Music for Cats: The Science of Feline Harmony
What if music could be composed specifically for your cat? This week on Cattitude, Michelle Fern welcomes acclaimed cellist, researcher, and composer David Teie, creator of the groundbreaking Music for Cats albums. David shares the fascinating science behind species-specific music, explaining how feline vocalizations, purring, suckling sounds, and early brain development inspired music designed to calm and comfort cats. Learn why cats respond differently to music than humans, how shelters and veterinary clinics are using feline-friendly music to reduce stress, and hear heartwarming stories of shy and formerly feral cats finding comfort through sound. If you've ever wondered what your cat wants to hear, this fascinating conversation offers a whole new way to enrich your feline's world.
Listen to Episode #306 Now:
Can Music Calm Your Cat? The Science Behind Music for Cats
BIO:
David Teie is one of a third generation of musicians. He studied cello with Stephen Kates and Berl Senofsky at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees and the Wertheimer award for cellists. He also studied with William Pleeth in London on a Fulbright scholarship. He joined the National Symphony in 1984 and has since played 19 concerto performances with the NSO, 12 of them with Music Director Mstislav Rostropovich conducting, including performances on three U.S. tours. He spent the 1999–2000 season as acting principal cellist of the San Francisco Symphony. An active composer, Teie composed the string music for an album by Echobrain (founded by Jason Newsted, Metallica’s former bassist), the NSO commissioned and premiered his Fuga Eroica, and he performed his concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra with the Anchorage Symphony. His flute concerto was premiered in 2010 by the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and he served as Music Director of that orchestra from 2013 to 2016. His research involving music and cognition has led to published articles in Biology Letters of the Royal Society and Applied Animal Behavior Science and a chapter in the Oxford University Press book Evolution of Emotional Communication that contains the only comprehensive theory of the origins and affective processes of music that has passed peer review. His research led to invitations to speak at the 11th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition and at the Washington Academy of Sciences. His species-specific music was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology Auditory Cognition Neuroscience. Teie recently signed an artist agreement with Universal Records, making MusicforCats the first music for any species other than human to be available from a major record company.
Transcript:
Hello, cat lovers, welcome to Cattitude. I'm your show host, Michelle Byrd. You know, we do so much for our fur babes, right? For everything for cats.
We have, you know, what they could sit on and eat and treats and this and that. But we even go further. We, you know, think about what they're watching, what they're listening to, especially what they're listening to.
Because let's face it, cats, unless they're watching birds or something, I don't know, at least mine are not that into TV, but they love to listen. And my guest today created something especially for cats, for their enjoyment to listen. So stay tuned.
We'll be right back. Welcome back, everyone. I'd like to welcome David Teie.
He's a cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra and a pioneering research in species specific music. He's done work with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Louisiana State University and has produced the first peer-reviewed studies demonstrating that music composed specifically for cats has a calming effect. David, welcome to Cattitude.
Michelle, great to be here. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to have you on.
First, I want to say this. So you are, you know, a cellist. I mean, I have no music talent at all.
So I am always in awe of people that can, you know, create music. So you're a cellist. What made you decide to record something for cats? Well, it started when I was researching how music affects humans.
It took me a few years, but I took a kind of a novel approach. I like kind of took music apart, found the separable elements such as pulse. Pulse is something that's found in the music of all cultures.
And I tried to figure out, so where would that come from? Why would we respond to that? And so it took a few years to go through and try to find plausible answers for each of them. But when I was done, they basically came up two categories, one based on vocalizations. And for humans, that's like the scream or like, oh, or affectionate vocalizations, the emotional vocalizations.
And then another category of sounds that we heard when we were in the womb, like the pulse, the respiration, your mother's voice. And so basically at that point, I thought, okay, I've got a theory. Any good theory is testable.
So I decided to write music for another animal. So basically, if I had figured out the recipe, if you will, for music, if I take the ingredients that are now, of course, all designed for humans and replace them with ingredients that were designed for another animal, I should be able to write music that's effective for that animal. So I first started with cotton-topped tamarin monkeys.
