Quarter Notes and Bank Notes: The Economics of Music Composition in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Paperback - 2012

"In a bold interdisciplinary foray, Dr. Scherer has used his highly regarded economist's skills to explore how leading European composers managed to support themselves during the 18th and 19th centuries. The result is an absorbing study of how creative artists adapted to the vast economic and social changes that occurred around them during the greatest era of musical composition."--Derek Bok, Harvard University

"This book is a courageous and entirely user-friendly foray into a novel cross-disciplinary arena between music and economic history. It is a provocative and highly informative account of the economic realities and constraints surrounding the history of musical composition. It is part social history, part economic history, and above all a case study in the economics of an enterprise that once flourished and is now endangered. Scherer makes with care and clarity the case for the paradigm of patronage. This book is a gem. It mixes elegant prose with the hardheaded, yet speculative analysis of economic and social data. This should be required reading for all students of music history."--Dr. Leon Botstein, President of Bard College, Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra

"An excellent piece of work. I know of no other study of the economics of musical composition that has dealt with so large a sample of composers and has systematically analyzed their economic circumstances, their relation to the marketplace and with noble employers, their associations with music publishers, and a host of other fascinating subjects."--William J. Baumol, author of The Free-Market Innovation Machine

"There is no economist around--on either side of the Atlantic, never mind the Pacific--who can speak with more scholarly depth and authority on the subject of musical economics. This book addresses a broad audience with clarity and impressive insight--a most welcome and highly informative reading for the cultured music lover."--Christoph Wolff, Harvard University