When you love a woman for example, you love her for spiritual reasons, not only for his body, for his intellectual state, for his economical attitude, for his appartenance to the same tribe or because she is the mother of your unborn child etc..
The first most important reason may be his body but the last most important reason cannot be his body but "spiritual reasons"...
It is the same for music...
We all love a woman and music for many reasons the most important one being spiritual reasons, knowing it or not...
What is love without spiritual reasons and music experience with no spiritual discoveries and motives ?
It is fun. Mere fun. It is pleasure and boredom. It cannot be meaning. When we discovered meaning in an activity or in a phenomena,or being, there is no more boredom or just pleasure... There is sustenance and continuous support of our being like eating sacred bread after communion or the bread offer by the father to his son, by the wife or mother each day with the soup. Bach is sacred experience, not fun merely but joy...Even Bob Dylan must be like that if i enjoy him time to time yet after 60 years...Pleasure did not compare to joy anyway even in music...
I was never bored to listen "the art of the fugue" 1000 times at least in my life...
Then it is spiritual sustenance of a new kind who attracted me to Bach, Scriabin or Bruckner, not just fun, even if the sensual dimension was there ...
Even Jazz attracted me first for unknown spiritual reason : i begin with Chet Baker long ago my jazz awakening, surprised to hear so strong emotions coming from a jazz musician..It awake my sense for a new musical language i never spoke nor heard before...Spiritual reasons not fun or boredom was the reason i was attracted to Baker then to the pianist Bill Evans as his unknown brother the rest is my history through jazz...( it begun with Armstrong but at 13 i was attracted to his singing not to jazz per se)
Those who never have spiritual experience listening music had never hear what music is...
@mahgister
I was not talking about a wider spectrum of music itself. I was talking about a wider spectrum of reasons to listen to music. A wider spectrum of responses. I was talking about listening to music for beauty. Or listening to music for joy. Or listening to music for intellectual stimulation. You seem to focus on listening to music for "spiritual discoveries." I think I do also, but that is not the only reason. I also listen for the reasons I’ve mentioned above.
