Have you heard about this?
Ravel's Bolero comes under psychiatric investigation
1 September 1997 - A British study, published in today's Psychiatric Bulletin, suggests that Ravel's Bolero, reputed to be the most often played composition in the repertoire, was the work of a pathological mind. Dr Eva Cybulska, the author of the study, claims that the famous melody repeated 18 times without change during the course of the piece demonstrates that the French composer was possibly succumbing to Alzheimer's disease. The Kent-based psychiatrist claims that perseveration, an obsession with repeating words and gestures, is one of the more notable symptoms of this pathology. In other words, the repetitive nature of the score's principal theme is symptomatic of the degenerative condition which began to trouble the French composer in 1927 at the age of 52. Was it really Alzheimer's disease or the budding tumor which later killed Ravel during brain surgery in 1937?
I mean, for a piece of music to survive since 1600, and get played today, it must have been pretty special. Today's music, well, it's from today, it hasn't had to survive, it may reflect current trends/ideas, but who's to say if those will be relevant in 200 years from now. There is some great music of today, but just as much (more!) crap, as I'm sure was the case back in any of the classic periods, it's just the old crap has mostly been forgotten.
