A composer is setting portraits of cats and dogs to music, and they are just beautiful

12 July 2021, 19:53 | Updated: 25 October 2022, 17:26

Composer Noam Oxman setting portraits of cats and dogs to music

Incredible cat and dog portraits in music, from a musician who specialises in striking animal scores.

Furry friends, cats, dogs, bunny rabbits and more are being set to music, and they sound as lovely as they look.

After graduating from his music studies, Jerusalem-based composer Noam Oxman wanted to find a way to apply his talents. He thought about his three loves: animals, music and drawing. Could there be an ingenious way to combine all three?

This was how ‘Sympawnies’ came to be: creating bespoke compositions and graphic scores that illustrate much-loved pets.

Read more: A TikTok composer is painstakingly setting every name to beautiful piano music

Oxman says he was fascinated by J.S. Bach’s unique, stylised handwriting style. Bach’s musical hand was flamboyant, contoured and sometimes contained hidden symbols or meanings. Combining his compositional skills and his penmanship, Oxman created graphic shapes made out of musical notes, that also form a wonderful, unique composition.

Our cat-loving composer also says the musical language he uses in his symphonies is based on Baroque and Classical styles, because of the flexibility and expression it provides. Take a look at how a cat portrait becomes a quartet below...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sympawnies (@sympawnies)

Oxman studied jazz piano, composition and music theory at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He also volunteers in animal shelters and works with rescue animals. Oh, he and his partner have three cats too.

What an amazing way to combine your loves. If you have a furry or feathered friend, who you’d like to have immortalised in music, Oxman is open for commissions. Find out more on his Instagram, Facebook or YouTube channels.