What's up Steemians, it's Rabbe again with a completely unusable but perhaps interesting fact. Today we have something that falls into the category of "just weird".
The first choice of every sadistic musician
They say it takes suffering and pain to produce real art. I always thought it was about the artist's personal suffering, but someone has probably had a different point of view. What the heck am I talking about? The not-so-famous "Katzenklavier" of course. Yes, it really is an instrument named "Cat organ" or "Cat piano". And yes, it really uses cats to produce the sounds.
So how does it work? The instrument consists of X amount of cats that are placed in "cages" next to eachother and arranged according to the pitches of their meows. This is where it gets cruel. The cats' tails are pulled back and held in place. As the musician touches a key, a mechanism makes a nail hit the cat's tail, which makes the cat yowl in pain in order to produce the desired sound.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
It's a known fact that this diabolical instrument has been completely designed and it's not just an idea. However, there is no airtight proof that there has actually been a working Katzenklavier in use somewhere. However, first mentions of the instrument go all the way back to the 18th century, so I wouldn't be surprised if it once was a real thing. But, for the sake of all cats that lived back then I hope this was only seen on paper.
That's it for today. Until next time. Peace.
-R