Music Score Publishing Companies in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries: The Price Lists of the “P. Jurgenson” Music Sales Company (From the Collection of the Russian State Library)

Abstract

This article is a continuation of research related to the activities of Russian music score publishing companies from the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the field of the production and sale of musical instruments. This particular segment of industry demonstrates a number of features which are most clearly reflected in the price lists of the leading manufacturers, as well as a number of official commercial representatives. The advertising mechanisms and technologies are connected with the design of print copies, thematic publications, as well as structural and organisational features. Each of these embodies a marketing policy by way of commercial tool designed to demonstrate the best and highest quality aspects of a given enterprise designed significantly to increase cash turnover of the profiled range of goods. One of the most significant market players was “P. Jurgenson,” a company which operated in conditions of fierce rivalry while searching for its own individual business image. The facets of this image consisted of an objective complex of features formed by the development of capitalist relations and personal qualities, as well as the totality of cultural notions and possibilities. In each case, this was a demonstration of both general and specific aspects, the latter of which reveal the inimitable features of entrepreneurship, its system and potential. The opportunity to comprehend and assess the scale arose thanks to materials in the collection of the Russian State Library, which now for the first time have been introduced into academic studies.

Keywords: catalogue, price lists, Piotr Ivanovich Jurgenson, musical instruments, advertising, trade