Music is a significant object of reflection for contemporary philosophers, yet little has been written on the interplay of music and thought. François Noudelmann critically engages the musicality of Barthes, Sartre and Nietzsche, all of whom were amateur piano players, giving an insightful reading of their work in light of their music. The practice of playing the piano was crucial to these philosphers, but their writing on the topic was scant, implicit, or in discordance with their philosophical oeuvre. Noudelmann reveals how the manner in which they played, the composers they explicitly.