Music of Silence

We really need a brief moment of silence, to escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life and spend time alone in the quietude of nature.

KOMPAS/COKORDA YUDISTIRA

Melasti ritual ceremony at Kuta Beach, Badung, Bali, Sunday (22/3/2020). The Kuta Traditional Village continues to carry out Melasti ritual ceremonies which are part of a series to welcome the 1942 Saka New Year, but limit the participation for prevention and control of Covid-19.

The famous Japanese composer, Kitaro, once said that silence was like music. During silence, "nature inspires me. I am just a messenger", he said. The musician, born in 1953, therefore described some of his songs as "like a cloud, some like water".

Can we turn the silence that will descend on Bali during Saka New Year 1942 (Nyepi, which falls on 25 March 2020) into “music”? A natural music that gives new strength to our determination to realize the goals of national sovereignty, and not its opposite, music that sharpens differences so that people are divided and development is hampered again?