Composing Music with Computers

5  Neural computation and music

5.1  Thinking music aloud

From a number of plausible definitions for music, the one that frequently stands out in the computer music arena is the notion that music is an intellectual activity, whose prominent tasks involve the abilities to recognise auditory patterns and to imagine them modified by actions. These abilities require sophisticated memory mechanisms, involving both conscious manipulations of concepts and subconscious access to millions of networked neurological bonds. In this case, it is true to say that emotional reactions to music arise from some form of intellectual activity.

Different parts of our brain do different things in response to sonic stimuli. Moreover, music is not detected by our ears ...