Computer music

Computer music is that in which computers mediate some or all part(s) of the creative process. Computers are used in musical creation both in real-time continuous modes (often in public presentation) and in private, temporally discontinuous modes, including composition, improvisation, and sound synthesis and sculpting. From another perspective, this range also comprises music with a representation, such as a score involving a discrete set of symbols for subsequent performance, and music that is produced directly as synthesized or recorded sound with no intermediate symbolic form. This perspective also relates quite closely to one that distinguishes note-based from sound-based music, regardless of issues of representation, where notes are at least analogous to individual performed instrumental tones (and so each is separable from its neighbors and accompaniments), whereas sound-based music may involve any number of continua in sound, as well as complex sounds with discontinuities. Computer music happily questions the assumptions on which the vocal and instrumental music of most cultures is based, and exploits numerous contrasting as well as shared features. Consequently, it provides unique challenges and opportunities for the understanding of music behavioural science in relation to music creation, performance, and perception.