic to cats, said: … ‘Not all cats respond [to music]…. Very excitable cats are completely calmed and formerly abused or feral cats tend to respond the best…. The time it normally takes to get a formerly feral cat ready to interact with humans is usually measured in days and weeks but the music has helped them in just one day.’ … Mr. Teie … said all mammals are able to appreciate music as long as it is introduced in the right way.” Teie’s research has been published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society and Evolution of Emotional Communication (Oxford University Press), and he has spoken at the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and the Washington Academy of Sciences.
Posted September 8, 2016