And so I composed music for them. They were sent it off to the University of Wisconsin, and they tested the music compared with controls with their monkeys. And it was effective.
It was the first music to be shown to be effective for any animal other than humans. And that's when, though, I thought, well, not very many people have monkeys. So I tried cats.
Deidre Why cats besides instead of dogs? David Well, dogs are very different breeds. You know, cats are basically pretty similar, the same size, the same, you know, might say interests. Dogs have been bred to be very many different sizes, and their attentions are very different.
And so I just thought it would be be more likely to hit the target if I find one, excuse me, one species that is consistent. And cats are much more consistent across the breeds than dogs. Deidre Right.
I wonder if it has something to do that. There's still some theories that say they're not quite domesticated. I mean, they are the ones that live in our house, but they're still not as domesticated as dogs have been over the... David I would totally agree with that.
In fact, I look at it the way cats found us. And they come to us, but dogs, we went to them and bred them for service. Cats, they just found it handy to be hanging around with humans, I think.
Deidre Okay. And so your album, Music for Cats, is the first album of its kind. Now, would you call yourself a zoo musicologist? David Well, I've seen that.
But frankly, I don't like the term very much. Deidre Forget it then. David Yeah, forget it.
I think of, actually, truthfully, the way I think of it is that music is just music. And by far the most music we've heard of is music designed by and for humans. But it's basically the same if you design it for another species.
So I have thought in the past that hopefully in 100 years, I thought, well, people have to be taught that music was once only for humans. But I think that's probably, you know, a little optimistic. But I still think it'd be nice.
I just think of it as music. Deidre Okay. Now let me ask this.
So I'm curious how you figured out what music would be best for cats. I know you went into a little bit of that in your intro, but I play smooth jazz for my cats. Sometimes, and I've heard they like that, and they like reggae, which is very different.
So did you think about what is popular with cats, what you've heard about that's popular with cats? How did you decide this is the kind of music that should be in my Music for Cats album? David I went about it the same way as I did for the monkeys. I basically started with their vocalizations. And one, of course, the purr is a go-to vocalization because they, as we know, they purr when they're content, but they also purr when they're in pain.
And they don't purr when they're all by themselves. So it is a communication. So I think of it as something like the human moan, that we moan in pleasure and in pain.
It seems like it's an odd thing to have the same vocalization for such very different feelings, but they're both intended to elicit a kind of a sympathy from the listener. It's kind of a moan, it's like, you feel me? Oh, it's something. And so the cat purr is roughly similar to our moan.
So it's not hard to imagine music, human music that has moan type of sounds in the music. And so I developed a bunch of different instruments that basically stylized the purr. So you created instruments to make the sound that you wanted? Right.
In any of my music, I don't actually use the sounds of the animals in the music, but just like human music, I've created instruments that create kind of stylized versions of it. The idea is that music is something that we don't habituate to. In other words, it still gets to us.
I'm 70 now and I still enjoy Brahms Symphony as much as I did when I was young. And so the idea is that if you get used to something, it turns off the emotional response to it. Like if you buy a refrigerator and it clinks when it makes the ice, at first you'll notice it, but eventually that gets turned off because it's just, you know, your brain says, don't worry, it's not a threat, so don't pay any attention to it.
So we don't even hear it anymore after a while. But I have a feeling that if there was like a sound outside your window every night and you never knew what it was, you never identified it, I think you would always hear that sound. So that's the reason I create instruments that aren't exactly the same as the animal sound.
It's not really a purr, but it's enough like a purr so that hopefully the cats would continue to respond to the communication of it, even though it hasn't identified that as, yeah, that's, you know, that's another cat or something. MaryLiz Okay, so what you've said, I can infer that basically cats don't respond to music the same as humans, or do they? David They don't, that's correct. I think, in fact, they will respond to music that's designed for them.
