J. Q. Davies is professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley. With Nicholas Mathew, he is the coeditor of the New Material Histories of Music series at the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of Romantic Anatomies of Performance and coeditor, with Ellen Lockhart, of Sound Knowledge: Music and Science in London, 1789–1851.

“Erudite and virtuosic, this beautifully written book changes our understanding of the European nineteenth century in significant ways by exploring how cultural reveries about atmosphere, breath, and air were allied to musical aesthetics, performance, and sound making. Davies’s work addresses environments and their impact on humans, the global transmission of cultural artifacts, and colonialism’s legacy. What emerges is no less than a seismic shift in our understanding of Western art music.”

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionChapter 1 White “Genius”: Ngango, Gabon Estuary, 1817Chapter 2 A Falcon under Glass: Paris, France, 1838Chapter 3 Moral Atmospherics in Elijah: Black Country, Britain, 1846–1860Chapter 4 Black Musics Control: Santa Maria de Belém do Grão-Pará, Brazil, 1871Chapter 5 A Spectral Image of Breath: New York, United States, 1901Chapter 6 Albert Schweitzer’s Equatorial Piano: Lambaréné, Gabon, 1913EpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

J. Q. Davies is professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley. With Nicholas Mathew, he is the coeditor of the New Material Histories of Music series at the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of Romantic Anatomies of Performance and coeditor, with Ellen Lockhart, of Sound Knowledge: Music and Science in London, 1789–1851.

“Erudite and virtuosic, this beautifully written book changes our understanding of the European nineteenth century in significant ways by exploring how cultural reveries about atmosphere, breath, and air were allied to musical aesthetics, performance, and sound making. Davies’s work addresses environments and their impact on humans, the global transmission of cultural artifacts, and colonialism’s legacy. What emerges is no less than a seismic shift in our understanding of Western art music.”

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionChapter 1 White “Genius”: Ngango, Gabon Estuary, 1817Chapter 2 A Falcon under Glass: Paris, France, 1838Chapter 3 Moral Atmospherics in Elijah: Black Country, Britain, 1846–1860Chapter 4 Black Musics Control: Santa Maria de Belém do Grão-Pará, Brazil, 1871Chapter 5 A Spectral Image of Breath: New York, United States, 1901Chapter 6 Albert Schweitzer’s Equatorial Piano: Lambaréné, Gabon, 1913EpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

J. Q. Davies is professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley. With Nicholas Mathew, he is the coeditor of the New Material Histories of Music series at the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of Romantic Anatomies of Performance and coeditor, with Ellen Lockhart, of Sound Knowledge: Music and Science in London, 1789–1851.

“Erudite and virtuosic, this beautifully written book changes our understanding of the European nineteenth century in significant ways by exploring how cultural reveries about atmosphere, breath, and air were allied to musical aesthetics, performance, and sound making. Davies’s work addresses environments and their impact on humans, the global transmission of cultural artifacts, and colonialism’s legacy. What emerges is no less than a seismic shift in our understanding of Western art music.”

• List of IllustrationsIntroductionChapter 1 White “Genius”: Ngango, Gabon Estuary, 1817Chapter 2 A Falcon under Glass: Paris, France, 1838Chapter 3 Moral Atmospherics in Elijah: Black Country, Britain, 1846–1860Chapter 4 Black Musics Control: Santa Maria de Belém do Grão-Pará, Brazil, 1871Chapter 5 A Spectral Image of Breath: New York, United States, 1901Chapter 6 Albert Schweitzer’s Equatorial Piano: Lambaréné, Gabon, 1913EpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex