TL;DR: an amateur composer who never learned to write down his music is developing Alzheimer's, and slowly forgetting how to play the songs he wrote. His daughter recruits her friend, a musician who can learn by ear, to record him playing the fragments he still has left and to work with him to fill in the gaps. In the end, she produces a CD of his work and plays his songs at a concert, so that the songs he wrote will live on even as they disappear from his head.

I understand that at this stage he needed another musician to pull the music out of him interactively. But before it got that bad, a simple analog recording would have done. A MIDI recording even better.

I've been composing all my life. I know how to write music notation, but absolutely can't stand the tedium. I don't write code in calligraphy, and for the same reason, I play my music into a MIDI keyboard. From there, I can fuss with either the raw data, or actual music notation if I like, in software.

Btw, Lionel Bart, composer and lyricist of the musical Oliver!, also did not do musical notation. He hummed the tunes to a fellow musician who transcribed them. I've no idea how much 'filling in' the other musician did in terms of harmony, arrangement and so on. But here's another question: if Bart had formally learnt to read music, or Goodwin had written his songs down, would they still have been able to compose them?

If you liked this, you might also be interested in this project by The Caretaker. He has been diagnosed with dementia, and is producing music over several months to try to capture the progression of the disease. I recommend giving it a listen:

https://thecaretaker.bandcamp.com/album/everywhere-at-the-en...

Before reading it I assumed it was about John Mann from 'Spirit of the West' a Canadian band from BC he has early onset alzheimer's.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/intimate-documentary-explores-s...

I highly recommend the documentary "Alive Inside" which deals with giving dementia and Alzheimer's patients the music they loved all their life and the profound effects it can have on quality of life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaB5Egej0TQ

Glen Campbell, American country singer, was diagnosed a few years back, after having trouble remembering the lyrics during performances.

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049586