For the other example is pulse. We have pulse. But the cat, that's because we listened to our mother's pulse for four months before we were born.
And the brain structure is responsible for our emotions are almost completely formed at birth for humans. But the cat brain is only like one eighth the size at birth of what it will be at 10 weeks. So it mostly has brain development outside the womb.
So the cat pulse won't matter. But I think that the sound of suckling is the sound that every cat will have heard, it's reward related. Every cat will have heard that as their brains were developing.
So basically, so in the category over pulse for humans, now you've got swishing sound of suckling for cats. MaryLiz Okay, thank you. Is there a specific type of beat or melody that cats are attracted to? Or is it just the combination of the sounds? David I try to go after the combination of the sounds.
And otherwise, I like to keep it like regular and pure because it's part of the theory that purity like a pure sound is like, and then a harsh sound was a threat, which is so that's across many species, including birds and reptiles that high pure tends to be affectionate, low harsh is a threat. But it depends on, you know, your own species, because what's high to us is low to a cotton top tamarin monkey. And what's high to a cotton top tamarin monkey is low to a bat.
So you have to get it right in the vocal range. So there is something, some music that I avoid in the low register of a cat's vocalizing, because that's where a cat will tend to express irritation or threat. So I do avoid that.
Otherwise, I keep the music pure and include those elements that I've gotten from the cat's vocalizations and brain development. MaryLiz Okay, and what kind of sound would be a threat to a cat? David Well, a harsh sound like a hiss, you know, they hiss, but also a harsh sound in the basically lower treble clef. MaryLiz Okay, so for those that are like, like music, but that's about it.
What does that sound like? David Right? It would sound like, well, basically a kind of a, I can get the picture. It's kind of a irritating sound. It's not pure.
It's harsh. And in that, basically, roughly the register that I just sang in. Now here's one thing that's interesting is that the music that I created for the monkeys, I've created two kinds, one to get them riled up and one to get them calmed down, at least it was intended to do so.
And the researchers found both types of music irritating. And so I thought, well, if I create music for cats that's irritating to their owners, they're just not going to turn it on. And so in the lower register, cats can hear there, but they don't vocalize.
So it doesn't kind of, it's traffic noise to them. That's where I put music that I intend to appeal to the owners. So it's kind of like two levels of music.
The lower music is designed to appeal to the humans, and the music in the upper register, the higher frequencies, that's all for the cats. MaryLiz Keep the family happy. Okay, on that note, we're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.
Welcome back, everyone. We're talking to David Teie, who is, he's a music expert and he made, created the first album for cats. So it's called Music for Cats.
So, David, when we play your music for our cats, what should we expect? Should they be chill? Will this change neurotic cats to calmer cats? Or just, you know, enterTeiens them? If they respond at all, they'll tend to be calmed by it. It doesn't work for all cats that in fact, the older cats don't tend to respond as much as the younger cats. I was interested to find from the researchers that said that those cats that are the most in need of comfort tend to be the most comforted by it.
Like the formerly abused cats that have been adopted or formerly feral cats. And so the cats that don't respond, I'm guessing that they tend to be pretty happy. And so it's but the something like, I don't know, seven out of 10 cats do, do respond.
And they, yeah, they tend to come toward the speaker or the person who's playing it or snuggle up against the speaker of the music. And it's all designed to calm the cats. As you can imagine, the music that I designed for the monkeys to get them riled up is basically monkey heavy metal.
You know, it would be possible to write that for cats, but I don't think anybody wants that in their house. So. No.
Only if it helps the fat ones get exercise. Well, we have we have a couple of them. And so one of those specially, maybe that's a good idea.
Maybe I should get them out there and. Yeah. And exercise.
I have two ideas and exercise, you know, for cats. Why? I mean, humans dance. Maybe cats have a frequency or pitch or because I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to music stuff, except I like to hear it gets them moving.
