On Jan 30, 2005, at 7:19 AM, dhbailey wrote:
Christopher Smith wrote:Where the difference is, is that computers have not put engravers out of work (except in the very lowest echelons of publication) to the same extent that sequencers have cut into musicians' jobs. There is not enough work to go around to all the displaced musicians, unlike former hand-copyists and engravers.
Christopher
Are you sure about that? Previously, in order to get a large work to press far more than a single engraver would work on the score and parts -- now a single person enters the score, extracts the parts and gets it all ready to print. I can't believe that a 20 person engraving shop was able to find work for all 20 engravers in the computer-engraving field.
My point was one of degree. Sequencers not only replace the performer for the first performance, but for ALL the subsequent performances as well. We still need people with the eye to engrave, and in computer engraving the labour savings on the first performance are the only savings that occur, unlike computer performance. I stand by my original point that the engraving profession was reduced less than the performing musician's profession, and at a smaller cost to society.
Just as all the secretaries who used to take dictation in shorthand and then type it up were not able to find work with computers and word-processors.
And all the welders in the auto industry weren't able to become computer operators controlling the welding machines that replaced them.
That's called "layoffs" and every industry (including engraving) has undergone them when a new labor-saving technology reaches critical mass and every business has to adopt it or die.
I agree with your point, but what is lost to society when we need fewer welders, as opposed to what is lost when musicians are forced out of the business?
Just as musicians are needed to program those sequencers and play those sounds for the samplers and other musicians are needed to tweak those samples to make them more useful, not all musicians are put out of work by the new technology. Some adapt, others complain and die.
Think of all the ice-men when the advent of the electric refrigerator made them obsolete -- they couldn't all become Maytag repairmen!
Surely you are not comparing the relative worth to society of ice-delivery and music?
Funny you should mention this; my grandfather delivered ice in one of his first jobs as a young man, and when he was forced out, he delivered bread. Not a long retraining period, I can assure you.
Christopher
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