Thread: Composers and Cats

What about Vaughan Williams and cats?

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Best regards, Dr

Well, sure! Your picture was included on the Pinterest board link, but I found a different one with a bit of info.

This is Mr. Vaughan Williams in 1942 with his favorite cat, Foxy. Same cat?



Ralph Vaughan Williams feels to me almost like family. I grew up in the 1950s with his music on the radio and the tales of my older sisters, who were evacuated during the war to sleepy Dorking, where he lived in a house at the edge of the town. Beatrice got taken with her class to sing for him at The White Gates on his 70th birthday, in October 1942. "Very shabbily dressed," she recalls, "his socks didn't match."
Her impression was confirmed to me recently by a man whose father owned the photographer's shop on Dorking High Street. "He looked like a tramp," said Paul Styles. "My father stepped out into his path one day and asked if he'd mind sitting for a portrait. He was very gracious about it." That session yielded an iconic image, a kindly old chap with a cat on his lap. The cat was called Foxy. This is not the stuff of which Great Composers are typically made.

Here is another informative site with noted historical and popular figures and their cats. I like this site because it includes the cats' names.
http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/fans/fans1.html

Many of us have seen and heard Nora, the piano playing cat. Here's the story of Mindaugas Piecaitis, a Lithuanian composer who wrote CATcerto,a four-minute piece around Nora's musings that has been performed more than 20 times.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-08-2...piano-students
CATcerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

Accompanying Nora is demanding, conductor Richard Rosenberg said, because the musicians must play to her recording, which is unyielding. "In many ways," he said, "it's like playing with a human soloist, in the way the soloist pretty much ignores the conductor."


Nora.

Nora has attracted the interest of both musicians and scientists, who are fascinated by her rare behavior. It appears that she likes the attention it brings her, but she also plays when alone. She does express a preference for playing with students, when they play Bach, and for playing a specific piano, a Yamaha Disklavier. In addition, she gravitates toward the D-E-F range on the keyboard and includes the black keys in her playing.

The National Science Foundation has included Nora in a video about animal behavior which was shown in museums in the fall of 2007. Pianist Magazine, based in London, featured her in an article, and a video of her playing was used at the 2007 National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy. Dean Santomieri, an avant-garde musician from San Francisco, used a loop of Nora's playing in an improvised group performance in July 2007. A dance student at a college in Leeds, England gave a solo performance using Nora's music. Betsy Alexander has written a composition called Fur Release: A Prelude for Paws and Hands, incorporating Nora's music. A CD of music with one song incorporating Nora's playing has been released by the Laurel Canyon Animal Company.

British composer Chris Hazell - Three Brass Cats, Cat Suite, 3 More Cats

Hazell lives in a little village 40 miles north of London, England. His town has only 2 small stores, 2 pubs, and a 12th Century church that was built 300 years before Christopher Columbus arrived in America. The closest restaurant is 5 miles away so Hazell enjoys cooking for himself. His favorite meal is Chicken Stir-Fry with Indonesian Sauce.
When asked, here is what Hazell had to say about "Borage" from his musical work Three Brass Cats: "Some years ago I had four cats in the house - all were strays and decided that I was a soft touch when it came to free board and lodgings, so instead of moving on, they all decided to stay. Sadly they have all now gone to the great cattery in the sky. However, at the time they were around I was asked to write some pieces for a brass group (some may have heard of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble). What should I write about? Well, I've always liked writing about the people and places around me (they appear in a lot of my music) so I thought . . 'I know, my cats.' They all had slightly odd names and the fourth of these was Borage. Borage is a plant that grows wild (at least in England!), but is very pretty."
"This summed up Borage's character completely - he used to race around the house and garden like a wild thing getting everywhere and into everything, and he had the most beautiful markings on his fur. I tried to capture his rushing around in his music, no time to stop for anything and he's gone before you know it. Give him a stroke if you can catch him! These days I don't have any cats as I travel around a lot with my work, but it's nice to think that they're still with me in the music."

Scored for 4 trumpets, horn, 4 trombones, tuba.

Movements:
Mr. Jums
Black Sam
Borage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flFj7zMzUKc

Mr. Hazell then composed another movement, "Kraken", and refashioned the movements into the Cat Suite.



As you can see by this track listing, Mr. Hazell must have welcomed more cats into his life, based on his piece 3 More Cats.

Also scored for 4 trumpets, horn, 4 trombones, tuba.

Movements:
Flora
Tubby Mousetrouser
Homepride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HVrAQeZLuc

Alberto Ginastera

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What about choreographers and cats?

Originally Posted by starthrower

Alberto Ginastera

Hahahaha look at that cat's eyes. "Oh dear! He's back to composing at the piano again!"