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...

A powerful look at the extraordinary healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness, including author Stephen Johnson's struggle with bipolar disorder.BBC music broadcaster Stephen Johnson explores the power of Shostakovich’s music during Stalin’s reign of terror, and writes of the extraordinary healing effect of music on sufferers of mental illness. Johnson looks at neurological, psychotherapeutic and philosophical findings, and reflects on his own experie...

When you turn out the lights, the terror begins…A young man returns home and discovers the monster he feared as a child may be real after all. An accident in the shower traps an elderly woman in a nightmarish struggle for survival. And when a ghost hunter investigates the death of his lover, he learns that a local ghost story may hide a sinister grain of truth…Nightmares slither from the shadows in Scare Street’s latest spine-tingling collection. T...

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 captive woman, a lover betrayed, an idealistic journalist.Three women - their fates strangely aligned by a killer obsessed with retribution.Melbourne Spotlight journalist Kim Prescott is promoted to the TV reporting staff after the program's expose of the Tugga's Mob murders in Australia and New Zealand was a ratings bonanza.The TV show's high progile now attracts stories.One anonymous tip-off will horrify the nation all over again. Despite the scandal that ne...

From the bestselling author of 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 Seb...

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 ...

Based on the ancient Chinese concept of the unity of Heaven and Man (天人合一, ‘tian ren he yi’), guided by principles governing the connections and interdependencies between Heaven, Earth, Man, and the media, and in accord with the coexistence of these four elements in balance and in harmony, this monograph outlines the scope of the study, fundamental concepts and theories, and future directions of research in the interdisciplinary field of the geography of media.The author delves dee...

What can you do when the Cold War goes from a simmer to boiling?In East Germany, the kinder create a symbol of hope to halt the nuclear missiles.Erfurt, October 1962. Teenager Ingrid Richter's life involves adventures with the Pioneers, walks in the Steigerwald, the annual Martini festival in the Altstadt. In a few weeks, she will be gliding across the skating rink with dreams of representing East Germany at the Olympics.Ingrid’s schoolteacher shatters that peaceful ...

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...

TIPS FOR HOW NOT TO END UP IN A HORROR STORYDON’TListen to the SpidersDrive in the rainBuy the dollDOSell the PuppetTake the Dr.’s AdviceLeave the Box ShutIn this thrilling horror anthology by No Bad Books Press, the characters of the following authors didn’t take this advice:Kevin David AndersonDiane ArrelleShaun AveryChris Bann...