Peter Varley:

>I find Messiaen's music boring.

That's your privilege.  I find some of it boring, some of it very exciting
indeed.

>OK, there are other composers whose music I find boring, but they aren't
>played anywhere near so frequently.

I happen to find a lot of Verdi boring.  He's played all the time.  But who
cares about my likes and dislikes other than me?

>The music I find especially boring is the Catalogue des Oiseaux (sp?).
>That's subjective, of course.

Really? I friend of mine - a concert pianist - worked himself almost to the
point of injury in the process of learning that piece.  Obviously, the
music didn't bore him.

>Objectively, I would also question whether, given the availability of
>tape-recorders, transcriptions of birdsong can properly be called
>compositions and have any value as music.

That's like saying, given the availability of cameras, representational
portrait painting has no value as art.

Steve Schwartz