+++
author = ["authors/jenna.md"]
categories = "Humour"
date = "2014-04-21T08:58:00-04:00"
lastmod = "2015-04-23T21:30:00-04:00"
primary_image = "https://res.cloudinary.com/schmopera/image/upload/v1545409169/media/webhook-uploads/1429838993925/BrahmsMeme.jpg.jpg"
publishDate = "2014-04-21T08:58:00-04:00"
short_description = "Has anyone else read about this? Richard Wagner, the &quot;notoriously bitchy composer&quot; (David Ward, The Guardian), said that Johannes Brahms, composer and owner of classical music&#039;s best beard, hated cats. "
slug = "brahms-hated-cats-what"
title = "Brahms hated cats? What?"
+++

Has anyone else read about this? Richard Wagner, the "notoriously bitchy composer" (David Ward, _The Guardian_), said that Johannes Brahms, composer and owner of classical music's best beard, hated cats. Allegedly, Brahms would sit by a window with a bow-and-arrow-type weapon that [Dvořák](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k) gave him, and shoot arrows at the cats in the street. Once he'd caught a cat, he would reel it in like he was fishing. But the really ridiculous part of this story is this: Brahms would listen to the sounds the cats made as he was reeling them in, and he'd _incorporate the sounds into his music. _

Insanity, Richard. You're just making things up. Some people who study Brahms have done a [fair job of debunking the rumour;](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1316010/Brahms-expert-puts-cat-killer-claims-to-sleep.html) basically, Wagner was being jealous and making up insane stories about a composer whom he saw as competition. Wagner on Brahms' music: "the evil only starts when one attempts to compose better than one can."

I mean, I get that Brahms was [grumpy](http://www.arthurcolman.com/m_brahms.html), and sort of like the [Eeyore](http://winniethepooh.disney.com/eeyore) of Romantic composers, but I just can't see him perched at a window, sniping cats. But the Internet is [still talking about it](http://www.strangehistory.net/2011/04/13/brahms-cat-murderer/). There's even [this](http://www.classicfm.com/pictures/composer-pictures/composers-and-cat-beards/johannes-brahms-and-cat-beard/).
