Thanks Chris - before I started to write my post, I wondered if I should
leave it to you. You've added eloquently to what I was trying to say.
Memorising a short but exquisite poem is one thing, memorising, say, War
and Peace or the telephone directory is another.
Both The Iliad and the Odyssey were almost certainly entirely orally/aurally
composed, (varied obviously) and passed on before they were written down.
A sobering thought for some of us who struggle to remember tunes, and forget
people's names.
And singing Wotan in Wagner's Ring is quite a feat of memory too.
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