Books
Gérard Grisey and Spectral Music: Composition in the Information Age
(Cambridge University Press, 2024)
The first in-depth historical overview of spectral music, which is widely regarded, alongside minimalism, as one of the two most influential compositional movements of the last fifty years. Charting spectral music’s development in France from 1972 to 1982, this ground-breaking study establishes how spectral music’s innovations combined existing techniques from post-war music with the use of information technology.
‘Excellent… a genuinely significant book’ — Tempo
‘Magnificent’ — Gramophone
‘Fascinating… an insightful and thorough book’ — Positionen
‘Liam Cagney is a fluent and engaging writer with the enviable ability to explain complicated concepts in a lucid manner. His book is essential reading for anyone interested in the context and institutions of French music in the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as for Grisey aficionados.’ — Music and Letters
‘Will become an important touchstone for future scholarship on spectralism and its place within the broader trajectory of Western post-tonal music.’ — Intégral, The Journal of Applied Musical Thought
Liam Cagney, Amy Bauer and Will Mason, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music (Oxford University Press, 2025).
The Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music offers a fully new and expansive understanding of current scholarly and creative activity related to the spectral music movement and its legacy from its founding in the mid-1970’s to the current day. Rather than aiming to present an overarching definition of spectralism, the handbook shows the multiplicity of the spectral legacy by presenting diverse perspectives from top scholars and composers in the field. A long overdue examination of an important compositional trend in late 20th century music, this handbook will appeal to scholars, composers, and students desiring to become better acquainted with the broad influence of spectral music: what birthed it, what defines it, and what its future holds in the 21st century.
Articles and Chapters in Edited Volumes
Liam Cagney and François-Xavier Féron, ‘In Search of Spectral Harmonies: The Evolution of Gérard Grisey’s Harmonic Language between 1970 and 1975.’ In Gianmario Borio, Pascal Decroupet and Christoph Neidhöfer, eds., New Concepts of Harmony in Musical Composition 1945–1975 (article submitted; publisher to be confirmed).
Liam Cagney. ‘Techno Club as Immersive Artwork.’ In Brodsky/Dysers/Wilson, eds., Contemporary Musical Modernisms (currently out for review with Bloomsbury).
__________, ‘Ensemble l’Itinéraire’s Role in the Establishment of French Spectral Music.’ In Contemporary Music Review (Themed issue on Performers and the New Music Historiography, forthcoming 2027).
__________. ‘Tristan Murail’s Musical Poetics.’ In Liam Cagney, Amy Bauer and Will Mason, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2022).
__________. ‘Vers une écriture liminale: Serialism, Spectralism and Écriture in the Transitional Music of Gérard Grisey.’ In Björn Heile and Charles Wilson, eds., The Routledge Research Companion to Modernism in Music (London/New York: Routledge, 2018)
__________. ‘Metamorphoses in a new millennium.’ In Michael Dervan, ed., Composing the Island: A Century of Music in Ireland (Dublin: New Island, 2016).
__________. ‘On Vagues, Chemins, le Souffle (1970-72) and the Early Use of Resonance Chords in Grisey’s Oeuvre.’ In Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, No. 28 (April 2015): 49-54.
__________. ‘The ricercar a 6 from the Musical Offering and the Musical Work.’ In The Musicology Review, Issue 2 (2006).
Reviews in Academic Journals
Liam Cagney, ‘First Performances: Georg Friedrich Haas, Morgen und Abend, Royal Opera House, London.’ In Tempo, Volume 70, Issue 276, April 2016: 73-74.
__________. ‘Seán Clancy, Forty-Five Minutes of Music on the Subject of Football, and Paul McGuire, Sleep Spindles.’ In Tempo, Volume 70, Issue 275, January 2016: 104-106.
__________. ‘Howell et al eds., Kaija Saariaho: Visions, Narratives, Dialogues.’ In Music and Letters, 95 (3): 493-495
__________. ‘Bernhard Lang, Anatomy of Disaster and Elole Trio, Beziehungsweise (2 CDs).’ In Tempo, Volume 68, Issue 269, September 2014: 89-90.
__________. ‘First Performances: Murail, Dufourt, Grisey: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Barbican Centre, London.’ In Tempo, Volume 68, Issue 269, July 2014: 66-67.
__________. ‘First Performances: Festival Présences, Paris, 2014.’ In Tempo, Volume 68, Issue 269, July 2014: 74-76.
__________. ‘Fausto Romitelli, 2 CDs.’ In Tempo, Volume 68, Issue 267, January 2014: 80-81.
Liam Cagney 