Musicality" in a system? What IS that ?

I would like to up the ante in this very interesting discussion. Haven't we all experienced being in the presence of a very gifted artist or of an otherwise very gifted individual and felt a very powerful force or presence about them? This force is evident even when they simply walk into the room, or speak, or just stand there. I am not talking about the feelings of being "star-struck" that we all experience on occasion; I'm talking about an almost palpable sense of that person's spirit. This feeling may also be the sense of the collective feeling of anticipation, excitement or even fear in a room full of people; as suggested by Gregm. Of course, of most interest to us is how this force manifests itself while that individual(s) is performing. Now, we audiophiles in the "subjectivist" camp like to point out that one of the reasons that certain audible (to us) phenomena is difficult to explain or justify is that the proper, and/or sensitive enough, measurement tools have not been devised yet. In addition, most of us (I think) accept the fact that musical subtlety is so delicate and fine that we will probably never be able to completely quantify and justify it's make up, as relates to sound reproduction. Throughout the history of audio design there has been the steady discovery of design considerations that are at least, "perceived" to make a difference in the "sound" of a component. Why then, would it be so far fetched to think that on some level, however fine, a bit of the spirit of a performer or the collective "vibe" of a room could be captured and subsequently reproduced by audio equipment? Certainly on some level that we don't quite understand yet, the parameters related to "sound" as we understand it, being that these sounds are being produced by the individuals in question, are very much connected to the "spirit". So why couldn't some of this be reflected in a recording/reproduction. Makes sense to me. Thoughts?

Frogman, couldn't we assume that the performer's(') spirit influences their performance? Furthermore, that the musicians' personal psyche and the surrounding collective energy (for want of a better word) permeate the spirit? If so, there will be nuances in the performance that reflect these emotional parametres... and they will be picked up during a recording.
I am borrowing your example of persons excercisng a powerful force / or aura. The greatness is, sometimes, in the way such musicians can sublimate collective and personal emotions, and can express these through their creative impetus (or, maybe, genius)... the result being a great work of art (performance), or a work of art (performance) by a great musician -- both sometimes?
Humans create & respond to situations using sounds (including non-verbal sounds) and, ofcourse, body and facial expressiveness. (For most of the music available, we have no image -- just the sound.) A microphone can capture some of these sounds -- call it "ambient" sound, or whatever. A good system will reproduce the nuances / flavour / gestalt of such sounds; not the sound of turning the page on the score, but rather, the sound made by the collective emotion in the venue where the recording was made.

Or am I getting more verbiose with time?
Regards, Greg

Frogman and Gregm, your questions might be redefined as "do feelings (or aura...) add to the music in a palpable way"? In other words, would you hear something different from two musicians even if they played the exact notes? That could be a great experiment! Same notes, same instrument, same location, same tempo -- subjective vs. objective tests and defining the gaps. I tend to think that the musicians who are great add more layers and change the timing just enough to capture the greatness of the music, so I would initially discount the aura approach. But ... who knows? A live test would be an interesting first step. Follow up with whether reproduction equipment captures any live differences that exist. Very interesting questions -- once I started thinking about it, I again realized how little we actually know. (For all that matters, it would be interesting to objectively test "great" vs. average artists to discern the differences -- that could translate into better equipment design or configurations.)
Katherina and Detlof, thanks for the kind words. Cheers.