Musical experience

Is a musical experience a distinctive type of experience? What is the relation between, for example, technical and practical knowledge of music with regards to undergoing such an experience? How are we to understand a claim by a professional musician that asserts, e.g., that one "hears a (certain sort of) hardship" on listening to Shostakovich's violin concerto no. 1? Focusing on classical music, this paper inquires into what is, and is not, sufficient or necessary for having a "purely musical" experience, with the aim of sketching a framework within which typical expressions about the experience of hearing music can be understood. The paper further illustrates how diverse present-day debates in the philosophy of music relate to the enterprise of drawing up such framework.