If it were not for boredom we probably would not have the Early Music scene, which has so enlightened us on so many musical essentials.
The connection between the two may not seem obvious but it is implicit in the post of a few days ago on minuets coming back into style. Back in the day -- well, not THAT far back, actually -- three beats to the bar on paper was what you were expected to play and hear. The notion of variation within meters was virtually non-existent. Then a number of people must have protested: Enough! Surely Handel, Haydn, etc. could not have been that dull!
And so was born a renewed curiosity in the phenomenon of rhetoric, or the inability to produce a literal repeat of any musical element.
