--- title: Cat Playing a Theremin Is Not Sure What It’s Gotten Into description: A very confused cat playing the theramin is distracting the internet today and it's delightful. canonical: https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-11T15:57:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:22.011Z og:title: Cat Playing a Theremin Is Not Sure What It’s Gotten Into og:description: A tentative and musically gifted feline og:url: https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cat Playing a Theremin Is Not Sure What It’s Gotten Into twitter:description: A tentative and musically gifted feline twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Tentative and Musically Gifted Cat Playing a Theremin Has Given Us the Song of the Season by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 11, 2020 3:57 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Mar 11, 2020 3:57 PM UTC [Taylor Swift](https://time.com/5571828/every-reference-taylor-swift/) and [Jason Derulo](https://time.com/5799517/jason-derulo-pie/) may have contributed songs to [the _Cats_ soundtrack](https://time.com/5751675/jason-derulo-cats-movie/), but perhaps the producers should have just had this actual [cat](https://time.com/5719972/quilty-cat-frees-cats/) score the film. In a video shared by DJ and record label owner Wylie Cable, a cat can be seen waving its paws in the air while a odd noise emanates from a red box. As the cat moves, the sound shifts and changes, evolving from ethereal arias to scratchy white noise. It all completely bewilders the furry little musician who stands on its hind legs to get a better angle on whatever the heck is happening, only to have the sound change _again_. Naturally it tries to bite the air, but since there‘s nothing there, the effort is fruitless. The confused cat does not seem to realize it’s playing a theremin—and neither does its feline audience watching the performance in awe. > [](https://twitter.com/WylieCable/status/1236719875776581633) The invisible instrument as it is known was invented in 1919 by a Russian physicist named Lev Termen, [according to _CBS News_](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-theremin-a-strange-instrument-with-a-strange-history/), who in the west was known as Leon Theremin. Termen discovered the unusual instrument quite by accident while working on a machine that would measure the density of gases. When he his hand neared the machine, it would squeal, when he moved away, it became a lower tone. As he moved his hands through the air, he started to play melodies, and soon the theremin was born. The theremin works thanks to two antennas – one controlling pitch, the other controlling volume, [according to Theremin World’](http://www.thereminworld.com/Article/14232/what-s-a-theremin-)s website. As a hand—or paw—nears the antennas, the pitch and volume change, but as the cat demonstrated in the video, no one, human or cat, need to touch the instrument to play it. The theremin’s eerie, otherworldly sound were the perfect soundtracks to sci-fi films like _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ and _It Came From Outer Space_, Alfred Hitchcock’s _Spellbound_, Captain Beefheart songs, and, naturally, cat videos making their way around the internet. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/"},"headline":"Tentative and Musically Gifted Cat Playing a Theremin Has Given Us the Song of the Season","datePublished":"2020-03-11T15:57:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:22.011Z","description":"A very confused cat playing the theramin is distracting the internet today and it's delightful.","url":"https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Brief"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5800947/cat-theramin/","name":"Tentative and Musically Gifted Cat Playing a Theremin Has Given Us the Song of the Season"}}]}] ```