ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I propose that atmosphere be analysed as situation. Pointing to the limits of topological thinking with regard to music, I emphasise duration and dynamic as intrinsic forces of atmosphere. Rather than prompting a certain atmosphere, music as atmosphere is the very alteration it induces, of being involved in musical dynamics and felt duration. This leads me to the methodological observation that atmosphere cannot be discerned as a constellation but can only be inferred from performance, which is always collective. Analysing communal singing in Southern China I investigate into the performance and operations of dealing with atmosphere in situations of shame, timidity, longing and love.
