Spiritual Music
 

I think this fits here, a lot of folk type music is spiritual.
Does anyone participate or listen to music on a spiritual level?

Hmm...well, I don't participate in any rituals other than atheistic Xmas celebrations at which I sing carols and other folk songs.

And I'd say that in general all music has some effect on my sense-of-being (spirit), and so therefore I would say I listen to all music on a spiritual level.

Do those count? I guess I really don't know what "spiritual" means. :) I do use music to affect my mood or perspective sometimes. Maybe that's what you mean, in very general terms?

As for holiday songs, I especially like...

Stille Nacht (Silent Night)
It makes me feel peaceful and thankful.

I guess I'm a folk musician as I play and write songs in a folk band, but spirituality is not something we consciously aim for and it's not something I typically think of when I think "folk" .. But like Erica, I may be a little confused about what spiritual means. We do try to write songs that connect us with where we're from.

When I think of folk, I might think of songs like Tam Lin or Reynardine, but I don't consider any of them particularly spiritual. Do you have an example of something you think of as a spiritual folk song?

I've studied ancient musics and found much of them to be spiritual in that they are evoking some kind of Change in One's psyche and ultimately in One's Objective Universe.

Ragas of India and Maqams of the Middle East can be particularly spiritual based in this respect.

Being a Left Hand Path Occultist as well as a musician, I have formulated an entire magickal-spiritual system intended for Apotheosis and spiritual evolving.

Examples would be Gregorian chants, Sufi, Persian Maqam, Indian Raga, as well as many other musics that no longer exist like ancient Egyptian and Greek.
These musics were not played for entertainment purposes but for spiritual enlightenment and evolution.

Rossini's 'Qui tollis' from the Messa di Gloria

Performed by tenor Juan Diego Florez, the Vienna Boys Choir, the Chorus
Viennensis, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Chichon), December 2008.




I don't think of Rossini's music as spiritual, but the gloria mass
musical form obviously has a Christian inspiration. His Messa di Gloria
was publicly performed once in 1820 and then virtually forgotten for nearly
160 years, until Philips released the work in vinyl in 1979 (album #6500 612).
The long neglect of this beautiful music is commonly explained as being due to
inaccurate reports of the first performance in 1820 by the French writer Stendahl
(who was not even there) and invidious criticism by the composer Carl von Miltitz.
Critics didn't think it was somber enough to be a proper mass.

Excellent video production here at the annual 'Christmas in Vienna' gala.

I think this is quite spiritual . . . good pick

Mean Old World - Marion Williams & the Stars of Faith


Marion Williams - Mean old world - YouTube

Gospel singer Marion Williams was an early musical influence on Richard Wayne Penniman, AKA 'Little Richard'.