Hi Barry the following is by no means comprehensive, complete or up-to-the-minute; I'm currently updating my own PhD bibliography in this area and references are a little disorganized, so apologies in advance.

In the broad context of novel DMI design, your first port of call is obviously NIME. You'll also already be aware of DMI pioneers such as Max Mathews, Michael Waisvisz, Don Buchla and Tod Machover, et al. Gestural control of DMIs has been extensively covered by many contributors such as Marcelo Wanderley and Eduardo Miranda, and Ross Kirk and Andy Hunt, but there are many many others. There's a good video on youtube called "the future of musical instruments" which might serve as a good springboard.

This is a burgeoning field, and more mature than we think, so prepare to be inundated with names etc.

Brendan

E&OE :¬p

this might be a good place to start, on the phenomenology of musical instruments:

and this discussion was fun:

https://cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=34100

How "seminal" do you want it?

Although there is some even earlier work (for instance, published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and some AES conferences), starting from the mid-70s the Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), augmented a few years later by Computer Music Journal, is where most work was published. Pretty seminal stuff.

There are some "best of" collections, notably Roads (ed.), The Computer Music Tutorial (with, IMS, a section on UI and instruments) and The Music Machine.

In the last 10-15 years there has been an expansion of more specialized conferences and publications. The New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conferences may also be of interest.

Throughout the years this has been accompanied by a smattering of articles in more popular publications, which may or may not be of interest (although almost never "scholarly", I daresay there is some good material to be had).

@Peter Castine "How "seminal" do you want it?"

sem·i·nal /ˈsemənl/ Adjective 1) (of a work, event, moment, or figure) Strongly influencing later developments. 2) Of, relating to, or denoting semen.

More of the former I think ;)

Thanks for the suggestions guys, much to get stuck into here. :)

A good point to start is the very general yet well anchored Living Electronic Music, by Simon Emmerson. It is probably a review of what you know, but the bibliography is exemplary...

John Bowers - Improvising Machines

Some good papers by Simon Waters over the years...

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofCreativeArts/Staff/MusicSonicArts/DrSimonWaters/

OK, how's this for seminal?

(Cahill 1897).

Ha ha nice one Peter. Good ol Thadeus ! Here's one more for you Barry, not academic, but quite seminal stuff & might spark some ideas

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~musima/visualmusic/visualmusic.htm

I'll see your Thaddeus and raise you a Benjamin:

Maybe someone has a Sanskrit reference to a Neolithic flute somewhere :)

Brendan

ooh, I like a challenge

Actually that site has a lot of good aeolian information, worth a look around.