Can dogs, cats, birds, etc understand the difference between music and background noise?
Could a fox or raccoon recognize if a musical passage suddenly had a misplaced beat or a sour note…something we would know as out of place, even though we didn’t hear this particular passage before?
The short answer is that some non-human primates can appreciate music, but not the same pieces that we would. From here:
Well, some people believe that music can be made especially for cats.
Snow the Dancing Cockatoo became teh subject of a study after he gained fame dancing away on YouTube.
I’ve seen cockatoos that dance to music.
My new pup howls when she hears the piano accordian, does that count?
My cats have a strong preference for either light classical music or a cappella vocals with mostly pure tones (think Chanticleer or Chanson). They also know what they don’t like. I had one cat that wailed and pawed at the stereo when I tried to listen to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera” soundtrack.
Back when I was listening to LPs, my cats pricked up their ears whenever there was an audible scratch, or any other sound that wasn’t strictly music.
You should try out a few of his other works. I’m sure your cat would LOVE…
…Starlight Express.