Quarter Notes and Bank Notes: The Economics of Music Composition in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

Book Description

In 1700, most composers were employees of noble courts or the church. But by the nineteenth century, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Verdi, and many others functioned as freelance artists teaching, performing, and selling their compositions in the private marketplace. While some believe that Mozart's career marks a clean break between these two periods, this new book tells the story of a more complex and interesting transition.

F. M. Scherer first examines the political, intellectual, and economic roots of the shift from patronage to a freelance market. He describes the eighteenth-century cultural "arms race" among noble courts, the spread of private concert halls and opera houses, the increasing attendance of middle-class music lovers, and the founding of conservatories. He analyzes changing trends in how composers acquired their skills and earned their living, examining such impacts as demographic developments and new modes of transportation. The book offers insight into the diversity of composers' economic aspirations, the strategies through which they pursued success, the burgeoning music publishing industry, and the emergence of copyright protection. Scherer concludes by drawing some parallels to the economic state of music composition in our own times.

Written by a leading economist with an unusually broad knowledge of music, this fascinating account is directed toward individuals intrigued by the world of classical composers as well as those interested in economic history or the role of money in art.

Customer Reviews:

Art and Business, together forever.......2007-01-18

Since I am in the music business, this book has been a good resource for historical information about the never-ending tension between the need to create the greatest art possible while keeping the arts organization in business. I would guess that it's primarily of interest to people in arts management or who do program annotations or who are interested in "behind the scenes" glimpses at how people behave when they're not before the public. I found it good reading, interesting, absorbing, and it has given me a better understanding of how hard it is to keep art and business in harmony.

Customer Reviews:

Home as a technological system? It's a stretch........2007-04-02

When one thinks of industrialization, the image of a factory comes to mind. However, Cowan looks at the home as a productive venue. According to Cowan's thesis in an industrial society the work women perform as homemakers is tied to technological systems just like in a factory. Work inside or outside the home utilizes electricity, gas, or petroleum as sources of power, and manufacturing and homemaking each require the use of specialized tools.

Tools used in the home help to accomplish specific tasks but, Cowan argues, they "have a life of their own" and "set limits to our work."(9) While tools define behavior within the home, it is outside institutions (manufacturing firms, advertising agents, market researchers) that "mediate"(11) which devices are available for the woman to use in the home. For example Cowan points out that the electric refrigerator likely won out over the gas-absorption design due to the aggressiveness of electric utilities verses the more conservative gas manufacturing companies between 1920 and 1950.

Notwithstanding the use of labor savings devices, women's work has not become easier or less time consuming. Affluence and technology have made a woman's role more complicated and demanding. Partly due to circumstances such as the reduction of numbers of servants available to do drudge work in the home, the change has more to due with an innate human desire for "privacy and autonomy."(149) It is a "convention so deeply imbedded in our individual and collective consciousness that even the profound changes wrought by the twentieth century have not yet shaken it."(150)

Perhaps Cowan's best example of the effects of technology on the home is the stove. Food preparation was a cooperative effort between women and men to produce a simple one-pot meal over an open hearth in pre-industrial days. While the stove reduced the man's effort to maintain the fire, it allowed more complex meals to be prepared by the woman.

If industrialization seemingly reduces the effort necessary for a women to prepare and preserve food, make and maintain clothing, or be the health provider within the home, an entirely new role came with the advent of the automobile. The woman became the household's transportation provider!

The net effect of technology on homemaking has been to reduce drudgery but not labor. While women have become more productive in the home, what time is saved is now consumed by other tasks. In a further irony house work has helped to perpetuate the idea of homemaking as women's work thus reinforcing the stereotypical inequity between genders. However the decline in domestic servants would seem to imply greater equality between classes.

Unlike market labor, women are unpaid, work in isolated workplaces, and perform as unspecialized workers. The value of housework is difficult to quantify and critics argue that household's do not "produce" anything. But is not that the goal of industry; to produce a good or provide a service? Why does homemaking have to be seen in terms of output? What about family and childrearing? These are intangibles beyond monetary value.

Gimmie a break - just look around!.......2005-11-18

More work for mother? Gimmie a break!! This book attempts to further the fiction that it's women who are still doing the housework. While this may have been true 40 years ago, the feminization of the American male that's occurred since then makes this a thing of the past. Just look around! Men are pushing strollers, cleaning houses, cooking dinners, involved in selecting décor, PLUS doing all the "men's work" that they previously did, such as yard work, fixing the car, and doing all those other heavy and dirty jobs. To make matters worse, these are often men who work demanding jobs with lots of travel to bring in the money, often for wives that are just sitting home on their asses! When these men come home from a grinding business trip, the wife is on them to "be more involved," so you see them running around killing themselves around the house and with the kids while their wives are over at the spa or having coffee with their yenta friends. More work for Mother? The book we need is "Modern Marriage: What's in it for Father?"

A must read for moms.......2005-02-26

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which provides a lot of insight into why modern women still are spending an amazing number of hours doing housework, in spite of vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers.

History with a political agenda.......2004-04-26

This book is history of housework and household technology in America. Cowan's thesis is that American women have paradoxically been required to take on more and more work as "labor-saving" technologies have been adopted. At the outset of the book, Cowan seems to state that she will show that developments in technology have not really made women's lives easier, but have served to bind women ever more tightly to the home. But by the end of the book, the message seems to be slightly different: that household technology has raised society's expectations of what women should be able to accomplish in the home, and that women must now work harder because of double duty- -doing the housework in addition to holding down fulltime jobs.

The book is organized along chronological lines, starting with pre-industrial conditions, moving on to industrialization, and finishing with the years following the Second World War. Food and laundry are two topics that receive heavy focus throughout the book. Cowan points out that in the pre-industrial times, food preparation required considerable help from men, for such things as butchering animals. But once meat was available in tins, men were released from such food preparation chores, while women's work increased, since new stove technologies made it possible for women to undertake more complicated methods of food preparation. Cowan argues that laundry duties also increased following industrialization, since when fabric was homespun, people only owned a few items of clothing that were hardly ever washed, but once cheap factory-made fabric became available, people got in the habit of changing clothes quite often, resulting in mounds of items to be laundered.

But I'm not sure I fully agree with these arguments. Cowan seems to suggest that the change from cooking over an open-hearth to cooking on a stove complicated women's lives by increasing possibilities, hence expectations and time spent on the task. Had Cowan been able to observe first-hand lunch preparations over an open-hearth during a hot summer day, she might have been more appreciative of the benefits of a stove. Anyone who has visited such reenactment museums as Plimouth Plantation in July, or even tried cooking a full meal over a campfire, comes away amazed at how women managed to deal with the heat and frustrations of cooking over an open hearth, especially when wearing long skirts that were constantly prone to catching fire from drifting into the coals or getting hit with sparks. And the health benefits of having enough clothing to allow frequent laundering are also tremendous- -memoirs of even the well-to-do of the pre-industrial age are full of descriptions of the usual louse and flea colonies that were an active part of every household. Industrialization in the areas of food preparation and laundry may have not have resulted in time savings for mother, but it certainly made it possible for her to greatly increase the health and safety of herself and her family.

Cowan notes that running a household in pre-industrial conditions involved so much work that no single person could manage it alone. That's why men got married, and why anyone who could afford to hired maids. But following industrialization, Cowan argues that maids could get better-paying factory jobs, so mother got stuck doing the work of the maids. But is this really more work for mother? If the work load was so heavy that a housewife couldn't get by without a maid, and the maid disappeared consequent with the adoption of household technology, it's not that mother was stuck spending more time than ever getting her housework done, but that the new technologies enabled her to accomplish more in the time she had available. Indeed, Cowan even cites time studies that confirm that women were spending more or less the same amount of time doing housework, but they were able to accomplish far more in that time thanks to new technologies, such as automatic washers. And the problems of the double-duty mother never even arose until technology had improved enough so that a woman could hold down an outside job as well as keep the home running.

