Music as Mnemonic?

Shelby pointed out both anecdotal and empirical evidence for music's ability to facilitate memorization in students. It would seem that in these instances of taking something that a  student needs to memorize and putting it to music, the melody has become a mnemonic device.

Music as a means of education is far greater than just a mnemonic device. Mnemonics aid us in rote memorization, which is useful, but only grants students the most basic kind of knowledge. Music has the ability to be used to teach on a much deeper level. The intrinsic patterns and mathematical nature of music offers us various ways to think concretely about otherwise abstract notions. While there are other things in life that teach us these abstract mathematics concretely, none do so while simultaneously reaching us on a deep emotional and often visceral level.



What is the role of music in education, after its simple role as a facilitator of rote memorization?