Music Lessons: Seven Composers and What They Taught Me

From the bestselling author of How Shostakovich Changed My Mind comes a new book about the cathartic power of music.

For Stephen Johnson, there have been key points in his life when music that is considered ‘dark’ has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these insights have been hard to accept, but once accepted, all have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living. Through an exploration of seven pieces, including Anton Bruckner’s ‘Symphony No 8’, Lili Boulanger’s Du fond de l’abîme (Psalm 130), Jean Sibelius’s ‘Symphony No 5’ and David Bowie’s ‘I Can’t give Everything Away’, Johnson explores the lives and the intentions of the composers who created them, and how they have affected him personally.