My cat Mati shows complete indifference towards jazz. It doesn't matter what kind of jazz. Trad, jazz funk, fusion, bebop, mainstream, cool, Latin, smooth – you name it – it makes no difference. Since jazz makes up 99% of the music listened to chez nous, I haven't checked her reactions to other genres, though I fear poor Mati just can't appreciate music. But are all animals musically sterile (Figure 1)? Nina G; CC BY-ND 2.0 Carthusian monk (cool jazz name!) Bonaventure d'Argonne asked himself that very question, and in his Mélanges d'Histoire et de Litterature; Recveillis par M de Vigneul-Marville (1700, volume II, Rotterdam: Chez Elie Yvans) (with Monsieur de Vigneul-Marville being a pseudonym he used for writing about matters of the present world rather than the next), he recounted how different animals in a corral reacted to his companion's playing of a trumpet marine, a now little-used instrument something like a brass-sounding double bass in which the hand positions are reversed (https://bit.ly/3jeYyrl). Just like Mati, a cat was completely indifferent, as was an ass, a rooster, and some hens. A horse gave the odd look, and some cows managed a cursory glance. A dog, however, sat up and paid continued attention, as did a captive deer, and some caged birds apparently sprang into song. Grown men knocking out a tune on a trumpet marine from a farmhouse window to an audience of barnyard animals (deer notwithstanding); it must have made for a humorous anecdote in the village tavern. But it is no more than that. d'Argonne's sample sizes were tiny, we don't know the piece(s) played, and his experiment was not repeated with any other instrument or type of music. Gradually, however, we might be moving towards answering what d'Argonne could not. Though hardly conclusive, what we've found out so far is intriguing. That long-held idea that cows give more when milked to music? Some research suggests that they do, and that the genre matters less than keeping to a tempo below 120 beats per minute. Other studies report that cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) have little interest in “human music”, and prefer silence when given the choice (and slower tempos when not). However, play them specially composed “monkey music” and things change. Compositions based on these creatures’ vocalizations that communicate calmness and fear seem to elicit these responses when played within the species’ frequency range and at upbeat tempos that better match small monkey metabolism. The same composers later wrote calming music specific for cats, and while their opuses have no effect on Mati (try them on your pet here: https://bit.ly/30kQi0q), the felines they tested seemed to show significantly greater interest in them than in calming human tunes. Further investigations have revealed that cockatoos and other parrots have rhythm and can change their movements to match a beat, as indeed can at least one California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), and bonobos (Pan paniscus) can get down on a drum kit if it's ergonomically designed for them. It's even been reported that their bigger brothers, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), have a preference for Indian and West African music over Japanese themes. And it may be that birds, and perhaps whales, compose music. Rather than just churn out old repertoires, some birds vary their songs, using musical devices such as repetition; they may even invent new material. Of course, there is controversy over whether birdsong qualifies as music, not least because it's hard to prove birds compose for aesthetic (rather than simply functional) reasons – something inherent to many definitions of music. “But if a definition hopes to take in all the world's music, we need a cross-species approach”, suggests Hollis Taylor, a research fellow who studies the Music of Nature and the Nature of Music at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). “To date, very few species have been canvassed for their musical capacities. Enter zoomusicology, a young field that recognizes that animals can have musical lives. It begins by ditching heritage Western art music as the persistent reference point. Instead, zoomusicology builds on the notion that the functional and the aesthetic are not mutually exclusive. If we share something of our ability to appreciate music with other [animals], this could provide insight into the evolution of music and language, and the neurobiology and psychology of our own and other species.” The things we discover might also have implications for our relationships with some animals. If we worry about the ethics of keeping chimpanzees captive because of their intelligence, how might we feel about species with proven aesthetic sensitivities? I'm still watching Mati for a reaction to jazz, but so far neither tempo, nor arrangement, nor virtuosity seem to affect her one bit. It's all the same to her whether the guitarist is some legendary figure or me. Actually, maybe I'll stop observing her right now! That's the best comparison with George Benson I'm ever going to get! Adrian Burton