[Nicolai P. Zwar]

There could be something vaguely similar in the perception of primitive musical phenomena such as the special intervals (octave, perfect fifth, etc.).

There could be. Or not. Fact is: we really do not know. By that I mean: there is no conclusive evidence that can even proof why we like music or why it effects us so much. A few years ago I looked into some studies and found it quite interesting. Bottom line is: there is currently no conclusive proof that fully explains why humans like music, why it can affect us so deeply, or why one person is profoundly moved by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata while another feels little or nothing. Most current theories circle around what seems to be a growing body of evidence pointing toward a combination of innate biological mechanisms and learned cultural influences. One of the strongest findings I remember is that pleasurable musical experiences are associated with dopamine release in reward-related brain regions, in much the same general reward circuits that involved food, social bonding, and other pleasurable experiences become active during music listening. And some people react more to music like that than others. That’s also an obvious fact. Some people are just profoundly moved by certain pieces of music, while others — even with more or less the same cultural and educational background — are indifferent to it. I mean, while you can learn about music, it’s functions, and with that knowledge may come an admiration from a technical point of view, you may appreciate and grant it’s worth, in short, you may learn to “admire” a piece of music, but it’s much harder to learn to “like” a piece of music, especially if you don’t just enjoy listening to it to begin with.