YOUR MEMORY especially as you age.

[salymap]

I notice,with some regret, that now I am in my 80s, [yuk], my musical memory is getting patchy. Has anyone else noticed this in themselves?

I recognise that I am listening to Beethoven or Mozart but the work, so familiar to me could be symphony xx or xx.** Sometimes it comes, sometimes not. There is not problem with works like,say, Kodaly Hary Janos or the Prokofiev Classical Symphony which have their own character.

One mistake I have made before, this morning the Mozart Rondo K269 was thought to be one of the little Rossini String Sonatas until the penny dropped.

I am sure our 'real' musicians on the MBs will never own up to this but has anyone else had trouble with memory lapses? ** It doesn't happen all the time.

[Norfolk Born]

Hi salymap! I sometimes find that, having correctly identified the composer of a work, I am not at all sure which particular work I'm listening to. I'm ashamed to say that this even applies to masterpieces such as Mozart's late symphonies: "It's the 'Linz' ...no, it must be the 'Prague' - silly boy, it's the 'Jupiter'. Or is it the G Minor?"

[Pabmusic]

I hate it whenever I don't seem to have the recall I once did. However, we're probably luckier than most:

http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml
http://www.fyiliving.com/research/musicians-brains-stay-sharp-as-they-age/
http://www.generationamerica.org/articles/health-and-wellness/study-says-music-helps-fight-age-related-hearing-problems

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I find that, whilst I can recall and identify works that I "learnt" up to the age of around thirty, after that age I am much less precise. So, (he said, tempting fate!) I don't have a problem identifying which movement from which of the Beethoven/Brahms/Mahler/Tchaikovsky Symphonies I might overhear, but can only feebly say "Ah, that's from one of the Bach Cantatas" (if I "know" the cantata in the first place, of course!). I can sing along to the melody or accompaniments of an individual movement, but (apart from the opening movements) I can't say which precise work it comes from until I hear the next recitative.

The only way nowadays that a "new" piece really "sticks" is if I can follow it with a score: visual memory helps to "place" the context of a piece.

One of the hazards of loving so much Music, I suppose.

Best Wishes.

[Serial_Apologist]

At 65 I have no difficulty in identifying works, even from catching a couple of seconds; it's names I that often have problems remembering - even well-known composers' names - especially if I am tired, late at night, etc. Particularly with personalities I haven't been thinking about for a long time. It's the same with people I meet in general.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I find that, whilst I can recall and identify works that I "learnt" up to the age of around thirty, after that age I am much less precise. So, (he said, tempting fate!) I don't have a problem identifying which movement from which of the Beethoven/Brahms/Mahler/Tchaikovsky Symphonies I might overhear, but can only feebly say "Ah, that's from one of the Bach Cantatas" (if I "know" the cantata in the first place, of course!). I can sing along to the melody or accompaniments of an individual movement, but (apart from the opening movements) I can't say which precise work it comes from until I hear the next recitative.

The only way nowadays that a "new" piece really "sticks" is if I can follow it with a score: visual memory helps to "place" the context of a piece.

One of the hazards of loving so much Music, I suppose.

Best Wishes.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep recall is one thing recognition another, every morning i look in the mirror and wonder who the .........

[BBMmk2]

One of the students yesterday played a Schubert Impromptu(he is aged circa 12), grade 8 piano!! For the life of me I couldnt remember which one!

[Stillhomewardbound]

I think you'll find that a spell listening to Classic FM will remove any such challenges to your memory.

In the office where I work we have recently acquired a radio and it is on Classic FM. Well, what can I say? Their library can amount to little more than a small cupoboard in the corner of their production office.

The repertoire is so restricted, real 'greatest classic bits' fare, and ye gods, the repetition factor fare addles the brain: Songs of the Auvergne every afternoon about four, Beethoven-Beethoven-Beethoven, Firebird Suite, Arrival of the fuppin' Queen of Sheba, MacCunn's Land of ... , Die Fledermaus overture, Holberg Suite, Lark Ascending.

The horror of it!

[Flosshilde]

I find that, whilst I can recall and identify works ...One of the hazards of loving so much Music, I suppose.

Best Wishes.

Ferney, had you forgotten that you already said this in post no. 4?

[Chris Newman]

When I were a lad at school I were famed for my endless store of ribald jokes. I remembered them just like that, as Tommy would have said. Even my teachers thought I should be a comedian (sometimes said without irony). Nowadays if somebody tells me a joke I have forgotten it thirty seconds later. Yet I remember all those that I learnt as a kid. I can recall people I went to particular concerts with fifty years ago and the conversations we had, yet can forgot what I did yesterday.

[Nick Armstrong]

Ferney, had you forgotten that you already said this in post no. 4?

A low blow!!

[salymap]

Ferney, had you forgotten that you already said this in post no. 4?

Flossie, I saw that but what about trying to be nice to the poor old geezer

[barber olly]

Memory Almost Full - Paul McCartney's album title a couple of years ago, says it all. Too much in there to take any more. Learning the words of songs as I have to do as a male-voice choir member is more difficult now than it was years ago. I can still remember the lyrics of songs I sang at school, particularly frm Singing Together at junior school, and also those from the Beatles albums I used to sing along to. With Mozart I usually know what K no each work has but not necessarily which I am listening to.

[Stillhomewardbound]

It seems to me I've heard that song before
It's from an old familiar score
I know it well, that melody
It's funny how a theme recalls a favorite dream
A dream that brought you so close to me

I know each word because I've heard that song before
The lyrics said 'Forever more'
Forever more's a memory
Please have them play it again
And I'll remember just when
I heard that lovely song before