The Spectral Piano From Liszt, Scriabin, and Debussy to the Digital Age

The most influential compositional movement of the past fifty years, spectralism was informed by digital technology but also extended the aesthetics of pianist-composers such as Franz Liszt, Alexander Scriabin and Claude Debussy. Students of Olivier Messiaen such as Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey sought to create a cooperative committed to exploring the evolution of timbre in time as a basis for the musical experience. In The Spectral Piano, Marilyn Nonken shows how the spectral attitude was influenced by developments in technology but also continued a tradition of performative and compositional virtuosity. Nonken explores shared fascinations with the musical experience, which united spectralists with their Romantic and early Modern predecessors. Examining Murail's Territoires de l'oubli, Jonathan Harvey's Tombeau de Messiaen, Joshua Fineberg's Veils, and Edmund Campion's A Complete Wealth of Time, she reveals how spectral concerns relate not only to the past but also to contemporary developments in philosophical aesthetics.

1. An intimate history; 2. Itinerary; 3. Protospectralists at the piano; 4. The first generation; 5. The spectral effect; 6. Spectral music and its pianistic expression Hugues Dufourt.

Marilyn Nonken is an international concertizing pianist, Associate Professor of Music and Music Education, and Director of Piano Studies at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Her recordings and performances have been internationally reviewed, and her publications include forthcoming chapters in Perspectives on the Performance of French Piano Music and Messiaen Perspectives. A highly regarded musician, she has recorded the complete piano music of Tristan Murail: 'Complete Piano Music', and 'Voix Voilees: Spectral Piano Music', and piano music of Olivier Messiaen, Hugues Dufourt and Joshua Fineberg, and worked closely with Murail, Dufourt, Fineberg and Jonathan Harvey.