Author Wayne Booth has just released a new book titled "For the Love of
It".  The book deals with the joys of playing chamber music from the point
of view of the amateur musician, with a love for the music but no hope of
ever beginning to approach the skill level of any professional musician.

I picked up a copy a week ago, and found a superbly crafted story that, I
think, would be of interest to almost everyone on this list.  Booth is a
true professional when it comes to his writing, as opposed to his own, self
admitted, amateur status as a cellist.  His (11) chapter book is organized
into "sections" titled "Overture, First Movement, Second Movement, Third
Movement and Fourth Movement, and contains a (12) page bibliography of
references related to music and performing that alone is worth the price of
admission.

The best way for me to give a hint of the content of this wonderful little
volume is to quote from the dust jacket notes:

   What is the point of pursuing any skill when you know that you'll
   never come close to "the top"? Why would anyone spend free hours and
   weekends on a demanding practice that promises no payoff in money,
   fame, or power? Is it true that anything worth doing is worth doing
   only if you can get credit for doing it really well? Why do amateurs
   do what they do?

   Wayne Booth found himself enticed by these questions after taking
   up the cello at age thirty-one and then experiencing decades not
   just of unforeseen struggle but of comic and humiliating disasters--
   followed by hours of astonishing bliss playing chamber music.  _For
   the Love of It_ is the story not only of this intimate struggle
   between man and cello but also of the larger struggle between a
   society obsessed with success and payoff and individuals' who choose
   challenging hobbies that yield no payoff except for the love of it.
   This fundamental opposition leads Booth into diverse meditations on
   how amateuring relates to all other loves and pleasures. In his
   celebration of how the amateur's laboring can blossom, he thus joins
   a long line of thinkers who have puzzled over the meanings of "fun,"
   "work," and "love."

   The questions that Booth the amateur cellist, faces are precisely
   those that everyone might ask about all our ways of spending time--or
   wasting it, salvaging it, glorifying it.  For anyone who has ever
   bought an instrument or sat down with a canvas and a paint brush,
   _For the Love of It_ offers a joyous exploration of the "why" of
   amateuring:  not only for the fun of it, but for the love of it, for
   the quality of life lived while doing it.

Wayne Booth has been professor emeritus of English at The University of
Chicago since 1991.  He has been quoted as saying that his cello playing
has improved considerably since then.

Although many of this list's members are not amateur musicians, the
enjoyment we get from listening and discussing music qualifies us as
"amateurs" in the sense of professor Booth's usage of the word.  Everyone
here may not agree with his insight into why we do the things we do, but a
careful reading of this text may very well change the way you think about
music.

Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London
ISBN: 0-226-06585-5

Disclaimer:  Although I work at the University of Chicago, I have no
affiliation with the U of C Press and have never even met Professor Booth.

All thebest,
--->Nick