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> Baumol and Bowen pointed out that the same number of musicians is needed to play a Beethoven string quartet today as was needed in the 19th century; the produ
by perfmode 7y ago
> Baumol and Bowen pointed out that the same number of musicians is needed to play a Beethoven string quartet today as was needed in the 19th century; the productivity of classical music performance has not increased.
it’s kind of odd to consider a performance more productive if it can be done with fewer people. what if productivity is being able to entertain more people with the same number of performers?
- legoto 7y agoActually, I can 'play' a Beethoven string quartet from my phone by myself. So technically classical music performance productivity, in the loosest definition possible, has increased. Of course, as you mentioned, that could be considered an arbitrary metric.
- papln 7y agoYour phone/home speakers can't replicate a live orchestra.
- Kalium 7y agoHave orchestras become more productive, such that it is now possible to entertain significantly more people at the same level of quality and experience? There's a caveat to this, which is that once you start talking about recording or remote links you're talking about a different product entirely.