Comment by janny_throwaway

Lovely. Reminds me of this quote from Lorraine Daston:

  The marvel that stopped us in our tracks—an aurora borealis, cognate words in
  languages separated by continents and centuries, the peacock’s tail—becomes
  only an apparent marvel once explained. Aesthetic appreciation may linger…but
  composure has returned. We are delighted but no longer discombobulated; what
  was once an earthquake of the soul is subdued into an agreeable frisson.… The
  more we know, the less we wonder.

I feel this personally when learning a new piece of music. All the gestalt beauty drains out as the song is reduced to a mountain to be conquered rather than a landscape to be appreciated. By the time I've memorized all the notes, a grim irony sets in: when I listen to a recording of the piece, I am no longer capable of hearing what I initially set out to replicate.