It’s incredible how similar humans and animals can be at times. I’m not referring to physical appearance—the closest relatives are primates, and that’s about it.Animals continue to astound and inspire us with their mental capacity for things that we often consider exclusively human. You know, things like emotion, empathy, the ability to be creative, and so on. Most surprising is that animals understand and participate in what we consider art and culture.
This adorable blind elephant, believe it or not, prefers to dance to classical music
Image credits: Paul Barton
Take into account the following: When Paul Barton, a British musician, took a piano into an elephant sanctuary, he began playing classical music to Lam Duan, a blind elephant.What was the female elephant’s reaction? A lovely human being. She started swaying from side to side, moving her trunk, and even stepping around as if she were dancing to the music.
Image credits: Paul Barton
In his video, Barton explains that Lam Duan, a gentle old female elephant, has been blind for most of her life. ElephantsWorld, an animal protection organization based in Wang Dong, Thailand, is where the 62-year-old elephant spends her days. He then plays some soothing classical music for her by Frédéric Chopin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, and Erik Satie.
This musician dragged his piano to a Thai elephant sanctuary to perform for retired elephants.
Image credits: Paul Barton
As a piano player, he was willing to share his talent and time with someone who was blind and couldn’t see the beauty of sight, but could still appreciate all that was aural.
Image credits: Paul Barton
During a video for his YouTube channel, Barton came up with the idea to do this on the bridge over River Kwai, so he did. To help old, injured and disabled elephants from logging and the streets, there is a sanctuary. He learned about it from a friend. It was love at first sight for him to play the piano for the elephants down there. This is not true at all.
Lam Duan isn’t the only elephant who enjoys listening to Bach, Chopin, and Schubert.
Image credits: Paul Barton
Lam Duan was not the only elephant to benefit from this gift, believe it or not. A swarm of elephants entered the room to watch Barton’s performance. Some of them even sang! They sang to the best of their abilities, at least. There’s even a video of him playing the Saiyok, a traditional Thai flute, for Plara, an elephant.
Barton explained to Coconuts Bangkok that almost all elephants react to music. As soon as the music begins to play, they begin to move. Some approach the piano and start stroking it with their trunks, while others listen with their trunks in their mouths. Others, such as Lam Duan, sway from side to side. When they hear the sound of the piano, they all become interested.
The elephants are so taken with Barton’s performances that some attempt to sing along.
Barton is also known to entertain the elephants by playing the Saiyok, a traditional Thai flute.
There is a YouTube channel called Paul Barton, where he posts his music all the time. This includes all the times he played for elephants, so the beauty never ends.
Here’s how the internet reacted to Barton and his elephant performance…
