Setelah beberapa kali berhenti, akhirnya musik mengalun penuh.

Solo tuba melengking bersama kontrabas, menggambarkan kerja keras seorang ksatria muda yang demi cinta ikut kontes menyanyi Master Singer, asosiasi penyair dan pemusik amatir abad ke-14-15 di Jerman.

Inilah ”The Master Singer of Nuremberg-Prelude to Opera” karya Richard Wagner.

Dimainkan oleh puluhan remaja anggota Twilite Youth Orchestra, konduktor Eric Awuy memang bolak-balik menghentikan musik begitu nadanya kurang pas. ”Saya mau dengar kelompok biola satu saja,” katanya.

”Sekarang biola dua.”

”Gesek sampai penuh ya. Ingat, kita main bukan untuk diri sendiri. Suaranya harus sampai ke ujung ruangan,” ujar Eric.

Lima tahun lalu ketika memulai kelompok musik ini, ia harus bekerja keras menyelaraskan nada dan irama. Maklumlah, anggota datang dari berbagai kalangan dan baru saling kenal saat latihan. Tugasnya kini lebih ringan meski anggotanya silih berganti. ”Yang baru masuk ikut bergerak dalam sistem karena mesinnya sudah jalan,” kata Eric pekan lalu.

Sebagai orkes remaja, Twilite Youth Orchestra—populer sebagai TYO, dibaca ti-whai-o—sulit punya anggota abadi. Begitu lulus SMA, anggota yang melanjutkan studi di luar Jakarta tak mungkin berlatih rutin.

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.  ~Robert Fripp

A few years ago while hosting a daily music appreciation program in a local radio station, a listener called in and asked about what music should they put on for their newly born baby, as they read that classical music or more specifically music by Mozart will actually make their baby smarter when they grow up. The Mozart Effect as it is often called is popular subject, and if we shop around for music in a record store, we find a variety of compilation cd based on “The Mozart Effect” with various titles like Mozart Mathematics, Genius Baby, Smart Baby, etc...Although more than once we find the music is not by Mozart at all. We will not embark in a discussion about the truth of the Mozart Effect, but about music as part of the education process. Eric Awuy

Music is an art, a language. It requires emotion, cognition, aesthetics, and as a music player it develops individual and group skills. Above all, it develop the brain’s auditory system, which are is to often overlooked in our present day “visual” education system. These things have to be develop and synchronized, and the results are a kind of mental stretching that in general will help in learning other things. According to some research, the notational skills in music correlate positively with achievement in math and reading. The ability to process musical symbols and representations is a leading predictor of of music’s association with learning in other subject areas (Larry Scripp, Harvard Project Zero). This research also found that musical pitch is more predictive of mathematical ability while rhythm is more predictive of reading ability.