Rudolph Koenig was one of the more prolific and colorful instrument makers in Paris’s renowned nineteenth-century precision instrument trade. Beginning his career as a violin maker in 1858, the young Prussian immigrant shifted his talents toward the growing field of acoustics. Altered Sensations is a portrait of his vibrant atelier, a place of construction, commerce, and experiment. For over forty years, it was also a popular meeting place for scientists, artisans, musicians, and teachers. Using archival and collection research from across North America and Europe, David Pantalony has traced the material and social influences of this space on the development of modern acoustics. In particular, he has detailed how Koenig modified, extended, spread, and challenged Hermann von Helmholtz’s Sensations of Tone.
A large part of the research on Koenig comes from the actual products of his workshop, which are in museums and collections worldwide. The second section of Altered Sensations provides a Catalogue Raisonné of Koenig’s entire line of instruments, including their history, details from specific examples, locations, and references in the literature. This catalog will serve as a practical guide for curators and researchers and a comprehensive overview of the nineteenth-century acoustical practice.
