Mankind has always been fascinated by mechanical simulations of human
activity. A characteristic of Western thought is to understand our
minds, bodies, and our world in mechanistic terms. Music especially
has been viewed as a mathematical and mechanical process. As a
result, musicians, scientists, and engineers have devised all sorts
of mechanisms and systems for composing and performing music. I will
review some or these activities their evolution over the last 2000
years, ending with some recent findings on how a human audience
relates to humanoid robot performers and how music can be composed
by computers.