You have just reminded me of Vikram Seth's An Unequal Music, though. My father, who did karate at the time, said that he didn't really understand how the same bit of music, the same notes, could produce a different *feel* played by different orchestras, but after we talked about it a bit, he realised that people could do the same kata, the exact same series of movements, but it could be different too. I have no idea if this is of any use to you at all, in finding other ways to interpret music, but for waht it's worth, there it is.