Music Lessons: Seven Composers and What They Taught Me

By Stephen Johnson

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 Sebastian Bach, Lili Boulanger, Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius and Ludwig van Beethoven -- Johnson considers the lives and the intentions of the composers who created them, and how they have affected him personally.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1912559870
• ISBN13: 9781912559879
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Notting Hill Editions
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.