And the other thing is you're talking about how it calms, you know, seven or 10 cats. I thought there's so much crazy in the world these days. There is not one for humans or maybe there is that we could put on like loudspeaker, especially over areas where there's like traffic and gridlock to just calm people.
That would be a good idea. Part of the problem with human music is that we've heard it forever, right? All the time. People people come up with their, you know, the they identify with something.
In fact, I remember my, it was an in-law brother-in-law who I was playing some music and I love this music. And my mother-in-law loved it too. He hated it.
He was just like, Oh, turn it off. Gross it awful. And so people tend to have a kind of preconceived notions of what they like and what they don't.
Whereas at least with cats, you're starting from scratch. They don't care at all, basically about human music. And so, so it's, you know, basically you're, they're working with, with music that for them to hear something that is in their register that aligns with their vocalizations.
It's a fairly new thing. And the communication that comes through is, you know, come something that's communal and designed to calm them. And so they tend to respond.
Well, to it. I generally like my cats to have music when I work a lot remotely and I want them to be chill in the house. So sometime they're already listening to something.
So how would they take to listening to music for cats? And also do I need to introduce them to music for cats in a cerTeien way? I think they would they would do well with the music for cats. I think you don't really need to introduce them to it. I think the only problems would be if you have a great speaker system, if you're a real audiophile and you have huge speakers that could give you a great bass response and turn it up loud, the music could sound like a, you know, a giant cat or something.
And so the purr sounds are designed to be played through smaller speakers, you know, computers or what you might have in your kitchen. And so I do think that if you were to put it through a big audiophile music system, it might be too much for the cat. But otherwise, it should be something that you can just put on and leave on and they should enjoy it.
Should I expect to see my cats maybe less stressed after listening to music for cats? If your cats are stressed, I think you can expect to see them less stressed. I think that's, you know, like I say, it's not going to work for every cat, but more likely you will see a difference. If your cats are already very chill and happy, you may not notice any difference at all.
And so I remember the very first, one of the first articles that came out that was in the New York Times, when I was talking to the journalist, and she said she had a cat that was, had been a feral cat, was bouncing off the walls. And she tried the music and the cat just curled around the speaker and just laid there with this music. And so I've had a number of people and sometimes truthfully, I get tears in my eyes.
So there was one who had adopted this cat that was always under the table, always gone, basically didn't see the cat at all. And she put the music on the computer, it was on her lap, and the cat for the first time came up, sat in her lap. And when she wrote to me about that, I just thought, okay, now, now I can count my life at least to be, you know, I have something, something I've done that I feel is valuable.
I imagine you've done a lot of valuable things. That's amazing. I was just thinking shelters would probably benefit a lot and rescues.
Yes, we made it a policy right from the start that we send the music for free to shelters and rescues and veterinarians that do not practice declawing. Thank you. The second study of the cats was that was done, Louisiana State University was clinical applications.
And so they played this music before evaluations of the cats and they found that it had a calming effect. And I was happy to hear that too, because it's can be difficult for a cat to be brought into an environment like a veterinarian's office. And so I was, yeah, I think that's, it can be valuable in that kind of situation, as well, or as when they're transporting, if you're taking your cat from one place to another, which is for a territorial animal like a cat can be a bit of, you know, stressful event.
It's good to have this music on and kind of in the background confirms that everything's fine, nothing to worry about. You know, I have to tell you a funny visual, as you were talking about traveling with your cat and the music, I got this visual of little tiny headphones. Don't ask me why.
And I thought, I don't think you could do that to a cat. But, you know, I think it's one. Could you? I don't think so, because I've tried for quite a while to make music for horses.
And because we have three horses, I'm looking at them right now. And one of the things I tried was to put kind of the music into earplugs, and it did not work at all. And so.
Yeah, I could see that. I think maybe headphones, maybe, but they don't like keeping anything on. And I'm not, sorry, guys, I'm not a fan of clothes for, you know, your pets, unless you live in a frigid place.
