From the bestselling author of the award-winning How Shostakovich Changed My Mind comes a new book about the cathartic power of music. For critic and composer Stephen Johnson, there have been moments when music has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these have been hard to accept but once accepted they have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living. Through an exploration of seven pieces – by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Sebastian ...

The Eighth Symphony was going to be different from anything Mahler had ever done before. The intensely personal dramas of his earlier symphonies were a thing of the past - or rather, they were now to be seen as preludes to this new, culminating symphonic statement: he was quite sure it was the greatest thing he had ever written. The first seven symphonies were all, in their very different ways, acts of private confession, the unburdening of a hypersensitive soul, struggling to make sense o...

If you want to start your journey to social media marketing success, then keep reading..If you are having troubles understanding social media and growing your brand's presence like the PROs do, don't fret! This ultimate guide to social media marketing will help you do all these and more.In this guide, we're going to explain how you can gain exposure through earned media, advertising and many powerful strategies that will Make your business ...

Well over a century after Wagners death, the man and his music are as controversial as ever. Praised for his profound insights into the workings of the human heart, he has also been condemned as a dangerous libertine, a proto-fascist and an arrogant bore. His vast four-part operatic Ring cycle has been elevated as one of the greatest achievements of western culture and dismissed as an unparalleled example of creative megalomania. This book makes no attempt to gloss over the darker sides of Wa...

For Gustav Mahler, there was nothing abstract or escapist about music. The symphony must be like the world, he insisted. It must embrace everything. He lived up to that ideal spectacularly, creating works of such emotional range and imaginative power that each feels like a world in itself. Uniquely, Mahler made himself the prism through which that wealth of experience is refracted. This book follows Mahlers development as man and composer, and sets out the experiences the personal joys and...

In music, the period from the middle of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth is usually referred to as the Classical era. This was a period in which the art, literature and architecture of Ancient Greece and Rome were being rediscovered and re-evaluated, which in turn strongly influenced the modern art of the time. But this was also a period of immense social change and political unrest, with challenges to the old established order culminating in the French Revolution ...

A curated selection of chilling ghost stories from world literature,_x000D_ introduced and edited by broadcaster Stephen Johnson. What these _x000D_tales of the supernatural have in common is the theme of taking a_x000D_ 'wrong turning' in which the protagonists are made to face their _x000D_darkest fears. In the spirit of a fireside storyteller, each tale has an _x000D_afterword by Stephen Johnson, to suggest what the story might _x000D_really be telling us. With contributions from Tove J...

Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born black nationalist and originator of the "Back to Africa" movement during the 1900s, was a passionate and formidable orator and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Garvey went on to become an inspiration for many future civil rights activists.Marcus Garvey: A Biography by Stephen Johnson provides an in-depth look into the incredible life of this truly remarkable man, his vision for pan-Africanism, and his unrelentin...

Music broadcaster and composer Stephen Johnson explores how Shostakovich's music took shape under Stalin's reign of terror, and how it gave form to the hopes of an oppressed people. Johnson writes of the healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness and tells of how Shostakovich's music lent him unexpected strength in his struggle with bipolar disorder.

Two Melbourne TV journalists are on a well-earned holiday, travelling New Zealand in a motorhome. Will they survive a monster storm and a killer on the loose?Kim Prescott survived a killer's bullet in Melbourne but can't shake the PTSD. For Jo Trescowthick the trip is a chance to confront family demons. The third in the Melbourne Spotlight series finds Kim and Jo on a road trip from Auckland on the north island to the tourist mecca of Queenstown in the deep south; Rotorua mud pools...

Peace Stick is set in East Germany during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It's a story about hope and innocence during a nuclear showdown between the superpowers. It was inspired by an Erfurt schoolgirl who wanted to survive the confrontation to finish her studies, start a career, raise a family and enjoy a life that was being threatened by angry old men. She created a peace stick as a lucky charm. It was hidden in a school wall to be a symbol of hope during a traumatic week. Peace Stick is...

The past was meant to stay buried. But someone is digging it up - one body at a time.Six years ago, the Melbourne Spotlight current affairs team covered a shocking crime spree - a series of brutal, seemingly random attacks. As the body count rose, the police and journalists worked tirelessly to unmask the perpetrator.When the killer was finally stopped, everyone assumed the violence was over.They were wrong.Now, an arson attack - with a chilling message - and a ...