Where Does It Go?

Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.
Oscar Wilde

The local Blues Festival is this weekend, and I want to go. I can't go today, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get there for a few hours. I love the blues, and so does my father.


I know if I try to talk to him about the festival, or music in general, he will do his darnedest to carry on the conversation. I also know he will have only a vague idea of what we are talking about. However, if I put one of his CDs in his Walkman, and turn it on for him, he will enjoy listening immensely, even if only briefly. He also would not enjoy hard rock any more now than he did 35 years ago.


So here's the question......what happened to his knowledge of music? The ability to appreciate the sound is still there, yet not the verbal/cognitive ability any longer. Is it still in there somewhere, that knowledge he had, or has it been strangled by the illness?


What happens to what we knew?