Yeah, yeah. I think I won't be making any headphones. Okay.
What do you think the future holds? Is there going to be a music for cats, too? You could make a dance album for cats. You know, it's interesting that you bring that up. I don't mind saying that I haven't heard that idea before.
And I like the idea. However, as soon as I think about it, you know, we, I think dance is the original art form for human beings. And I think a good part of music and dance, it's just an ancient combination.
But I think that for a cat that puts his paws down so quietly, I don't think that sound ever reached the cat's ears, really, you know, they're stealthy. And so, yeah, I think it'd be a tough go to try to make dance music for cats. I can say I've already put out a second album.
So there are two music for cats albums out there. Okay. And I know cats don't necessarily dance, but is there music that possibly could get them moving more? Yeah, I think there might be.
I put in, I made one song that's available as a single, it's called Spooks Diddy. And it was designed to get cats more excited. And I think if you put little mouse vocalizations, they'd cerTeienly be interested in that.
It's one of the reasons they can hear so high is to track mice. But again, I'll just have to admit that I have a feeling that trying to create music that'll get cats excited is something that I think for most people, it's going to be something that's, you know, they wouldn't use very often. Negative exciting versus moving, happy, excited.
Yeah, I have a feeling that if I put out music that's calming, and if it's calming, good. And if it's not calming, it's probably just nothing. You know, fine, everybody could be fairly happy with that.
But if you put out music that's designed to get them excited, I have a feeling that there are a number of people that are like, whoa, what have we done? You know, it's like, so I'll have to think about that. I'll have to think about that. Yeah, at least the inner crazies, the super zooms.
So, David, thank you so much for coming on Cattitude. Where can people find out more about you? And where can they find music for cats? Well, music for cats, there's a website, music for cats, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, it's on the streaming platforms. Most people, I think, find that the easiest.
And for people who still have CD players, we send out CDs from the website. But more about me, somebody put up a Wikipedia page. And so I guess that's a place to go.
But I don't think I'm as interesting as the cat music is. Hi, you're too humble. We'll see.
Well, thank you. I think it feels good to be, you asked about what's next. Yes, what's next? For me, just to create music for more animals.
I've been struggling with dogs. And they're very challenging. I think it will be possible.
But in general, I think that for the species that are out there, that are becoming viable only in captivity, because we're taken over the planet, I think the least we can do is to get them in an environment where we have something of comfort that's designed for them. And so that's what I'm going after is to try to create music for captive species. And because we tend to throw them into a, you know, like basically a jail and put in an old tire and call it enrichment.
And, you know, I think they deserve more than that. I want to thank you so much for coming on Cattitude. And thank you for doing what you do, because creating calming and wonderful music for our fur babes to chill, I think it's just all positive.
Think of it long term, if your cats are calmer, you know, more will get adopted, that's euthanized. And, you know, for other species, there's just very different benefits, possibly, but so many benefits. I mean, who doesn't want their fur kid to be calmed and feel good? Pete Right.
I agree. I agree. I'm hoping that there will be more and more music out there for people and for the other animals.
But thanks very much for having me on. Thanks for coming on Cattitude. I hope you all enjoyed this show.
Thanks to David Teie, who created the world's first album for cats called Music for Cats. Thank you so much, David, for coming on Cattitude. I want to thank my listening audience for listening to Cattitude for all these years.
Thank you. Share it. There's been a lot of knowledge and interesting things on this show over the last, let's say, close to nine years.
So please share the information with your friends. So for Cattitude, Michelle Fern. And I want to give a thank you to my listening audience, Molly, Charlotte, and Dennis, who were listeners of Music for Cats.
And my most neurotic cat is Charlotte. And she was definitely, definitely seemed calmer. I was a little bit in shocked by it.
And be sure to check out the album. Again, Music for Cats by David Teie. And of course, the show would not be the same without my producer, Mark Winter, working his magic.
Thank you, Mark. And hey, remember, lose the attitude. Have Cattitude.