During a listenning session of Charles Ives' music I was reminded once
again of a quote from the great man about how the human anatomy is prone
to lose capabilities not repeatedly used.  To paraphrase the quote which
follows..."Use In Or Lose It."

from Memos by Charles Ives

   "...There may be an analogy between the ear, mind and arm muscles.
   They don't get any stronger with disuse.  Any art or any habit of
   life, if it is limited chronicly to a few processes that are the
   easiest to acquire, must at some time, quite probably become so
   weekened that it is neither a part of art nor a part of life.  Nature
   has bigger things than even-vibration-ratios for man to learn how to
   use.  The simplist ratios often called perfect consonances have been
   used so long and constantly that not only music, but musicians and
   audiences have become more or less, soft.  If they hear anything but
   doh-me-soh or a near cousin, they have to be carried out on a
   stretcher."

Bernard Gregoire
Hingham, MA