It's an old, old classic but physicist Hermann von Helmholtz 1851 book (trans. to English 1875) On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theor

It's an old, old classic but physicist Hermann von Helmholtz 1851 book (trans. to English 1875) On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music is 'a foundational work on acoustics and the perception of sound' full of basics. E.g. he used physical resonators to do spectral analysis of musical tones. Many physics details hard to find elsewhere. Copies are hard to find, but today it's a download away.[0] [0] https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich https://archive.org/details/onsensationsofto00helmrich Sethares sounds familiar. A key modern classic is 1985 Charles Dodge, Thomas A. Jerse: "Computer Music : synthesis, composition, and performance". A pricey book new (worth it!) it digs into everything from the basics to the advanced. You will not exhaust it! Surprised but, for a limited set of users, this puppy can be accessed online. See the link for the list of topics. [1] [1] https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg https://archive.org/details/computermusicsyn0000dodg An alternative to the computer is to take a little recorder with a good mike out into the wild and record, the rocks, the insects, the trees, the plants.... and water, the greatest improviser!