McCaul Ragland

Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse is an electronic piece I was prompted to write by my composition

instructor. It consists of one recorded sound, which was plugged into my recording software and

stretched to create different voices. The recorded sound is the small grinding of teeth my car key

makes when sliding it into the ignition. Once I began toying with the sound, two unique voices

emerged. One larger slinky, almost monster-like sound, and a sound similar to a small wind-up

toy. While I was creating the piece, a cat chased a mouse around my brain Ultimately, that mental

image dictated the final form of the sounds . My goal was to recreate this imaginary chase using

audio only.

The first voice to enter was a large monster-like snore, the cat. The second smaller, more

innocent voice was the mouse. In the song, after each voice has been played independently and

the characters are established, the listener returns to the cats ever-loudening snore, which wakes

it up. The smaller mouse voice takes to the foreground after the cats development. The mouses

voice is panned to the right shrinking in volume by implementing a growing reverb effect. This

effect replicates the mouse traveling down a long hallway, with only an echo of him audible.

Then, the cats roar echoes down the hallway, and the mouses voice retreats at a rushed pace,

fleeing the cat. The third act contains the final chase. An alternation between the two voices

gaining speed and tension. Finally, the music slows as the cats jaws open to consume the poor

mouse.

To my surprise, this was the most enjoyable piece I had ever written. I was surprised at

how taking random sounds and arranging them applies to music. The notes on a piano are a
wonderful pallet to work with, but this piece has proved to me that a musical pallet does not end

with instruments, but is all around me in a soundscape.