If it's not, well, pile one more thing on the list for Josh to look at if he ever feels willing, or anyone else who wants to try. It'd be nice to see Mayahem Temple looked into, but eh...
"strings instruments get cut off near the beginning for a second"
That's because the strings are a 'note', and that note doesn't have time to start as soon as all the others, I suspect. I don't believe you can normally hear this tune from the very beginning in the game, so the strings would always have time to start playing wherever else you entered from.