Bernard Gregoire wrote on any special claim to greatness in Western music
and civilization.

   "This is a patently silly proposition.  The premise is bogus out of
   the box. It's like saying that Mars is not a real planet because  it
   is not exactly the same as the earth.  The very essence of the universe
   is endless variety in snowflakes, music and absolutely everything
   else in  natures realm. Beethoven would have been embarrassed with
   such silly absolutism."

Why? There are some consenses not necessarily absolutes gotten from logic
but cross-cultural reactions over many generations.  For example, those
who know food generally agree that French and Chinese cuisines are the most
artistic and highly developed.  That doesn't mean Italian food isn't great
or even that a great Italian cook will not convince you while you are
eating their meal that it rivals any French and Chinese meal you can
remember.

One of the reasons classical music is dwindling is that there are none left
fearless enough to make its claim from at least Palestrina to the early
part of this century European music was the most unrivalled explosion of
music in human history.

Be careful in speaking for Beethoven.  Maybe that so-called musicologist
from the University of Delaware who dismissed him as a male chauvinist pig
and militarist (code word for a strong-willed Caucasian man) may have
spoken some truth in her otherwise crackpot dismissal of Beethoven.

Andrew Carlan