Ah, but does someone have to believe in God before they can be "spiritually
uplifted"? I don't, and I often am.  I assume that it's the same with
composers.  Verdi was an atheist, if I'm not mistaken, yet his Requiem is
spiritually uplifting (and terrifying).  I would say that Desdemona's scena
is as spiritual as music can be.

One mustn't mistake spiritual experiences (or numinence (sp?) as I prefer
to call it) with belief in the supernatural.  They are merely experiences
which we find transporting in ways that we find very agreeable, but cannot
fully understand.  I submit that an atheist composer may be in a better
position to write a spiritual uplift because he understands that the
emotion resides within the communication between him and his audience
rather than in some metaphysical entity.

Richard, who invites you to visit his music, outdoors and other WWW sites at:
http://infoweb.magi.com/~richard/