For the Love of It

by Booth, Wayne C.

• ISBN13: 9780226065854
• ISBN10: 0226065855
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

For the Love of Itis a story not only of one intimate struggle between a man and his cello, but also of the larger struggle between a society obsessed with success and individuals who choose challenging hobbies that yield no payoff except the love of it. "If, in truth, Booth is an amateur player now in his fifth decade of amateuring, he is certainly not an amateur thinker about music and culture. . . . Would that all of us who think and teach and care about music could be so practical and profound at the same time."Peter Kountz,New York Times Book Review "[T]his book serves as a running commentary on the nature and depth of this love, and all the connections it has formed in his life. . . . The music, he concludes, has become part of him, and that is worth the price."Clea Simon,Boston Globe "The book will be read with delight by every well-meaning amateur who has ever struggled. . . . Even general readers will come away with a valuable lesson for living: Never mind the outcome of a possibly vain pursuit; in the passion that is expended lies the glory."John von Rhein,Chicago Tribune "Hooray for amateurs! And huzzahs to Wayne Booth for honoring them as they deserve.For the Love of Itcelebrates amateurism with genial philosophizing and pointed cultural criticism, as well as with personal reminiscences and self-effacing wit."James Sloan Allen,USA Today "Wayne Booth, the prominent American literary critic, has written the only sustained study of the interior experience of musical amateurism in recent years,For the Love of It. [It] succeeds as a meditation on the tension between the centrality of music in Booth's life, both inner and social, and its marginality. . . . It causes the reader to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the pleasures involved in making music; the satisfaction in playing well, the pride one takes in learning a difficult piece or passage or technique, the buzz in one's fingertips and the sense of completeness with the bow when the turn is done just right, the pleasure of playing with others, the comfort of a shared society, the joy of not just hearing, but making, the music, the wonder at the notes lingering in the air."Times Literary Supplement

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
OVERTURE	1	(18)
What is an Amateur and Why Amateuring Matters
FIRST MOVEMENT	19	(48)
The Courtship
Getting It into My Bones	21	(16)
Seduced by the Cello	37	(14)
Amateuring and Rival Pleasures	51	(16)
SECOND MOVEMENT	67	(50)
The Marriage
The Zen of Thumb Position Maintenance	69	(18)
Teaching the Love	87	(14)
Meditations of an Aging Pupil	101	(16)
INTERLUDE	117	(12)
The Amateur Writer Quarrels with the Amateur Player
THIRD MOVEMENT	129	(42)
The Love Fulfilled
Amateur Hours: Disastrous, Not Too Bad, and Just Plain Glorious	131	(18)
Hearing with Your Body: How Playing Transforms Listening	149	(10)
The Three Gifts	159	(12)
FOURTH MOVEMENT	171	(40)
Rising Dissonance, Resolved to Heavenly Harmony
``Making It,'' Selling Out, and the Future of Amateuring	172	(21)
The Music of the Spheres---But What Spheres?	193	(18)
Glossary	211	(4)
Bibliography	215	(12)
Index	227