You slip on your headphones and play your favorite song. As the melody builds, your mood lifts with each note. Music has a way of stirring emotions that words alone can’t touch. It’s often called a universal language—one that can unite strangers at a concert or soothe a crying infant with a lullaby.
But have you ever wondered who else might be listening? If music moves us so deeply, what might it mean to the other creatures who share our world? This simple question opens the door to some surprising and heartwarming discoveries about animals—and perhaps about ourselves.
The Universal Language of Emotion
We’re learning that the “universal language” of music may not be limited to humans at all. In one remarkable study, scientists composed special pieces of music and played them for a group of young pigs. The result was striking: the piglets showed clear emotional reactions to the different tunes. When they heard consonant, gentle harmonies, the pigs became visibly content; when dissonant, jarring notes played, they grew uneasy, as described in this report on pigs’ emotional response to music. In other words, pigs responded to pleasant music much like we do—calming down to a sweet song or getting tense at an unpleasant noise. It turns out these highly intelligent animals experience a range of feelings and moods, and sound can influence them. Pigs are even known to use their own vocalizations in nuanced ways. Mother pigs, for instance, have been observed “singing” soft grunts to their piglets during nursing, almost like a lullaby to let the babies know milk is flowing, a behavior highlighted in this article exploring animal emotions and vocalizations. And the babies learn to recognize their mom’s voice, much as human infants recognize their mother’s song-like cooing.
Humans aren’t the only ones who enjoy music. Animal lovers have long shared charming anecdotes of pets and wildlife responding to melodies. Dairy farmers even find that cows produce more milk when serenaded with slow, soothing songs—a University of Leicester study saw about a 3% boost with calm classical music, whereas fast tunes had the opposite effect, as noted in The Guardian’s review of music’s effects on cows and further detailed here. It seems even a cow appreciates a mellow vibe in the barn. And think of birds in the morning: biologists have shown that birdsong at sunrise carries complex messages of courtship, territory, or connection, a point also discussed in the exploration of animal communication. This is the magic of sound and song, bridging beings great and small. When we see a pig swaying gently to a melody or a canary warbling to its mate, it challenges us to expand our circle of empathy. The same emotions that music awakens in us—joy, tranquility, longing—beat in the hearts of other animals too.
A Symphony in the Sanctuary
At a riverside sanctuary in Thailand, retired elephants gather curiously around pianist Paul Barton as he plays gentle classical music. In these quiet moments, the elephants appear to find the same calm pleasure in Beethoven that humans do. One morning at a jungle sanctuary in Thailand, a grand piano sits under the open sky, surrounded by a herd of rescued elephants. When pianist Paul Barton plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, one blind elephant stops munching her breakfast and stands utterly still—listening. Barton even notices her breathing slow with the gentle music, a sign that she is truly at peace, as detailed in The Guardian’s story of piano music for elephants.
As Barton plays, the elephants respond in personal ways. One rambunctious young bull approaches and, incredibly, begins to gently sway his trunk in time with the melody, almost as if dancing, an observation shared by Barton in his interviews. Meanwhile, a normally moody older bull walks straight to the piano and curls his trunk into his mouth like a baby sucking its thumb. He just stands there peacefully; Barton thought, “isn’t this the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen?”, a moment he recounts in this personal reflection. In that moment of shared music, the line between man and animal seems to dissolve. Both are simply beings enjoying a beautiful song on a riverbank.
These scenes are more than just charming anecdotes; they are windows into the emotional lives of animals. Elephants have long been known for their intelligence—research shows they grieve lost family, recognize themselves in mirrors, and even cooperate to solve problems. But seeing an elephant moved by music strikes a special chord in us. It reminds us that the things that bring us comfort and happiness—art, companionship, gentle touch—can touch them as well. Barton believes that music is a universal language, one that “connects us all” across species, as he expresses in his description of music’s power. Indeed, watching his elephant friends relax to piano melodies or “dance” in place, it’s hard not to feel a sense of kinship. The elephants’ capacity to enjoy the concert suggests they too seek harmony and peace. And tellingly, it was compassion that unlocked this experience: a human who cared enough to share music with beings that had known only hardship before. In those quiet concerts, empathy flows both ways—soothing the elephants and inspiring everyone who witnesses it.
Hearing All the Voices
A humpback whale glides through the blue depths. Decades ago, recordings of whale songs captivated the public and sparked a wave of empathy that helped save these giants from hunting. Consider how we humans choose which sounds of nature we celebrate and which we ignore. We thrill to the melodic trills of songbirds. And we marvel at the haunting call of a humpback whale—in fact, in the 1970s people around the world were transfixed by an album of recorded whale songs. Those eerie, symphonic calls became an unlikely hit, and the album helped kickstart a movement to “Save the Whales,” contributing to a ban on commercial whale hunting, as documented in The Guardian’s account of how whale songs changed public opinion. Many who heard these recordings were left spellbound, even moved to tears. Hearing the whales’ “music” helped humans recognize these animals not as mindless creatures, but as fellow emotional beings with their own rich lives. It’s a powerful example of how empathy can blossom when we truly listen to the voices of other species, as reflected in this reflection on animal communication.
Yet there are so many animal voices we ignore. We love birdsong in nature, but rarely think of the hen confined in a cage who will never get to sing her own song. We smile at a dog “singing” along to the radio, yet ignore a mother cow’s plaintive calls for her calf on a dairy farm. If a dog howls in pain, we rush to help—while a pig’s terrified squeals from a factory farm mostly go unheard. It’s not that people are heartless; we’ve just been conditioned not to notice.
Research is confirming what empathy already knows: animals experience emotions, form bonds, and communicate in ways much like we do, as shown in scientific coverage of pigs’ emotional reactions and the unique ways cows communicate. Knowing this doesn’t lessen the love we have for our pets; it simply asks us to widen that love to the animals we’ve overlooked. It invites us to listen a little harder to those voices and ask whether our choices harmonize with our values.
A Final Note on Compassion
In the end, an honest love of music is a love of feeling. We cherish music because it makes us feel alive and connected. If you’ve read this far, it’s likely because you value empathy and wonder—qualities that music and caring for animals have in common. So next time you lose yourself in a favorite song, remember Lam Duan the elephant enjoying her piano lullaby. That moment shows an inspiring truth: joy and comfort are not uniquely human experiences, but a shared inheritance across species. And that truth carries a gentle call to action. Perhaps it means trying a meat-free meal one day a week, or visiting a sanctuary to meet a rescued cow who will gladly soak up your affection. Even simply sharing what you’ve learned with a friend can spark curiosity and compassion.
Like a moving melody that stays in your heart, empathy for animals can grow on you in subtle ways. It doesn’t require drastic change—just an openness to seeing (and hearing) animals in a new light. If you like music, you already understand the power of connection. By extending that sense of kinship a little further to include a pig, a chicken, a whale, or an elephant, you might discover a deeper, more enriching rhythm to your life. It’s a rhythm where our actions resonate with kindness, and the circle of “us” widens to include all living beings. And that is music to everyone’s ears.
