The following thoughts arose from the composer George Arasimowicz as he contemplated the writing of Window Rock: Peter's Dawn, Soli Deo Gloria's tone poem based on the life of Peter, for the year 2000. Arasimowicz is the Dean of Arts, Media, and Communications at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

THE CREATION IN PROGRESS

Arasimowicz attributes his present state of mind and sense of music to earlier encounters with life's struggles and the resulting joy and good that sometimes follows. He said, "My former experiences taught me much about mankind's hardship with life and confirm what I discover today in the scripture record of Peter the man."

Providing an example he sad, "In my day I tasted of the tragedy and rebirth of Poland. Studying at Chopin University in Warsaw, it was my lot to be in Gdansk, the seaport town that held the Lenin Shipyards. I was there that day when Lech Walensa stood high on the wall and with a megaphone withstood the communist lords of his country. I remember well the long queues faced by the average Pole for bread, shoes, or sugar. Thus was born the Solidarity movement leading to freedom from communism. Out of such struggle and sorrow came the resurrection of a nation. And I was there."

Turning to "the man" Peter, he sees what he calls "the dramaturgy of human lostness" followed by his transformation to life on a higher plane, the plane of sublime faith, the plane where the risen Christ abides.

He said, "I see in Peter his own moments of lows and highs that led to his ultimate finding of himself through the events of the denial, the cross and the resurrection of Jesus whom he loved and tried so hard to understand." Arasimowicz sees at least two faces in Peter.

There is Peter the activist. He was always doing….two gnarled hands throwing out the net...one tightly held sword striking off the ear of an enemy...one awe-filled moment offering to build a tabernacle on the mount...an ear throbbing with the sound of the cock crow...two eyes flooded with tears...his broken body on the ground...and two feet rushing to the empty tomb. What more could he do to quiet his anxiety and his many times of uncertainty and confusion within his very soul?

Then a new picture emerges for Arasimowicz, Peter the reflective. Peter reached moments in life when doing was impossible, reflective thought was all that remained. There was the dumb-struck moment of glory on the mount of transfiguration. There was the awful wrestling silence of prayer in Gethsemane. Then Peter's moment of wonder as he entered into the stark empty tomb that once held the body of the crucified. Later, there was the long and lonely night of lake fishing that gave Peter much time to ponder what was happening to him and those dear to him.

Arasimowicz sees all of this, repeatedly saying, "The cock crowing must be at the heart of the tone poem. I must find instruments, ways, and colors of sound to portray that awful moment of truth for all of us between activism and contemplation, about the meaning of life itself."

THE COMPOSER

A unique individual and composer, George Arasimowicz explicates three influences from his life that have developed his musical character and style.

Arasimowicz has had a lifelong fascination with the colors of sounds. He said, "Since boyhood I have been interested in styles, sonority, timbre, pitch, and all that goes into the sound part of music." How is music made? What are its ingredients? This became his driving force still evident as he explicated the new sounds of the new century. He described the computer, the synthesizer, and the possibilities of cataloguing voices and instruments, like the distinct fingerprint of the voice or the instrument in the hands of a great player.

Secondly, George Arasimowicz explained how his "multicultural life has contributed much to a cross-cultural understanding of man and music." Arasimowicz's parents were immigrants from Poland to Canada. He himself was a Canadian who immigrated to America. Later his music travels carried him to the people and nations of the world. His studies and performances have taken him to Poland, Scotland, England, Brazil, French Montreal, Paris, Australia, Hungary, Germany, and Austria.

Lastly, reflecting on the influences of the media and the technology of present day sounds, Arasimowicz said, "I sense a call to the new possibilities of sound. There are enormous doors far into the future. Media and technology are wavelike, forming new imagery and new sounds never before discerned. The electronic century is only beginning."

George Arasimowicz concluded, "I am fascinated with the coming world of sound. It is my ambition and hope to lead the future of young musicians into that coming world, yet untested, yet unexplored."