The Spectral Piano

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.

• 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 belongs to a generation of new music performers who bring subtlety, nuance and even humour to complex music; hers is the leading recording of the piano music of Tristan Murail, who is one of the composers featured in her new book, The Spectral [Piano]. A great value of Dr Nonken's study is that she sets the Spectral movement in a wide historical context, going back indeed to Liszt and Scriabin; another that she demonstrates the influence of Murail and Gérard Grisey (together with their teacher Messiaen) on composers beyond France, arguing convincingly for the far-reaching influence and implications of Spectral concerns. What is particularly welcome is that here is a scholar whose writing carries particular authority, based as it is on her experience of understanding and communicating the music as its performer.' Peter Hill, University of Sheffield