Machine models of music /

Efforts to compose music via electronic computer began soon after the invention of the machines themselves. Nowadays, machine composition is but part of a larger field in which the (human) musical mind is explored through software models. Schwanauer and Levitt have gathered 23 articles dating from 1957 until the present. A few are new; the rest are offprints from sources as diverse as Cognition, the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and the Journal of Music Theory. There is nothing here about sound synthesis. Excepting some broadly theoretical pieces, the articles describe fully implemented computing processes appertaining to music analysis or composition. Taken together the articles form a convincing history of an endeavor that is still young and speculative. Since the book comprehends aspects of music theory, psychology, linguistics, programming, and so forth, it is likely to prove difficult for novices. However, the editors have supplied a useful commentary for each article, and there is a complete index. For the quality of its materials as well as for making them accessible (few undergraduate libraries will have all the sources), the book is recommended warmly. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. B. J. Murray; University of Alabama