Katzenklavier
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The Katzenklavier (Also known as the Cat Organ or Cat Piano) was a musical instrument that used live cats arranged into an octave according to the natural timbre of their voices. Performing on it required the player to inflict pain on the animals so they would meow on cue.
[edit] Uses
French writer Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin relates in his book Musiciana, extraits d’ouvrages rare ou bizarre (Musiciana, descriptions of rare or bizarre inventions) that
"When the King of Spain, Felipe II was in Brussels in 1549 visiting his brother the Emperor 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 ride 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 lamentable meow. The historian Juan 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 theater where monkeys, wolves, deer and other animals danced to the sounds of this infernal music."(p 349)
[edit] References
- Jean-Baptiste Weckerline, Musiciana, extraits d’ouvrages rare ou bizarre Paris, 1877.
- Gaspar Schott, Magia Naturalis 1657
- Champfleury, Les Chats, Paris, 1870
- Juan Christoval Calvete de Estrella, El Felicissimo Viaje d'el Muy Alto y Muy poderoso Principe Don Phelippe, Antwerp, 1552
