Uploaded September 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/classicalnerd09221

🎶 Support the channel: patreon.com/classicalnerd

0:00 I: What is Spectralism?
5:03 II: Historical Precedents
11:03 III: French Spectralism
25:23 IV: Romanian Spectralism
32:41 V: Georg Friedrich Haas
36:44 VI: Conclusion

This was requested by Charlie powell, Patrick De Noia, Julian Misut, Hans Martin, body drift, George Ioan, facanono, Lorenzo Cacciotti, Solomon Speare, ha3vy, orchestra92, Daniel Gordon Logan, Ben Kamen, Benjamin Sneyed-Utting, Goose Goose, and Nate Sassoon. See all requests at lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

📚 Sources/Further Reading:
“A Provisional History of Spectral Music” by Julian Anderson (Contemporary Music Review [CMR], 2000, Vol. 19/2, P. 7–22)
“Modern Music and After (3rd Edition)” by Paul Griffiths (Oxford University Press, 2010)
“Timbre Versus Spectralism” by Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea (CMR, 2003, Vol. 22/1+2, P. 87–104): doi.org/10.1080/0749446032000134751
“Clashing Harmonic Systems in Haas’s ‘Blumenstück’ and ‘in vain’” by Robert Hasegawa (Music Theory Spectrum, 2015, Vol. 37/2, P. 204–23)
“Romanian Spectral Music or Another Expression Freed” by Horia Surianu, trans. Joshua Fineberg (CMR, 2000, Vol. 19/2, P. 23–32)
“Spectralism Today: A survey of the consequences for contemporary composition of the French Spectral School of the 1970s and 1980s” by Philip Singleton (PhD thesis, University of Surrey, 2015)
“Spectralism” by Jonathan Harvey (Contemporary Music Review, 2001, Vol. 19/3, P. 11–14): https://music.arts.uci.edu/abauer/spectral/readings/Harvey_Spectralism.pdf
“French Spectralism: From the Frequency to the Temporal Domain: Analysis, Models, Synthesis … and Future Prospects” by Anne Sedes, trans. Wieland Hoban, from “Foundations of Contemporary Composition,” ed. Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (Wolke Verlag, 2004, p. 118–29)
“Melody on the Threshold in Spectral Music” by James Donaldson (MTOSMT 2021, Vol. 27/2): mtosmt.org/issues/mto.21.27.2/mto.21.27.2.donaldson.html
“Spectralism. Spectral composition techniques” by Iuliana Porcos (Bulletin of the Transylvania University of Braşov, 2017, Vol. 10/2)
“The Spectral Legacy” by John Croft (Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 135/1, P. 191–7): jstor.org/stable/43741611
independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituaries-gerard-grisey-1186972.html
http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~larry/published_articles/tenney_monograph_soundings/14_Spectral_CANON.pdf
youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7b4WSxF3w

----------

Classical Nerd is a video series covering music history, theoretical concepts, and techniques, hosted by composer, pianist, and music history aficionado Thomas Little.

----------

Music:

- Thomas Little: Dance! #2, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
- Tristan Murail: Désintégrations, performers unknown [original upload: 4basuUUatf8]
- Gérard Grisey: Partiels, performed by the Asko ensemble [original upload: 1v7onrjN6RE]
- Richard Wagner: Prelude to Das Rheingold, performers unknown [original upload: _1zsSaLiD7Q]
- Giacinto Scelsi: Four Pieces on a Single Note, performers unknown [original upload: 9I0QIRXcbZ4]
- Per Nørgård: Voyage into the Golden Screen, performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester [original upload: Ty1fjlN2kuc]
- Karlheinz Stockhausen: Stimmung, performed by Collegium Vocale of Cologne conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen [original upload: 3hPkJW95jsw]
- James Tenney: Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow [original upload: hUrfKBnQ9a4]
- Jonathan Harvey: Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco [original upload: 0T-H-fVlHE0]
- Tristan Murail: Gondwana, performed by Orchestre National de France conducted by Yves Prin [original upload: 87-6mahJMgw]
- Clarence Barlow: Çoǧlu Otobüs İşletmesi, performed by Herbert Henck [original upload: alrB_pgM9eM]
- Claude Vivier: Lonely Child, performed by Marie-Danielle Parent and the Orchéstre Métropolitain de Montréal conducted by Serge Garant [original upload: qrIA2KbJkaE]
- Corneliu Cezar: Aum [original upload: vy-w82ixW3U]
- Horaţiu Rădulescu: Credo, performed by Stephan Breith, Ulrich Heinen, and Othello Liesmann [original upload: etI06pyL7As]
- Georg Friedrich Haas: in vain, performed by Klangforum Wien conducted by Sylvain Cambreling [original upload: BdaX8yWBWtY]
- Georg Friedrich Haas: String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Kairos Quartett [original upload: 1jadUqWXYAw]

----------

Contact Information:

Questions and comments can be directed to:
nerdofclassical [at] gmail.com

Facebook:
facebook.com/classicalnerd

Instagram:
instagram.com/the_classical_nerd

----------

All images and audio in this video are for educational purposes only and are not intended as copyright infringement. If you have a copyright concern, please contact me using the above information.