This article examines the relationship between music and memory through a conceptual model termed the Harmonic Triad, composed of three interdependent dimensions: Structure, Sustenance, and Orchestration. Structure describes the internal processes of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval; Sustenance integrates the biological, physiological, and emotional factors that enable the efficient functioning of memory; and Orchestration shows how music—through its temporality, multisensory nature, and affective engagement—acts as an organizing matrix capable of expanding, stabilizing, and diversifying mnemonic pathways. Grounded in neuroscientific and cognitive literature, the study argues that memory is strengthened when biological bases are regulated, when symbolic and linguistic stimuli provide cognitive complexity, and when musical experience articulates these elements into rich and meaningful patterns. The appendices presented in this study further develop the triad through real situations of human development, illustrating how its principles manifest in concrete domains: the musicalization of content in contexts of high cognitive load; the formative role of instrumental learning; the expansion of cognitive pathways in childhood; identity and socioemotional strengthening in adolescence; and the preservation of cognitive and affective vitality in aging. Each appendix functions as a dialectical extension of the model, demonstrating its practical applicability and explanatory value across different contexts and stages of life. The article thus proposes an integrated understanding of memory as a dynamic and expandable system, in which music plays a central role in promoting the capacity to learn, remember, and create throughout the distinct phases of the human cognitive trajectory.
Paulo Lomando (Tue,) studied this question.