(playful music)
- The trick is trying to think like a cat.
It's one thing to think, "What would it be like
if I were a cat?”
It's another thing to try to figure out, “Well,
what is it like for a cat to be a cat?”
(purring)
I have different ways of creating
(deep string music)
purr kind of sounds.
I'm David Teie,
classical musician, mostly by trade, play the cello
in the National Symphony, and I came up with the idea
of writing music for cats.
Here are my bird songs for study
(birds chirping)
and I slow them down.
(birds chirping)
Cats are not very vocal and not particularly social.
The ultimate goal is to be able to communicate
in something like their language.
- [Male Interviewer] What other sounds are there
that you know cats would enjoy?
- Most of the brain development of cat
happens outside the womb.
I thought the sound of suckling is a reward-related sound
that all cats will have heard as their brains were forming,
this swishing kind of (mocks swishing) sound.
Yeah, I would totally use that.
Could I name that after your jacket?
That's my Louis W. swish.
Another example of a sound is the purring.
- [Male Interviewer] When you play this music,
how does a cat react exactly?
- [David] There are things like that they would
rub up against the speakers that shows, kind of, ownership,
and but showing just attention, and it tends to be
more comforting to those cats who have had
something of a hard life.
The cats who need more comfort are more comforted by it.
- [Male Interviewer] Do you have a cat?
- No, I actually don't.
I'm allergic to cats.
- [Male Interviewer] You're allergic to cats?
- [David] Yeah.
(pleasant string music)