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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
In 1977 I discussed some common ways of writing about the social and economic contexts of music, and then suggested alternative procedures. Expressing dissatisfaction with prevailing fashions, that paper was essentially a plea for the use of economic history, recommending its analytical insights and quantitative sense. It sought discussion of typical events, and deliberately challenged the ‘deep-seated antipathy felt by most humanists toward anything that smacks of statistics’. The desired emphasis was also upon ‘thick’ description and analysis, by which one might avoid such contrasted, but equally fruitless, pursuits as unsubstantiated dogma and antiquarianism. Ten years later the invitation to arrange a conference on ‘music in the market-place’ provided an opportunity to look again. There was no attempt to survey current research systematically; less still to restrict subjects and speakers to any particular discipline. Indeed, despite the conference title, conventional approaches to the analysis of markets were scarce, with the notable exception of Julia Moore's paper, an exemplary demonstration of ‘thick’ economic history. Trying to achieve some coherence without imposing a strait-jacket inevitably brought overlaps and gaps. But if penalties were attached to open-mindedness, it also ensured the stimulus of diverse and multi-disciplinary papers, and informal contributions by active participants in the market-place. This introduction is not a summary of the conference, and is not confined to, though it touches upon, what was said there. Schematic, and therefore thin, it merely introduces a few possible themes which are further developed elsewhere, or still await exploration.
1 Ehrlich, Cyril, ‘Economic History and Music’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 103 (1976–7), 188–99.Google Scholar
2 Leonard B. Meyer, Music, The Arts, and Ideas (Chicago, 1967), 18.Google Scholar
3 The reference is to Clifford Geertz's influential discussion of ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ cultural interpretation. The latter will distinguish between twitching, winking and other seemingly identical activities, even separating real winks from mimicked ones. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (London, 1975), Chapter 1 For the extent to which the ‘sociology of music’ is prone to thin description, see much of the literature surveyed in Ivo Supičic, Music in Society A Guide to the Sociology of Music (New York, 1987).Google Scholar
4 The model outlined here is employed in my The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century: A Social History (Oxford, 1985).Google Scholar
5 On the sartorial frugality of musicians at Salomon's concerts, see H. C. Robbins Landon, Haydn in England 1791–1795 (London, 1976), 248. Compare Mozart's extravagance, as documented by Moore.Google Scholar
6 Status has preoccupied musicologists, as it once did some musicians. See The Social Status of the Professional Musician from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century, ed. Walter Salmen (New York, 1983).Google Scholar
7 William J. Baumol and William G. Bowen, Performing Arts: The Economic Dilemma (New York, 1966)Google Scholar
8 Ehrlich, Cyril, Harmonious Alliance A History of the Performing Right Society (Oxford, 1989) Alan Peacock and Ronald Weir, The Composer in the Market-Place (London, 1975). Two works by Pierre-Michel Menger are packed with information and ideas germane to our conference: Le Paradoxe du musicien (Paris, 1983) and The Serious Contemporary Music Market The Condition of the Composer and Aid for Composers m Europe (Strasbourg, 1980)Google Scholar
9 Fiske, Roger, English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1973). Pat Rogers, Literature and Popular Culture in Eighteenth Century England (London, 1985). John Rosselli, The Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi (Cambridge, 1984), particularly Chapter 5, ‘The Impresario as Businessman’. James Henry Mapleson, The Mapleson Memoirs, 1838–1888, ed. Harold Rosenthal (London, 1966). William P. Ware and Thaddeus C. Lockard, R. T. Barnum presents Jenny Lind The American Tour of the Swedish Nightingale (Louisiana, 1980)Google Scholar
10 The extensive historiography of towns appears to have been neglected by musicologists, despite its obvious relevance for many studies. See various works by, for example, Harold J. Dyos, Donald J. Olsen and P. J. Waller. A particularly useful article, which explores significant themes and demonstrates relevant analytical skills, is Oates, Mary I. and Baumol, William J., ‘On the Economics of the Theater in Renaissance London’, Swedish Journal of Economics, 1 (1972), 136–60.Google Scholar
11 Horovitz, Joseph, Understanding Toscanini (London, 1987)Google Scholar
12 Kerman, Joseph, ‘A Few Canonic Variations’, Critical Inquiry, 10 (1983), 107–26; repr. in Canons, ed Robert von Hallberg (Chicago, 1984), 177–95. Ernst Hans Gombrich, Ideas and Ideals (London, 1979), particularly the reprint of his seminal paper, ‘The Logic of Vanity Fair Alternatives to Historicism in the Study of Fashions, Style and Taste’, and the correspondence with Quentin Bell about canons and values Timothy J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life (London, 1984). Francis Haskell, Rediscoveries in Art. Some Aspects of Taste, Fashion and Collecting in Nineteenth-Century England and France (Oxford, 1976). Charles Harvey and Jon Press, ‘William Morris and the Marketing of Art’, Business History, 28/4 (October 1986), 36–54.Google Scholar
13 Russell, David, Popular Music in England, 1840–1914 (Manchester, 1987), 147–8.Google Scholar
14 On publishing and piracy, see vanous references in Coover's conference paper.Google Scholar
15 Ehrlich, Harmonious AllianceGoogle Scholar
16 Ibid. On Third World aspects, see Roger Wallis and Krister Malm, Big Sounds from Small Peoples The Music Industry in Small Countries (New York, 1984). On some implications for music publishing and recording, see Frith, Simon, ‘Copyright and the Music Business’, Popular Music, 7/1 (1987), 57–75Google Scholar
