One man's journey

I read with a mixture of doubt and self-critique a journey undertook by Michael Chorost, who after becoming totally deaf, decided to get a cochlear implant (Wired Magazine). He wore hearing aids before, and used to listen to the music of Boléro, a form of impressionist music that models itself after classical works.

After getting cochlear-implantized, he tried to listen to Boléro again, only to find it inaccessible and disappointing. So began his search for improving his CI, among other things, being a guinea pig for experimenting with the CI software. At the end of the piece, he found what was closest to his original conception of Boléro as he heard it before.

Since reading that piece, I have often wondered what precisely was the music of Boléro that he so compellingly described as his favorite kind of music, the yardstick by which his cochlear implant would be measured.

Finally, I found someone who posted an MP3 version of it. I can hear it. And it is boring.

Not really boring, but just repetitive. It's an interesting take on classical music without being quite classical music. It's a music with modernist slant. Frankly, I know little of music to make an informed judgment about it, but let us just say that it is not a fun music.