reger studied music in munich and wiesbaden with a famous teacher hugo riemann. he composed a lot of music, especially for the organ. his musical style was similar to that of brahms, but he also learned a lot from the music of bach, mendelssohn and schumann. he liked the symphonic poems of liszt and these gave him the ideas for writing chorale fantasies for the organ, although he never wrote music that tells a story (programme music).