My wife Susan was so intrigued by this topic she wanted to convey the
value to her of memorizing tunes in the Music Memory program in the
Indianapolis public school system in the 1950s:

---------------------

Music Memory played an enormous part in my lifetime appreciation for
classical music.  I was a finalist at my school in the music memory
contest.  And although I went down to ignominious defeat at the symphony
finals, I will never forget the music that I learned...  and the melodies
or tunes of those pieces - Unfinished Symphony, Hungarian Dance #5, etc,
etc.  And this program required nothing of the teachers other than to
keep us still with our heads down during the music.  (Others may have
gotten a similar association from watching the older cartoons which were
peppered with classical music old chestnuts and became a subliminal
association for later in life!)

Now when I look back I see what that experience gave to me when I became
an independent woman in my 20s - RESONANCE!  When I heard those "tunes"
from the Music Memory program, it gave me a link to a comfortable place.
Did I have a sophisticated understanding of the music at that time?
Surely not.  But I had an affection, which became love, and has developed
into a much more knowledgeable understanding and thirst for classical
and modern music.

Would that our school children today could get just that resonance
to carry into their adult years!!  Lets bring back the Music Memory
Program!!  The possibilities are boggling with today's youth!

-----------------------------

Jeff Dunn
[log in to unmask] [an IT consulting and music publishing partnership
named nostagically for that IN program]