In many respects, music and atheism might seem to be strange bedfellows, given the religious – or at least metaphysical – language that often shapes accounts of musical experiences. For centuries, music has been attributed with the power to calm and restore order and equilibrium in times of trouble and turmoil. Shakespeare supposed music to be the food of love, while in the nineteenth century, Walter Pater (1919 [1873], 111) asserted that ‘all art constantly aspires towards the condition of music’. This condition of music – its ability to somehow lift spirits and provide a sense of well-being – is reflected in such metaphysical and spiritual language. Moreover, the church paid for a very large proportion of music written by western classical composers, until the late classical period, that once tied music squarely to religion. Masses, requiems, motets, cantatas, and oratorios served religious themes and liturgical purposes.