Any technology can be an applied science that is of use to society. Technology related to music assists in both its creativity and its management. More precisely, the term “music technology,” as defined by the authors, relates to the devices--both electromagnetic and mechanical, including musical instruments, electrical sound generators, and related computer technology.

The authors begin well in a dialogue form. The introductory Part 1 presents both the ontology of music (the where, why, and how aspects) and the oniontology of music (the facts, processes, and gestures).

In Part 2, “Acoustic Reality,” the authors cover the intricacies of Fourier theory, frequency modulation, wavelets, and physical modeling. They also discuss both mechanical and electronic instruments, the importance of tuning, and the Euler space of pitch.

Part 3 addresses the core technology of electromagnetic music encoding; subtopics include Fourier analysis and fast Fourier transform (FFT), filters and MP3 compression, and so on. Part 4 provides a thorough description of the musical instrument digital interface (MIDI)--a symbolic language that is used in the music industry to communicate music between digital instruments/synthesizers and computers.

Part 5 covers two essential software paradigms: the architecture of denotators and forms, developed by the first author (Mazzola) and his research team, and the Max environment with its visual sound synthesis interface.

The concluding Part 6, “Global Music,” discusses the globalization of music along with transcultural composition software and applications that are available on the Internet (for example, iTunes, Spotify, and so on).

This reference book should be well received by music researchers, students, and sound engineers.