Throughout history, there have been many descriptions concerning the power of music to affect thoughts and actions. These descriptions are often vague and difficult to translate in ways that would enhance a modern understanding of their significance to its original listeners. Among the works of the polymath Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) are two descriptions of ecstatic listening whose details provide a path to interpreting how music brought about intellectual and spiritual transformations.

Kircher studied in the Jesuit schools of Central Europe, but his scholarship and reputation led to his appointment at the order's Collegium Romanum. His enduring legacy is thirty published works, ranging from linguistic works on Coptic and hieroglyphics to advanced mathematics, astronomy, optics, and surveys of geology and architecture. The Musurgia Universalis on music was one of his largest publications and even includes a few of his own compositions.

The first description is Kircher's report of how a musical performance transformed his perceptions of the cosmos. The second is his discussion of Jephte by Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674), which provides a key to understanding how music could effect an emotional and theological transformation in its auditors contrary to the meaning of the words.

A “Celestial” Concert

In 1656 Kircher dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden his fictional celestial journey, the Itinerarium exstaticum. The preface describes a performance that moved the affections of the only audience member, Kircher.