Pur(rrr)ifying

Program Note

Inspiration always comes from unexpected situations or places. Every single morning when my wife wakes up, our cat Zeus comes to her and starts his massage routine (yes, we have a cat that does massages.) When he’s in the middle of his routine he always purrs, as many cats do. One day he changed the time of his routine and instead of doing in in the morning, he came to our bed when we were almost sleeping. When he started purring, I was impressed by the sense of relaxation I was getting from that sound and I decided to use it in my next composition.

I came across an investigation of Dr. Karen Mccomb, a professor at the University of Sussex, London who also appeared on the documentary “The Lion in your Living Room” (available at Netflix) According to Dr. Mccomb, cats have two different types of purrs, the first type is for when our feline friends want something from us (solicitation purr) and the other one when they’re just relaxing (non-solicitation purr)

The first movement (Solicitation Purr) is for when cats are demanding for action, the saxophone creates effects while the tape accentuates this idea. Multiple cats joined this movement with their particular meows. The second movement (Non-solicitation Purr) is more relaxing and lyric for the soloist.

I would like to thank professor Mccomb for answering my emails and help me understand a little more about the cat’s behavior and communication. Thanks to my teacher Dr. Ivette Herryman for her continuous support.

Special thanks to:

Bonjour – Gabriela Morán

Farinelli & Copito – Doris Melchor

Huey – Aquino-Molina family

Minga Chiki Winny – Zuleyma Rivas

Pedro – Eugenia Trinidad

Pepo – Karen Mccomb

Simba – Lennie Vega

Zeus – Alejandra & Juan Guerra

• Juan Guerra González