Performed by Emily House, flute; Kayla Welte, clarinet; Austin Frohmader, piano on April 28, 2021 at Sursa Performance Hall, Ball State University.

Time Is Not What It Seems

The Expression Of Energy

The Perpetuation Of The Remembered

Fifths Of Fury

The Healing Rain

Village Blonds

While watching Japan’s NHK World television network, I saw a program about the street fashions being worn by some people in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. I was impressed by their sense of style and by their freedom of spirit. I composed this piece in 2013.

Program Notes:
On the Streets of Harajuku is dedicated to those who find ways to express their personal uniqueness.


On the Streets of Harajuku

This is the second and final version of this piece. I composed the first version in 2011 and I completed the final version in 2013. I learned a lot about sound since I did the first version so I wanted to redo the piece and incorporate the things I learned. All of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic material is exactly the same in both versions. I also used exactly the same synth patches in both. The difference is in the way the piece is mixed and the way the synth patches are orchestrated.

I’m leaving up both versions of the piece in case someone might be interested in comparing how the piece has been changed by using a different approach to mixing and orchestration. 

Program Notes:
The Drama in Her Eyes was inspired by a personal encounter and composed in 2013. The piece was accepted into the DIFFRAZIONI Firenze Multimedia Festival held in Florence, Italy in July, 2014 and into the summer 2015 issue of the online journal ink&coda.

The Drama In Her Eyes (final version)

Won’t Let Them Keep Me Down:

Won’t Let Them Keep Me Down is dedicated to those who have overcome discrimination. The piece was composed in 2012. It was accepted into the Diffrazioni Multimedia Festival held in Florence, Italy in 2016. It is one of the pieces I perform in my set of music for electric guitar and computer. This is the studio version. During performances the piece incorporates a considerable amount of improvisation.

Videos of two performances of this piece are available on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKvEJRB4tg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpDJ0fpTCO0

Won't Let Them Keep Me Down

Row Play:

Row Play was composed in response to a commission from Emily De Padua and Mark Zelesky. They were looking for material to perform for a concert and asked me to write a piece. They performed it in April 2013 in Philadelphia and they will be including it on Mark Zelesky’s upcoming CD, Child’s Play, scheduled for release in the autumn of 2014. The Duo Kolthof/Veinberg will also be including the piece in an upcoming performance. The piece was composed in 2013.

Program Notes:
Row Play utilizes groupings of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale arranged in such a way so that each pitch in the group sounds before any are repeated (referred to as tone rows in musical parlance) for its underlying structure. Several tone rows are used in the piece and they appear in different guises. In some moments only one row is heard while in other moments two rows interweave in varying ways. The piece also sets out to present some of the sonic possibilities the piccolo and the toy piano are capable of producing.


Row Play

Inspired by scientific discoveries in more recent years about the intricate interconnections trees make and the myriad of interactions they engage in amongst themselves and with other living beings in a forest communication network often referred to as the Wood Wide Web. Do trees dream? In this forest they do!

In the Forest of the Dreaming Trees

We Need to Build a Better World is dedicated to the vision of people working together to create living conditions that will be of benefit to all of humanity and that can be passed on to future generations. The piece was composed in 2015.

We Need to Build a Better World

The Dawn of Memory - Awakening of the Ancients is a representation of the emergence of a civilization from the mists of pre-history. It presents the transition from an era of unfocused existence to an era displaying the beginnings of societal clarity. The piece was composed in 2016 and has been accepted into NSEME 2017 held in Baton Rouge, LA, NYCEMF 2017 held in New York City, CICTeM 2017 held in Buenos Aries, Argentina, EABD 2018 held in Jacksonville, FL, and the 2018 SCI Student National Conference held in Bloomington, IN.

The Dawn Of Memory - Awakening Of The Ancients

Portraits of Nine Revolving Celestial Spheres was inspired by Gustav Holst’s composition The Planets. However, unlike The Planets, in which Holst intended to convey concepts related to astrology, Portraits of Nine Revolving Celestial Spheres utilizes the sonification of astronomical data derived from scientific observations as the basis for the musical elements. Each section of the piece represents one of the planets of the solar system and is built from a set of data corresponding to each planet respectively. Among the included data are measurements related to albedo, atmosphere, distance, diameter, gravitation, magnetic field, orbital factors, pressure, relative abundance of the most common elements, and temperature. There are nine sections because as of this writing, there is considerable evidence based on orbital anomalies suggesting the existence of an undiscovered planet. Since there is no data about this hypothetical planet, its corresponding section in the piece employs a nebulous process in the selection of musical materials in order to suggest a broad range of possibilities. The title pays homage to Nicolaus Copernicus’ seminal work, On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres which challenged the widely held view of the time that the earth was at the center of the universe. The piece was composed in 2017.