From the outset, Cowan states that this book is about the history of American housewives and their work, so she doesn't look beyond our borders for evidence that would support or negate her thesis. Her cultural blinders seem overly tight, however, when she discusses the difficulty of finding and keeping hired help as being a peculiarly American problem. Anyone who has tried to work with hired help anywhere in the world has had similar experiences- -nobody grows up wanting to be a maid. Traditionally and worldwide, maids come from an immigrant class, migrating from rural to developed areas, if not across borders, and leaving at the first opportunity of higher pay or prestige elsewhere. Living with household help has an additional disadvantage that Cowan does not consider- -the loss of privacy for the family. Perhaps letting the family cook or laundress go meant more work for mother, but the benefits of finally getting food cooked the way you like it, and not having the maid sort through the family's dirty laundry made it all worthwhile, especially if household technology made it possible to get the chores done by yourself anyway- -and get them done right for a change!

I know that it's impossible to write history free from subjective judgments. However, I have rarely encountered a history where the political leanings of the author come through so blatantly. Although Cowan never states explicitly that she is a "Marxist-feminist", the term arises in several places in the text, suggesting a clear political affinity. Cowan came of age and wrote this book in an earlier time. Today, perhaps, conditions have changed, taking the edge off the urgency of the issues she was implicitly battling by writing this book. The factual information and the window that she provides into household material culture is fascinating, if you can free it from her political agenda and wavering argumentation.

A brilliant work!.......2003-09-21

I had sort of avoided this book because if its title--it sounded like it was going to be one of those books about how since Year One women have been shamelessly victimized by the evil patriarchy.

Boy, was I wrong! The book is a masterpiece of American social, cultural, and technological history. In a clear and sympathetic manner, it shows how home maintenance and upkeep have gradually changed in the U.S. over time. During colonial/pioneer days, everbody in a family had essential work to do: men chopped wood, plowed, and harvested; children carried wood and water; women spun, sewed, and cooked. If anybody fell down on the job, all suffered. Gradually, things changed--men (and sometimes children) increasingly left the house to work for wages during the day.

Superficially, this makes it look like, over time, American households quit being net producers of goods (grain, milk, eggs, cloth, etc.) to net consumers of finished products (pre-made clothes, canned goods, etc.). Cowan shows that this is not exactly the case. While "hard" goods did cease to be produced at home, services--health care, cooking, cleaning, etc.--were still produced for family use. And these services, in spite of in introduction of labor-saving appliances and tools--still, to this day, require both time and skill to use. In fact, while much of the drudgery (heavy lifting and water hauling, for example) was reduced, the complexity of the duties actually increased.

Cowan writes in a very clear style, and provides excellent examples to make her points. For example, she shows how diets changed with time, and gives a number of example of "failed alternatives" to private housework (co-operatives, residential hotels, etc.) Ultimately, she shows how housework/way of life evolved to the present day--working mothers, self-serve stores, few home deliveries--with the tacit consent of both the men and the women who created our current society. It provides an insightful study of many aspects of American life, addressing including such questions as "If I have so many labor- and time-saving devices, why am I so busy and tired so much of the time?"

Average customer rating:
More Work for Mother the Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave
Cowan Ruth Schwartz
Manufacturer: Basic Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LBWM1S

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More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave
Ruth Schwartz Cowan
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3SEX2

Download Description

This forward-looking book focuses on ITV, and illustrates how it's changing the face of TV broadcasting. It provides you with important technical, strategic and creative expertise you need to assist you in the development of interactive systems, and your assessment of their future business potential. Learn how this new aesthetic, interactivity, has given rise to the development of unique design practices and embedding of extended codes and syntax in the programs, and how Bandwidth limitations associated with analog TV signals are eliminated, as cable, satellite and terrestrial TV network operators switch to Digital Bandwidth, providing more interactive content, globally. Examples of content creation, show how ITV programming enhances the educational and entertainment value of programs, and how viewers are encouraged to order online goods and services featured in the programming.

