…basically there isn’t one.
There seem to three classes of book referring to the subject, the most common are technical books about the theory and techniques of digital audio processing.
Examples include:
- Computer Music (Dodge)
- Elements of Computer Music (Moore)
- Introduction to Computer Music (Collins)
- The Computer Music Tutorial (Roads)
- Theory and Techniques of Electronic Music (Puckette)
These books are remarkably similar in terms of structure and content. Fundamental digital audio concepts are introduced (bits and bytes), amplitude, periodicity, digital filter theory and delays, frequency domain processing (FFT), synthesis. Additionally psychoacoustics, audio programming, and control processing are usually covered to some extent. Sometimes theory is contextualised with reference to specific musical examples.

Additionally, there are discursive books about history and aesthetics, e.g.
- Living Electronic Music (Emmerson)
- Electronic and Computer Music (Manning)
- Electronic and Experimental Music (Holmes)
These books also share common structure and content. Historical overview starting from Cage’s Imaginary Landscape #1, presentation of the main components of an electronics setup — the microphone to the loudspeaker — the evolution of digital processing, all presented from what might be considered a ‘musicological’ perspective.
Finally, we have books that deal with a specific system or software, e.g.
- The Csound Book (Boulanger)
- The SuperCollider Book (Wilson, Cottle, Collins)
- Electronic Music and Sound Design - Theory and Practice with Max/MSP (Cipriani, Giri)
- Loadbang: Programming Electronic Music with Pure Data (Kreidler)
These books take the presentation of techniques in the given software as their starting point, providing theoretical background and practical examples as needed. Techniques are sometimes presented in the context of a given musical work.
What I’m missing is a book that focuses on the music and not the technology or the historical context. So, rather than have a section on score following, with Boulez’ Anthèmes given as an example, let’s have a case study on Anthèmes with score following discussed as one of the many techniques used in the piece.
I’d also like to see discussion about the day-to-day practicalities of running concerts with live electronics. How does the process work? How is the electronics rehearsed? What should a technical rider look like? How do/should composers describe electronics in their scores? How is it notated (if at all)? What materials do publishers hold and how do we use them? How do works transfer between venues? Who maintains the electronics and how?
Also…
- examples of ‘typical’ live electronics configurations
- common combinations of processing — common musical idioms
- approaches to the problems of live electronics and musical time
- how to create effective electronics configurations — foreground/background
- how to create effective sense of interaction for the performer and audience
- electronics and musical style — composers and ‘schools’
- scale — differences in approach between small-scale and large-scale works
I guess I’m looking for something between Introducing Music (Karolyi) and Designing Sound (Farnell), at least in spirit.
Maybe I’ll sketch out a chapter outline in a future post…