Sonification Information:

The process of constructing the piece began by determining a starting frequency (a sine tone) for each planet. This was obtained by dividing diameter of each planet in miles by 10. Thus Mercury was assigned a sine tone of 303.3 Hz, Jupiter 8837.8 Hz, etc.

A measurement representing acceleration due to gravity (rounded to the nearest whole number) was used to determine how many other frequencies (overtones) would be added to each planet. Thus Mercury had 4, Jupiter 26, etc.

A formula in which the starting frequency was multiplied by a measurement representing the planet’s density to water (divided by 10) was used to determine an adding factor. The factor and the starting frequency were then added together to determine the next frequency used for a particular planet. Thus for Mercury, the starting frequency was 303.3 Hz and density to water was represented as .55. The process went through four iterations as dictated by the acceleration due to gravity result to produce four overtones.

The frequencies for Mercury were 303.3, 470.16, 728.68, 1129.43, 1750.62 (values were rounded when rendered to sine tones). 

In cases where the starting frequency was high and adhering to the formula led to too many high frequencies or frequencies above the range of hearing, the adding factor was reversed to become a subtracting factor in order to create frequencies below the starting frequency.

A set of frequencies for each planet was assembled following the above procedure. 

The length of each section was determined by multiplying relative surface gravity to earth by 60 seconds. Thus for Mercury it was 60 x .38 = 22.8 seconds.

All of the individual sine waves were then imported into a sound processing program and subjected to numerous techniques. Initial processing parameters were set in accordance to various value ranges such as distance (min to max), net flux, temperature, and some others. These ranges were then adjusted based on aesthetic considerations (as one example, the idea of a buildup is important in music and most planet sections have an increase in activity toward the end) to render the processed version of the sine tone. Each set of planet sine waves went through a distinct set of processing procedures.

The processed sets for each planet were then assembled in a digital audio workstation where some subtle effects were applied.

The time between sections was determined by the Log10 of the distance in miles between the planets. Since the hypothetical ninth planet is expected to be at a considerable distance from the others the time interval was compressed for aesthetic reasons.

Portraits Of Nine Revolving Celestial Spheres

Sentinels Along the River of Time was inspired by the block universe theory which proposes that all time, past, present, and future exist and are equally real. The piece was composed in 2018. The piece has been accepted into the Diffrazioni Festival 2019 held in Florence, Italy, ICMC-NYCEMF 2019 held in New York City, EMM 2019 held in Kansas City, KS, CICTeM 2019 held in Buenos Aries, Argentina, and the SCI Invitational 2019 held in Morgantown WV.

Sentinels Along The River Of Time

Rows, Rows, and Rows of Tones is my first composition for traditional orchestral instruments and was completed in 2006. It is a reworking of a piece for guitar duo composed in 2005.

Rows, Rows, and Rows of Tones

Shapes in the Mist was composed in 2007. The audio is from a performance by the Relache ensemble in Glassboro, New Jersey in April 2010.

Program Notes:
Shapes in the Mist is based on the three note motif that starts and ends the piece. As the title suggests, the composition is inspired by the idea of visualizing imagery that can not be resolved with complete clarity. To this end, musical statements fade in and out of focus as the piece unfolds. 

Shapes in the Mist

This is a MIDI rendering of a composition for Bb Clarinet. I hope to upload a performance version once I get one. If you are a clarinetist and would like to perform the piece, let me know.

Snowflakes MIDI rendering

Julius Bucsis is a multiple award-winning composer, electric guitarist, and visual artist. His compositions span a range of genres and include works for acoustic and electric instruments as well as computer generated audio and video. His works have been presented at hundreds of events across the world. His compositions have been included on CDs released by Ablaze, PARMA, RMN Classical, and Soundiff. He received a Doctor of Arts degree from Ball State University.

Julius Bucsis

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks