Maintaining and using provenance data in computer music

E-Science is increasingly recognising the importance of provenance, that is the origin and subsequent history of a document, in assessing its value. We argue here that computer music can also benefit from incorporating indications of provenance at many levels. We recognise that the challenge is to create and maintain metadata noninvasively ... until, that is, the composer or musicologist wants access. Although this paper, having explored the general idea of computational provenance, describes an application to composition, in particular using the Csound system, the same idea could be incorporated into other systems. We also look forward to further possible applications.