Terhardt, E. (1981). Impact of computers on music: An outline. In: Music, Mind, and Brain (Clynes, M., ed.), Plenum, New York, 353-369
Computers will soon enhance the positive as well as the negative aspects of contemporary musical life, particularly in music research, learning and teaching, realization and music therapy. From this viewpoint, basic preconditions and implications of computer applications to music are considered: the psychophysics of music realization; the realization by computer; the relationships between psychoacoustics, musical consonance, and new tonal systems; and the automatic tonal analysis of musical sounds. The psychophysics of music realization is concerned with the interactions between three 'worlds' of musical reality: the symbolic, acoustic and auditory representations of music, respectively. Uniquely, music realisation by computer aims at taking account of these interactions. As examples of tonal anylsis by computer, musical chords played on a piano are analyzed. In the frame of a psychoacoustically-based concept of musical consonance, the realisation of new tonal systems is considered.