Systems control theory is a far developped field which helps to study stability, estimation and control of dynamical systems. The physical behaviour of musical instruments, once described by dynamical systems, can then be controlled and numerically simulated for many purposes.
The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to provide the theoretical background on linear system theory, both in continuous and discrete time, mainly in the case of a finite number of degrees of freedom ; second, to give illustrative examples on wind instruments, such as the vocal tract represented as a waveguide, and a sliding flute
