Can animals enjoy music?

I’ve always wondered if animals can appreciate music, and if they do, what type? We do know of one species of animal, homo sapiens, that appreciates music, but what about all the others? Or is enjoying music a uniquely human phenomenon?

So I did some Googling a little earlier, and I found this: What Type of Music Do Pets Like?

To most animals, human music falls into that ungraspable, unrecognizable category. With vocal ranges and heart rates very different from ours, they simply aren’t wired to appreciate songs tailored for our ears. Most studies find that, try as we might to get their legs thumping, animals generally respond to human music with a total lack of interest. That’s why Snowdon has worked with cellist and composer David Teie to compose music that is tailored to suit them.

Back in 2009, the researchers composed two songs for tamarins — monkeys with vocalizations three octaves higher than our own and heart rates twice as fast. The songs sound shrill and unpleasant to us, but they seem to be music to the monkeys’ ears. The song modeled on excited monkey tones and set to a fast tempo made the tamarins visibly agitated and active. By contrast, they calmed down and became unusually social in response to a “tamarin ballad,” which incorporated happy monkey tones and a slower tempo.

Snowdon and Teie have moved on to composing music for cats, and studying how they respond to it.

“We have some work-in-progress where we’ve transposed music and put it in the frequency range for cat vocalizations, and have used their resting heart rate, which is faster than ours,” he told Life’s Little Mysteries. “We find that cats prefer to listen to the music composed in their frequency range and tempo rather than human music.”

On the basis of their results, Teie has started selling cat songs online (at $1.99 per song) through a company called “Music for Cats.”

This all makes sense when you really think about it. I used to think that Victoria and Daisy(both cats) enjoyed listening to Bach while disliking heavy metal, but I guess I was wrong after all. Based on this article, I would likely hate cat or monkey music, but if I knew my cats enjoyed it I might play it for them sometimes, preferably when I’m not home.

What kind of music do you listen to while joggling?

I am sometimes asked what kind of music I listen to while joggling and if it helps. Now while I never run or joggle with an MP3 player or any music-playing device, I still often listen to music playing in my head, and sometimes hum along to it.

My musical tastes are eclectic. While joggling I often listen to Bach, bebop jazz, or heavy metal. When I am not joggling, I usually listen to classic rock or classical music.

Because of the supreme importance of maintaining a rhythm while joggling, my mind is often searching for music that fits the joggling rhythm. This isn’t always easy. Sometimes I’ll ever make up music in my head while joggling to accompany and perhaps even enhance the rhythmic/musical aspect of joggling; going up and down hills and spinning around a lot make for some exciting music. Sometimes it is like conducting a symphony while running and juggling.

Like I have often said before, I often think of joggling as more of a form of dance than a form of running. I think the conceptual framework of dance helps prepare your mind better for the rhythm of joggling. The “running” is just an illusion. Music is a very important part of dance, and becoming one with the music is important to becoming a skilled dancer.

This isn’t meant to obsfuscate matters. Joggling involves a lot of science and art, but I think more art. Without art, without that human touch and human emotion, science becomes meaningless.

Through knowledge gained by science, we can improve our art, and the art of living. Live a healthy life, and you can do more amazing things, like joggling, or dancing or climbing mountains or traveling to a lot of different places and absorbing the culture.

So bask in music while running, your own music or other peoples music. Make sure it is inspiring.

What kind of music do you listen to while exercising? I’m always looking for new ideas!