Orchestral passages accompany much of the action in The Cat and the Fiddle and there were a number of recitatives. As the story involves two composers, many segments involve the composing of the music. The character Shirley, the American composer, is not the most original of composers and Jerome Kern even paraphrases Edvard Grieg in one of the 'compositions', as well as using his own compositions. (See the notes to "Dance in Phantasy" and "Ha! Cha! Cha!")
The original program contained the following announcement: "No attempt is here made to do more than indicate a list of numbers which may be readily disassociated from the complete musical fabric." The order of the song list remains the same as in the original program but songs not listed in the original program have been added and footnoted as such. Many songs are performed, in part, before the program listing for the full version. "Dance in Phantasy" was listed after the full program in the original. It has been placed in the song list where it was originally performed.
Early in the show's development, there was to have been a quartet of offstage singers and no onstage chorus.
