The book, For the Love of Music: Invitations to Listening, collects essays by Michael Steinberg and Larry Rothe that were originally written as program notes for the San Francisco Symphony. Steinberg, the former music critic of the Boston Globe, is a longtime annotator for SFS, the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony; Rothe is the publications editor at the SFS and has written notes for the SFS and the Philharmonic.

In one essay, Steinberg remembers crouching behind a movie theater as a child, falling in love with music as Fantasia played within. In others the authors consider music ranging from Mozart and Brahms to film music of Hollywood's Golden Age to contemporary works responding to AIDS and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Michael Steinberg's previous books include Choral Masterworks: A Listener's Guide, The Symphony: A Listener's Guide, and The Concerto: A Listener's Guide. Larry Rothe is the co-author of American Mavericks: Musical Visionaries, Pioneers, Iconoclasts, a book accompanying the San Francisco Symphony's concert series.