An Opus To Remember

‘Playing music is supposed to be fun. It's about heart, it's about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it's not about notes on a page.’ -Glenn Holland

Mr. Holland’s Opus is a movie in the year 1995 about a man, Glenn Holland, who was a musician and composer who grab hold of teaching job to pay the rent. In moments that he has ‘nothing to do’, he strive to reach his goal—to compose a piece of music that would leave his mark in the world.As Holland discovers 'Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans' and as the years unfold the joy of sharing his contagious passion for music with his students becomes his new definition of success.

In spite of his being a virtuoso, he has a son who was born deaf. At first he cannot accept it but later on in the movie, he learned to love his ‘Beautiful Cole’ and dedicate a song to him. His child might not hear the melody of the song but Cole is exceptionally gifted—he can understand what his father is saying by looking at his mouth. In other words, he was a lipreader.

Mr. Holland is not just a good musician but also a proficient teacher who is very willing to extend his hours in school to develop a child and increase his appreciation to music. Not only that. He took teaching seriously. He is not satisfied with just memorizing notes, getting familiar with keys but on his students to recognize the value of music to their lives. He said, “I can teach you notes on a page, I can't teach you that other stuff” but all he wanted was for his students to realize and live with the music of their lives.

On teaching, he got a lesson from Principal Jacobs: “A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste. s for his students to realize.” At the end of the term of the principal, she gave a compass to him as a memento.

At the end of the movie, Mr. Holland was able to conduct his opus—the American Symphony after a moving of his 1965 student, Gertrude Lang, who was then the governor of their county.

The movie made me appreciate the value of music in one’s life. I have learned so many thing in it: of family, of studies, of teaching, and of course, about life. In times of fear and petrified of the situation, I’ll take Mr. Holland’s advice:“Play the sunset.”