Mozart and Haydn were composing string quartets a quarter of a millennium ago, when the industrial revolution was in its infancy. Since then, the scale of the world economy has increased at least a hundredfold and material living standards in western Europe have grown 20 times over, perhaps more. Our ability to travel, build, calculate, communicate or simply produce food has been transformed beyond recognition. And yet the productivity of a live recital of Haydn’s Emperor quartet hasn’t budged: it still takes four musicians between 25 and 30 minutes to play.
250年前莫扎特(Mozart)和海顿(Haydn)创作弦乐四重奏时，工业革命处于早期发展阶段。自那以后，世界manbetx20客户端下载 体量至少增长了100倍，西欧物质生活水平增长了20倍，也许更多。我们旅行、建造、计算、交流信息甚至只是制作食物的能力都发生了翻天覆地的变化。然而举办一场海顿皇帝四重奏(Emperor Quartet)现场演奏会的生产率丝毫没有改变：仍然需要4名音乐家用25至30分钟演奏。