Customer Reviews:

The one indispensable work on the subject.......2003-04-18

A good general overview without the unnecessary boosterism of most of the texts on the subject.

A great book on interactive TV.......2002-01-18

After reading the book I realized the potential of Interactive TV. Indeed broadcasters have to tighten the belt and reorient their business plan if they want to survive in the changing world of broadcasting. The book provides great insights in the things to come, the system of interactive TV and the market potential. This is a must for all the people who have anything to do with the broadcasting.

Video Networks Limited selects TI's ADSL chipset and DSP solution for HomeChoice interactive TV set-top box for UK market. (New Products).(Brief Article): An article from: XDSL News

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Video Networks Limited selects TI's ADSL chipset and DSP solution for HomeChoice interactive TV set-top box for UK market. (New Products).(Brief Article): An article from: XDSL News

Manufacturer: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Certification Central | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Computers & Internet | Boxed Sets | Formats | Books
ASIN: B0008FRXC0
Release Date: 2005-06-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from XDSL News, published by Information Gatekeepers, Inc. on September 1, 2002. The length of the article is 732 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Video Networks Limited selects TI's ADSL chipset and DSP solution for HomeChoice interactive TV set-top box for UK market. (New Products).(Brief Article)
Publication: XDSL News (Newsletter)
Date: September 1, 2002
Publisher: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.
Volume: 6 Issue: 9 Page: 10(2)

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The written word.(Book Review): An article from: Advanced Imaging

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The written word.(Book Review): An article from: Advanced Imaging
Hank Russell
Manufacturer: Cygnus Business Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008FNUGI
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Advanced Imaging, published by Cygnus Business Media on October 1, 2002. The length of the article is 547 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The written word.(Book Review)
Author: Hank Russell
Publication: Advanced Imaging (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2002
Publisher: Cygnus Business Media
Volume: 17 Issue: 10 Page: 51(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Frogger?: Ancient Shadow(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))
BradyGames
Manufacturer: BRADY GAMES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Strategy Guides | Games & Strategy Guides | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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Frogger: Ancient Shadow

Frogger Ancient Shadow

Chronicles of Narnia, The: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Official Strategy Guide: Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

Frogger: Helmet Chaos

ASIN: 074400635X

Book Description

BradyGames’ Frogger: Ancient Shadow Official Strategy Guide includes the following:

A comprehensive walkthrough of the entire exciting adventure.
Detailed area maps.
Online and multiplayer strategies for mini-games.
Game secrets revealed!

Platform: PS2, Xbox, GameCube and NintendoDS

Genre: Action/Adventure

This product is available for sale in North America only.

Bug (The Adventures of Bug and Frogger Series)

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Bug (The Adventures of Bug and Frogger Series)
Frank B. Edwards , and John Bianchi
Manufacturer: Pokeweed Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Twelve-year old Bug is penniless and on the move again. Thanks to her dad's obsessive entrepreneurial streak, she finds herself fleeing the city under cover of darkness in search of a new hometown. Her arrival in rural Tichburg is especially noteworthy because her father has staked their future on a decrepit dump truck fill with unmatched running shoes that he plans to sell at Tichurg's Harvest Fair.

Luckily one of their first customers is Frogger, an easy-going country kid who convinces his skeptical new friend that there really can be life in the country -- if she can adapt to a different lifestyle. While her father busies himself with new ventures, Bug settles in to rural life with an overactive curiousity about everyone and everything in town.

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Frogger

Manufacturer: Hasbro Interactive
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM
ASIN: B000IJKQ9I

Product Description

Windows 95. ESRB Rated Kids to Adults. He made the leap to 3-D! Now armed with an array of advanced powers, Frogger must make his way through strange new worlds filled with nasty enemies and dangerous terrain. Help him save frog civilization! Hop to it!

