The Elephant's Pianist Returns
As I noted a short while back, I accidentally came across a series of fascinating videos. They’re all from a pianist Paul Barton who has used music to deal with people therapeutically, and he wondered if it would be effective with animals, as well. This is something that Barton has been doing in the jungles of Thailand for many years – I can’t tell exactly, but it seems like perhaps 15 years so far. And he’s developed connections with several of the elephants.
There are quite a few of his videos that I thought about posting next (one with a clearly restless bull elephant who, once the music starts playing, not only calms down his anxious swaying, but sits down and calmly listens), but I’ve chosen this one instead. That’s because the others tend to start close to when the music begins, but this gives more of the behind-the-scenes perspective. And that’s important because, as Barton writes – “In this video I included a few extra behind-the-scenes clips to show how Mongkol, a bull elephant, would walk along the river bank in the early evening to the piano and wait. I needed to be absolutely sure Mongkol was waiting for music of his own accord before I played to him. Mongkol was free to stay and listen or to walk away at any time.” Also, it seems to be more common in the videos for the elephants to hover over the piano when the music is playing, and this gives a better sense of that. Worth noting, as well, is that a common activity when watching these videos is how the elephants seem to flap their ears more often when the music is playing.
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