John_Stone Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 03:40AM
Athanasius Kircher first described the cat piano in his landmark 1650 work
Musurgia Universalis.
In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of
his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats
whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side
by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a
sharp spike into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of meows
that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help
but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.
cesiuminjector Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 04:37AM
awesome - i need to learn to play this instrument
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 08:19AM
What a cunt
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 12:11PM
John Stone... MASTER OF OBSCURE INFORMATION
John_Stone Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 04:39PM
The world (and universe) is much weirder that you or I can possibly imagine.
Anonymous Report This Comment Date: March 01, 2006 05:08PM
indeed