Cat Piano.

1. Nicholas Dollak
   February 28th, 2006 at 5:26 am

   Undoubtedly the inspiration for the "organ" that the Sultan plays in Terry Gilliam's film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen." In an early sequence, the Sultan is "entertaining" the Baron with a performance of a little opera he's composed called "The Torturer's Apprentice." The instrument he plays looks like a complicated organ and contains a cage full of wretched prisoners. As the Sultan presses the keys and pulls the stops, spikes poke into various prisoners to make them yelp with pain.

   As someone who has been clawed trying to shoo a cat downstairs against its will, I can take comfort in the fact that this non-ASPCA-approved instrument probably never actually was successfully used. Would your cat allow itself to be crammed into its little cage? Or stay in it once the poking began? Also, there are only 7 cats there, but 31 keys.

2. And So It Begins...
   February 28th, 2006 at 1:03 pm

   Musical Cats

   Squishy Musical Squeaker would be proud. I found this on Neatorama today (via Boing Boing): "The piano was designed to raise the spirits of an Italian prince who was too stressed out. The musician would select cats whose voices were

3. Allen K.
   February 28th, 2006 at 4:03 pm

   The Muppets' Marvin Suggs had a similar "Muppaphone", much like Monty Python's Arthur Ewing's "Mousaphone".

   In Michael Moorcock's Elric series, there is mentioned a chorus of eunuchs each trained to perfectly sing one note. I don't believe they needed to cued by poking or pounding.

4. Ron
   February 28th, 2006 at 6:31 pm

   You can tuna cat piano, but you can't tuna fish.

5. daniel rico
   May 6th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

   Actualmente una secta ATANASOFICA intenta reflotar el instrumento en la ciudad de mar del plata . Argentina.

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