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Hilarious series of misadventures!!!
Pretty Funny

Frogger (New Reader (Pokeweed Press))
Frank B. Edwards
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
ASIN: 061380385X

Customer Reviews:

Hilarious series of misadventures!!!.......2003-01-04

Frogger has a babysitting duty to fulfill. Mr. and Mrs. Troth are already uncertain about letting Frogger babysit their children but what will happen to them when Cigar Davis comes back to town and helps Frogger watch the terrible twins? What problems will Frogger face on his first day of babysitting? What will become of the humble town of Tichburg? I found this book very interseting and I would recommend it to anybody between the ages of 8 and 15!

Pretty Funny.......2001-03-15

This book is about a clumsy twelve year old boy named Frogger who feels that he needs to help out in the community. But when Frogger's involved, here's what happens...Trouble! One day, a ich family moves in down the street. In this family were two troublemakers: Kenny and Kerry. But it turns out that without meaning to, Frogger saves Kenny. He didn't even know them! The children pleaded to their mother . They wanted Frogger to be their new babysitter. The first day of Frogger's new job is a mess. An old man named Cigar Davis came to the house in which Frogger was babysitting and claimed that he used to live in it and he wanted some of his childhood treasures. Read about all of the messes poor Frogger gets into in this hilarious book!

FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION) (FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION), FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION))

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FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION) (FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION), FROGGER HOP TO IT! FOR WINDOWS 95 BY HASBRO INTERACTIVE (COMPUTER PC CD-ROM VIDEO GAME VERSION))
FOR COMPUTER PC BY KONAMI AND HASVRO
Manufacturer: FOR COMPUTER PC BY KONAMI AND HASVRO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM
ASIN: B000VJ4I1W

Product Description

WINDOWS 95 PC VERSION. HARD TO FIND GAME. The game starts with three frogs. The player guides a frog which starts at the bottom of the screen. The lower half of the screen contains a road with motor vehicles, which in various versions include cars, trucks, buses, taxis, and/or motorcycles speeding along. The upper half of the screen consists of a river with logs, alligators, and turtles. The very top of the screen contains five "frog homes"the goal for each frog. Each level is timed, so the player must act quickly to finish each level before the time expires. The only control the player has is navigating the direction for the frog to hop with the joystick. Each push in a direction causes the frog to hop once in that direction. On the bottom half of the screen, the player must successfully guide the frog between opposing lanes of trucks, cars and other vehicles, to avoid becoming roadkill. The middle of the screen, after the road, contains a median where the player must prepare to navigate the river. By jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of turtles, the player can guide his frog safely to one of the empty lilypads. The player must avoid alligators, snakes and otters in the river, but may catch bugs or escort a lady frog for bonuses. When all five frogs are directed home, the game progresses to the next, harder level. There were more ways to lose a turn in this game than the typical videogames of the era. Players lose a turn if the frog: * Gets hit by traffic * Gets struck by a snake in the median strip or on a floating log * Misses a log or turtle and ends up in the water * Runs off the screen on a floating log or turtle * Stays on top of a "diving turtle" too long as it submerges * Jumps into the mouth of a floating alligator * Jumps into the mouth of an alligator in the dock * Misses the dock as he tries jumping into it * Jumps into a dock already occupied by a frog * Runs out of time before making it to the dock

Frogger: The Great Quest Official Strategy Guide

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Frogger: The Great Quest Official Strategy Guide
Phillip Marcus
Manufacturer: BRADY GAMES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Frogger?: Ancient Shadow(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

ASIN: 0744001102

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BradyGames Frogger: The Great Quest Official Strategy Guide provides a complete walkthrough to help players navigate through the various levels and environments. Boss strategies and tactics for defeating enemies, plus comprehensive maps that mark key locations and power-up items. Complete coverage of characters along with solutions to the many puzzles in the game!

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Frogger: The Adventures of Bug and Frogger
Frank B. Edwards
Manufacturer: Pokeweed Pr
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