Fur Music

Fur Music” by Nelson Howe

“Fur Music”, exhibited here in the rare contemporary journal Source, combines meditative methods with the gentle fur of your favorite house cat!  Howe, American artist/musician from Michigan, explains that the purpose of this “piece” is to “focus attention on the exploration of the tactile qualities of fur, but with the added requirement that the tactile sensation be heard.” In this sense, the performer is also the audience.

Howe develops four pieces “Fur Music 1-4” with increasingly difficult challenges. Fur Music asks the performer to simply run their fingers left to right along the fur and black board and listen intently for other sounds. The second adds a dimension of color in which your hand is both touching a box of color and the fur. When you begin to hear the sounds of each color, you move your thumb to the next color until you hear the sound of each color. The third asks you to move four fingers across a solid length of fur in various ways while still listening to the sound; while the fourth and final piece has your eyes trace a certain path that dictates when and for how long your fingers touch the fur. Don’t defur the experience!

Information from:  Nelson Howe, “Fur Music,” Source, vol. 9 (1971), pages 60-63.