Chapter seven discusses the place of music in the education and leisure time of boys and men who had no intention of pursuing musical careers. Unlike their female counterparts, male amateur musicians were encouraged to cultivate knowledge of music theory and to celebrate the social opportunities offered by music making, especially in university Collegium Musicum ensembles. This chapter draws from diverse sources including novels, poems, music manuscripts, and diaries. It concludes with case studies of two jurists: Johann Stephan Pütter of Göttingen and Johann Heinrich Fischer of Fulda. For Pütter, a musician of limited skills, performance quality was less important than the social aspects of making music. For Fischer, music theory was of great interest and led him to admire the music of the Lutheran composer J. S. Bach, despite the fact that Fischer was Catholic.
