Composers have been inspired by their feline friends for a long, long time.
In fact, Italian composer Doménico Scarlatti wrote a piece inspired by an "improvisation" his cat Pulcinella played by walking across his harpsichord keyboard, over 300 years ago!
That's even before the piano was invented!
He took the "melody" she created by walking from the low notes to the high notes, and created the "Cat's Fugue".
In this week's episode, meow along with Kate everytime you hear Pulcinella's melody!
Cats haven't just inspired fugues, they've also inspired duets! Cat duets!
There's only one lyric: "meow!"
There's a debate on who actually wrote it, but either way, it's got a tune that will get stuck in your head.
Music can represent what cat's sound like too, not just what they do (or say!) around the house.
Composer Elena Katz-Chernin doesn't just have the word cat in her name — she wrote a piece called "Black Cat Rag."
She’s also written several operas, piano concertos, and her music was even featured at the opening ceremonies of both the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 2003 Rugby World Cup!
That’s a lot of really big music!
But "Black Cat Rag" is a short piece for violin and piano, just big enough for a house cat laying in the sun.
And while using the word "rag" evokes the idea of Scott Joplin, this cat-themed piece doesn’t necessarily sound like other ragtime — it's slower and less active.
It does feature some syncopation, and also a repeating lilting violin motif.
What does that motif sound like?
Maybe a meow? Or what it might sound like if a cat stretch had a musical sound?
But cats aren't always sleepy — this one's trying to catch a mouse!
In Aaron Copland's "Humoristic Scherzo: The Cat and Mouse", the music illustrates a great household chase. Who will win?
Other classical cats like to chase birds, and we had a special guest on this episode to tell us all about it!
Elizabeth from the children's podcast "Clap For Classics" tells us the story of "Peter and the Wolf," and how composer Sergei Prokofiev used a different instrument to represent each animal Peter encounters.
The cat is represented by the clarinet!
Watch the whole a performance of the whole piece with narration, cute animation and silly costumes here!
If you have any Sprouts in your life as young as two-years-old, be sure to listen to "Clap For Classics" for even more classical music educational podcast content!
Do you have a cat in your life? What would it sound like if it had a musical theme?
Help Sprouts grow! Support IPR for more classical music fun, just tell us in the comments that your donation is for Classical Sprouts.
Classical Sprouts is written and produced by Emily Duncan Wilson.
Thanks to Elizabeth Nixon from the "Clap For Classics" podcast for sharing a bit of her episode: "Cats and Hats!: "Peter and the Wolf" and the Scarlatti Cat Fugue with Classical Sprouts" with us, as we shared a bit of ours in a cat-inspired exchange!
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