1.4 Summary

The close relationship between music and technology is not new, and is not confined to electronically generated or computer-generated music. Historically there is a long association between music and technology, and this continues in the way instruments are made and the way music is disseminated. Additionally, for a good proportion of listeners throughout the world, listening to music is almost synonymous with listening to electronically processed and delivered music, through recordings, broadcasts or the internet.

Sound, which is fundamental to all varieties of music, can be considered objectively and subjectively. As an objective phenomenon it can be measured and described using a scientific, and to some extent a musical, vocabulary. As a subjective phenomenon it is experienced as a perception, and descriptions tend to be metaphorical, although some musical terminology also relates to subjective perception.