Endless breath? The pipe organ and immortality

The fantasy of never running out of breath has long been alluring. But in the nineteenth century, the idea acquired a distinctive form of material reality. The pipe organ, existing at least from the ancient Greeks, has often been described as figuratively having lungs. But with the adoption of water/gas then electric-powered organ blowers in the nineteenth century, the organ, theoretically, could provide that which nothing else could: breath that could go on for ever. This essay explores two forms of poetic and narrative reflection on the new powers of the organ’s lungs. First, it considers writing that responded to the apparent instrument of endless breath by reinforcing the organ’s association with the eternal. Second, the essay examines writers who thought precisely the opposite and who acknowledged that, if new organ blowing technology implied unexpendable breathing, the reality—amid failed turbines, broken wind supplies, and insufficient power—reminded the listener of the grave.