Jonathan Ellis asks:

>Could it be that there is, as a professor I heard recently suggests, a
>"corporate memory," to which employees - read orchestral members - add
>their knowledge and experience and receive, in return, the fruits of the
>orchestra's history?

There is certainly a notion of a "corporate culture" which tends to survive
all but the most deliberate attempts to change it, and which has been the
subject of many books.  It's easy to understand how such a culture can be
enduring - new members of an entity (even its top leaders) are generally
selected for their compatibility with the culture, and membership turnover
is usually incremental rather than monolithic.

len.