In 1995, in response to the dearth of serious contemporary music playable by good amateur and student pianists, Thalia Myers commissioned the first of the enormously successful, award-winning spectrum anthologies. Published by ABRSM (publishing) limited in 1996 and followed by Spectrum 2 (1999), Spectrum 3 (2000) and Spectrum 4 (2005), these one hundred and forty one pieces in four volumes have been set for competitions and examinations, used as reference works by professors of composition and entered the repertoire of student, amateur and professional pianists around the world. Thalia Myers has recorded CDs of Spectrum and Spectrum 2 on NMC DO57, Spectrum 3 on MET CD 1053 and Spectrum 4 on USK 1227CDD.
Spectrum for cello, compiled by the cellist William Bruce, was published in January 2004, together with a cd of all the pieces, played by William Bruce and Thalia Myers. Spectrum for clarinet, compiled by Ian Mitchell, with whom Thalia Myers will record the accompanying CD, is in preparation.
'Thalia Myers has done a service to young or amateur pianists and to british composers in commissioning these short pieces whose level of difficulty is not prohibitive, but whose artistic seriousness is manifest.' [Sunday Times]
'... as good a snapshot of the contemporary international musical scene at the start of the millennium as it is possible to conceive ... a brilliant original idea reaching new heights of excellence with each release.' [Piano]
'... a compilation of exquisite miniatures' [International Piano]
'...the Spectrum project has become one of the most influential, innovative, imaginative and educative publishing ventures of recent times.' [Pianist]
Spectrum 4 launch The launch of Spectrum 4 at The Royal Academy of Music, London, November 2005: 29 of the composers with Thalia Myers click to see the full photo Photo by Dave Lewis
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The following composers contributed to Spectrum: Eleanor Alberga, David Bedford, Diana Burrell, Philip Cashian, Brian Elias, Michael Finnissy, Graham Fitkin, Michael Zev Gordon, Jonathan Harvey, Alun Hoddinott, Gabriel Jackson, Stephen Montague, Anthony Payne, Roger Redgate, Jeremy Dale Roberts, Edwin Roxburgh, Timothy Salter, David Sawer, Howard Skempton, Andrew Toovey.
All the above composers contributed to Spectrum 2 as well as the following: Avril Anderson, Julian Anderson, Richard Rodney Bennett, Laurence Crane, Neil Kaczor, Eddie Mcguire, Colin Matthews, Barry Mills, Dave Smith, John Tavener.
The following composers contributed to Spectrum 3: Javier Alvarez, Gerald Barry, Sylvie Bodorova, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Lyell Cresswell, Detlev Glanert, Naji Hakim, Haflidi Hallgrimsson, Faidros Kavallaris, Joyce Bee Tuan Koh, Ramon Lazkano, Alexandre Lunsqui, Toek Numan, Peteris Plakidis, Poul Ruders, Aulis Sallinen, Peter Sculthorpe, Rodney Sharman, Jean-Marc Singier, Karen Tanaka, Sohrab Uduman, Param Vir, Kevin Volans, Julia Wolfe, Julian Yu.
Many of the above composers have also written pieces for Spectrum 4. Contributing for the first time were Simon Bainbridge, Snorri SigfúS Birgisson, Michael Blake, Martin Butler, Chen Yi, Barry Conyngham, Janet Davey, Beat Furrer, Daniel Giorgetti, David Gorton, Julian Grant, Alejandro Guarello, Giorgos Koumendakis, Elena Langer, Siaw Kin Lee, Permagnus Lindborg, Roderik De Man, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Mcleod, Eric Moe, Pavel Novak, João Pedro Oliveira, Hilda Paredes, Ananda Sukarlan, Giles Swayne, Tazul Tajuddin, JesúS Torres, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Mindaugas Urbaitis, Aljandro ViñAo, John White, Adeline Wong, Raymond Yiu.
