This has led him to conclude that the structures of the brain used for musical memory "might be the superior temporal gyrus or the frontal lobes".

BBC: How can musicians keep playing despite amnesia?

"But what is really new in this case is that we could show that in such a severe and dense amnesia there's still an island intact of memory, the musical memory, " he says.

BBC: How can musicians keep playing despite amnesia?

Practicing at least four hours a day paid off in his staggering technique, equaled by his compelling powers of musical interpretation and sheer memory.

WSJ: Paul Jacobs | Great Music Needs No Apology | Cultural Conversation by Barrymore Laurence Scherer

He set up an annual fundraising musical event, Merlefest, in his memory.

BBC: Doc Watson, folk and bluegrass guitarist, dies aged 89

Because of the collaborative nature of Angklung music, playing promotes cooperation and mutual respect among the players, along with discipline, responsibility, concentration, development of imagination and memory, as well as artistic and musical feelings.

UNESCO: Culture

Epic singers are distinguished by their prodigious memory and performance skills, combining singing, vocal improvisation and musical composition coupled with theatrical elements.

UNESCO: Culture

Yet Sara Cooper's new work, "The Memory Show, " turns out to be a poignant, sophisticated and often humorous musical about dealing with Alzheimer's disease.

WSJ: Review: 'Memory Show' is poignant musical on loss

"What we don't know is whether there is something common to musical training that is common to attention, sequencing (processing the order in which something occurred), memory and language skills, " she says.

BBC: Magazine