Daymare (2016) is a piece that was written for a reading at ECU in 2016. The melody that the bassoon has at the beginning is repeated and transformed throughout the piece with homorhythmic interjections contrasting the frequent occurrences of counterpoint. The changing and shifting moods potentially evoking a dreamlike state, and the overall brightness perhaps evoking the day.

Julian R Ward's Album

Daymare (2016)

A public reading from the 2016 Snow Pond Composers Workshop, Sidney, ME by Wren Saunders (Bassoon) and Chris Gross (Cello).

Journey by Julian Ward

A live performance by Zach Grass from 2015.

Chronicle by Julian Ward

Reading session by Roomful of Teeth in 2014.

Spectral Chant by Julian Ward

Free-Floating is about unresolved unsatisfied expectations. Themes are interrupted before they can resolve and the piece ends with a motivic reiteration that seems to demand that more music should follow, yet is it does not come to pass. There are moments of more reflective material that feels finite. However, the work as a whole, is unresolved.

Free - Floating (2018)

My Eyes Trace the Image (2018) came to being as a project to write a piece that could be learned and played in one 15-minute session. In working on this I struggled at the time with thinking of something that I could write that would be interesting to me and would not be too difficult to sight-read. After some consideration I decided to revise some material from my undergrad. The first half of this piece is this simple melody that I had made that I teased out a bit before presenting it in full at about 1:15 in the recording. The second half of the piece is a separate melody that I also build up to. At 4:26 both lines are played at the same time until the final cadence.

This recording is of a reading by the UNCG Orchestra at a 2018 session.

My Eyes Trace the Image (2018)

Beginning as a eulogy for that part of you that must be left behind in order to enact change, and ending with a nostalgic reflection of the past, Eulogy (2019) explores how hard it can be to move on when you are trapped by the memories of a time gone by.

Eulogy

I hope you will understand,
When I can’t come back again,

I know you will have the strength when the time comes,
To be yourself at all costs,
Ah, to shed this burden
These lies will at last be lost,

but,

What are you supposed to do,
When life has come and gone?
When you no longer can feel,
The things that you have done?

Sometimes it makes me wonder,
If it is not all as bad as it seems, 
As life is,
When I compare it to my dreams,

Lilac lights paint a pale horizon,
Near enough to touch yet so far away,
To see those light blue blossoms once more,
Feel how on the gentle wind they’d sway,

I was hoping that I’d finally won,
When I mistook that light for the rising sun,
The truth!
Dawned on me with great pain and,
I knew that I was there again,

Lilac lights paint a pale horizon,
Near enough to touch yet so far away,
To see those light blue blossoms once more,
Feel how on the gentle wind they’d sway, 

- Julian Ward -

This recording is of a performance by a UNCG ensemble:

Brittany Kaehler, soprano; Grace Gollmar, soprano; Ashley Ellin, alto; Hailey Nichols, alto; Jack Wolverton, tenor; Liston Kidd, bass; Josh Kraus, trumpet; Flint Franks, trumpet; Elliott Stanger, horn; Brannon Kling, trombone; Lincoln Myers, tuba; Nicoletta Moss, conductor.

Eulogy (2019)

Kinetic (2019) is a groove that builds and shifts overtime before coming together at the close. Bits of counterpoint come out of moments of greater homogeneity to create these shifts. Intermingling between a fanfare and a shuffle groove, Kinetic mutates and develops them.

I had the honor of being asked to write this piece for a recording by the UNCG Brass Quintet:

Flint Franks, Trumpet; Robert Elliott, Trumpet; Elliott Stanger, Horn; Brannon Kling, Trombone; Lincoln Myers, Tuba.

Kinetic (2019)

You can find julian’s personal website here: julianwardmusic.wixsite.com/mysite 

Julian is a musician who composes music and performs a variety of styles and instruments: Instruments include: Flute, drums, voice, piano, guitar, bass guitar, glockenspiel, tin whistle, banjo, etc...

Julian Ward (b.1994) is a native of Greenville, North Carolina and is a recently announced winner for the Beth Ratay Call for Scores for Mezzo Soprano and Voice (2022) with Spirits of the Dead. He won a performance of his fixed media work: Distances in Between for 2022 NYCEMF. Julian won the Beth Ratay Call for Flute (2021), with Vyvirian Folk Songs. He is the co-winner for the 2021 Arcady-RBC Emerging Artist Competition for his piece, Spirits of the Dead. He is also the acceptor of a 2020 performance of Distances In Between for the NYCEMF. Julian was the winner of the fourth-place prize of the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra 2019 call for scores for his piece, Lilac Lights (2018). Julian graduated in 2019 from the University of North Carolina Greensboro with a Master of Music degree in composition. In 2017, he graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelors of Music in flute performance and music composition. Julian writes music for a large variety of ensembles. He has had his music read and or performed by ensembles such as the Beo Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, Michael Lowenstern, Loadbang, Yarn/Wire, the Greensboro Symphony, Sharon Harms, the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, and others. Julian likes to use many different methods and mixed instrumentation in his works and also draws from various sources and styles to inform his compositional process. Emphasis of timbral character and strong contrasts are elemental to Julian's compositions. He recently collaborated with Isaac Ward, co-composing, engineering, and producing the music and sound-effects for two educational videos by the North Carolina 4-H (2021).

Julian has recently been collaborating with his brother Isaac on a band youtube channel called, Trying to Understand: youtube.com/channel/UCCzsdrmXpIl2RldWsCv58uw

They have also been working together on a more humor focused youtube channel, No Humor is Good Humor (it has music on it as well): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLU5G-3f8BszE06EGji8dQ

Julian is also a recent co-winner of the Global Film Exhibition’s 2024 prize for an animated short called “May I Go to the Restroom? (which includes original music by isaac and I): https://youtu.be/at6-O-unvQ0?si=khAs7v2l8jMSkpqd