For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its RivalsUniversity of Chicago Press, 2008 M04 15 - 248 pages For the Love of It is 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 It celebrates 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 |
From inside the book
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Page 6
... Actually I'm quite sure that it was spoken by Moses in Exodus, just after he dropped the plates and decided to keep working at the problem. amateurs. The questions I faced were precisely those that everyone 6 OVERTURE.
... Actually I'm quite sure that it was spoken by Moses in Exodus, just after he dropped the plates and decided to keep working at the problem. amateurs. The questions I faced were precisely those that everyone 6 OVERTURE.
Page 7
... actually playing I seldom had any doubts: this is the way to go. But when I tried to think about it, the questions became more puzzling. Why bother at any stage of life to work for some new skill or know-how instead of dwelling ...
... actually playing I seldom had any doubts: this is the way to go. But when I tried to think about it, the questions became more puzzling. Why bother at any stage of life to work for some new skill or know-how instead of dwelling ...
Page 10
... actually you won't have much trouble if you just skip freely. Better yet, you could get hold of some good introduction to musical know-how, like Imogen Hoist's An ABC of Musk, and read in it for a few hours. Wherever you have trouble ...
... actually you won't have much trouble if you just skip freely. Better yet, you could get hold of some good introduction to musical know-how, like Imogen Hoist's An ABC of Musk, and read in it for a few hours. Wherever you have trouble ...
Page 11
... actually calling it — pedantically and mistakenly, I believe — "barbarous." I backed down only when a medievalist said that to her it sounded like what a desperate CEO would cook up as a logo. And that left me with calling our ama ...
... actually calling it — pedantically and mistakenly, I believe — "barbarous." I backed down only when a medievalist said that to her it sounded like what a desperate CEO would cook up as a logo. And that left me with calling our ama ...
Page 21
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Contents
3 | |
FIRST MOVEMENT The Courtship | 19 |
SECOND MOVEMENT The Marriage | 67 |
THIRD MOVEMENT The Love Fulfilled | 129 |
FOURTH MOVEMENT Rising Dissonance Resolved to Heavenly Harmony | 171 |
Glossary | 211 |
Bibliography | 215 |
Index | 227 |
Common terms and phrases
actually aging already amateur answer become Beethoven begin better called celebration cellist cello chamber music chapter choice claim death don't experience face fact fall feel felt finally fingers four friends getting gift give goes hand hard harmony hear heard hope it's join keep kind late later least less lessons listening living look mean memory minor move movement never night notes obviously offer once Opus performance perhaps Phyllis physical piano players playing pleasure possible practice problem produce professional pursuing quartet question record remember seems sense session singing sometimes song soul sound spend spent stop string sure talk teacher teaching thing thought thumb true tune turn violin week wonderful write young
Popular passages
Page 192 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began : From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
Page 207 - SINCE I am coming to that Holy roome, Where, with thy Quire of Saints for evermore, I shall be made thy Musique; As I come I tune the Instrument here at the dore, And what I must doe then, thinke here before.
Page 2 - But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight.
Page 208 - Sphears ; for those well-ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony.
Page 207 - Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society. How strange that all The terrors, pains, and early miseries, Regrets, vexations, lassitudes interfused Within my mind, should e'er have borne a part, And that a needful part, in making up The calm existence that is mine when I Am worthy of myself!
Page 84 - Labour is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
Page vi - I cannot say that they act and re-act exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some kind, and my opinion rather is that there is something in it more of the manner of electrified bodies, — and that by means of the heated parts of the rider, which come immediately into contact with the back of the HOBBY-HORSE.
Page 68 - There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown so much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a hammer ; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one ; but give him a fiddle and a fiddle-stick, and he can do nothing.
Page 108 - THAT time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie...