Music Description and Processing by Petri Nets

Music description and processing require formal tools which are suitable for the representation of iteration, concurrency, ordering, hierarchy, causality, timing, synchrony, non-determinism. Petri Nets (PNs) are a tool which allows to describe and process musical objects within both analysis/composition and performing environments. In this paper we discuss the kind of extended PNs that we have defined and their capabilities in the music field, the PNs editors/executors that we have developed and some characterizing PNs structures with musical examples; then we outline the open problems we have recognized.