Nora the Cat (2007)

About

Nora the Cat is a piano-playing Internet cat known for her atonal musical meanderings. Videos of her randomly stepping on a keyboard have been viewed over 20M times (as of 2009-09-22 21:03). Her owner has stated that she was not trained in any way, and plays the piano for short periods a few times per day.

Nora has received a wide variety of press coverage beginning in 2007, including The Times of London and National Geographic. The (admittedly adorable) video has been played on most major media outlets, including CNN, the Daily Show, Martha Stewart, Public Radio International, and the Philadelphia Inquirer [WP]

Media

Remixes

Artist Cory Arcangel recreated a classic piece of atonal composition using clips of cats stepping on keyboards from the Internet. In his words:

Recently I took a few months of my free time and decided to recreate Arnold Schoenberg’s 1909 op. 11 Drei Klavierstücke (aka Three Piano Pieces) by editing together videos of cats playing pianos downloaded from Youtube. Schoenberg’s Op11 is often considered the first piece of “atonal” music, or music to completely break from traditional western harmony which means it’s not written in a “key”.

CATcerto

Lithuanian conducter and composer Mindaugas Piečaitis wrote CATcerto, a concerto constructed around a clip of of Nora, placing the cat’s piano part as an abstract solo. The piece was first performed by the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra in the Klaipėda Concert Hall.

According to Catcerto.com, Piečaitis tribute to Nora “made the most popular list of BBC subjects, unexpectedly defeating news items about the elections results to the European Parliament.”

Benefiting from Keyboard Cat

Nora the piano-playing cat experienced renewed interest in August of 2009, following the success of the similarly-themed Keyboard Cat

While the Times Online had called Nora a Micro-trend in 2007, MSNBC called it “The latest Youtube Sensation” while others continued to make Keyboard Cat comparisons. USA Today also ran a story on Nora, entitled “Play it again, Nora: Piano-pawing cat loves the attention.”

The Today Show introduced Nora as the piano playing cat that had become a Youtube smash hit, in August of 2009, as though it was a current sensation, despite the fact that they were two years too late, and that this was not the same thing as Keyboard Cat.

See also: Maru the Cat, LOLcats