Recent Works

Lyric Inspiration Project for jazz quartet (2011)

All I Need is a Chance (PDF)
Beneath My Surface, A Song is Rising
These Hours of Confusion They Will Soon Expire (PDF)
When I See You Happy; When You Laugh...

Funded, in part, by a Subito Quick Advancement Grant from American Composers Forum. Premier performance at Tehachapi Summer Concert Series - August 14, 2011.

Music for OEMP Video for tape (2011)
This was composed as background music for a video for an organization on Early Childhood development.
OMEP Video Project

Etude #1 - Line for guitar (2010)
Etude #1 - Line
This is a realization using Logic 9 samples.

Fanfare for Hades for orchestra (2010)
Fanfare for Hades
Composed to submit for the 60x60 Orchestra project. This is a realization using Logic 9 and samples from the Vienna Symphonic Library.

Sonata for Solo Guitar (2009-2010)
I. Arrival I.
II. Lullaby II.
III. Adventure III.
Commissioned by and composed for Dr. Keith Calmes
Premiered on February 21, 2010 - Bakersfield, California. The audio for Movement I was recorded by John Weston at Futura Studios on August 7, 2010.

The audio for Movements II and III are from the premier performance. Dr. Keith Calmes is the guitarist.

Duplicitous Encounter for flute and cello (2009) (PDF)
Duplicitous Encounter
Commissioned by and composed for Ashley Addington (fl) & Rachel Arnold (c)
Premiered on January 28, 2010 - Lilypad - Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is audio from that premier.

Eclectic Suite for guitar ensemble (2009)
I. Dance of the Dots Dance of the Dots
II. Oscillating Oscillating
III. Duality Duality
IV. Air Air
V. Frantic Frantic

Composed for the CSU Bakersfield Guitar Ensemble, Jim Scully, director.
Premiered on November 13, 2009 - Bakersfield, California. This is audio from that premier.

Low and High for two pianos (2009)
I. Low Low
II. High High
Premiered on November 13, 2009 - Bakersfield, California. This is audio from that premier. Rebekah Rogers and Sarah McFarland - pianos

Duality in Time for flute and cello (2009)
Duality in Time
Composed for 60/60 Project for New Music Hartford
Ashley Addington (fl) & Rachel Arnold (c)
Premiered on August 30, 2009 - ArtSpace Gallery - Hartford, Connecticut. This is audio from that premier.

Jazz Works

*Modes of Transport for jazz combo (2009)
Modes of Transport

*Romp in the SB for jazz combo (2009)
Romp in the SB

+Porter's Play for jazz septet (2007) (excerpt)
Porters Play

+Jenn's Tune for jazz sextet (2007) (excerpt)
Jenn's Tune

+Oatmeal Fiasco for jazz septet (2007) (excerpt)
Oatmeal Fiasco

+Disintegration for jazz sextet (2007) (excerpt)
Disintegration

+Enigmatic Joe for jazz septet (2007) (excerpt)
Enigmatic Joe

+Monkitude for jazz septet (2007) (excerpt)
Monkitude


*These recordings were created by the composer in late August, 2009 using Logic 9. All guitar parts were played live, the drums and bass are either software instruments or Apple loops.

+These recordings were made at a performance by the Jim Scully Group at the 21st Annual Bakersfield Jazz Festival - May 12, 2007. The recordings are truly live. The audio was taken directly from the 2-track stereo out on the front-of-house board and sent to an Apple PowerBook.

The jazz festival performers are:

Steve Eisen, trumpet
Steve Mettler, alto and tenor saxes
Ron Christian, trombone
Jim Scully, guitar & compositions
Zeke Victor, piano
James Dethlefson, double-bass
Brian Palla, drums

Chamber and Solo Works

Obscure Utterance for flute, marimba, violin and viola (2001)
Obscure Utterance

The recording of this piece was created by exporting the MIDI data out of Sibelius notation software and importing that data into Logic Pro 7.  The flute, violin and viola are sampled from the Vienna Symphonic Library and the marimba was created using the Sculpture audio instrument within Logic.


Hop, Skip and Jump for clarinet (2001) (excerpt)
Hop, Skip and Jump

This recording features clarinetist Monica Duncan and is available on the Beauport Classical release, Fleeting Visions. Buy it on iTunes or CDBaby.

Hop, Skip and Jump was composed in 2001 while studying composition with Dr. Christopher Dobrian at University of California, Irvine. The piece follows a traditional A-B-A form where the A sections focus on the richness of the lower register of the clarinet and the B section investigates faster, more rhythmically articulated gestures covering the full range of the instrument.

The A sections contain three distinct motives that are intertwined into phrases. The motives are almost germ-like, in that they are generally very short with significant chances to evolve over the course of the A section.

The B section starts with staccato passages that work their way into the first real extended melody in the piece at 1:32. The staccato passages return, this time devolving back into the material from the A section, signaling a recapitulation of sorts and the ending of the piece. The piece ends where it began, immersed in the sounds of the lower register of the clarinet.


Bouncing About for violin and piano (2000) (excerpt)
Bouncing About

This recording features Julie Haney, violin and Patrick Bender, piano. Both are members of the Bakersfield Symphony.

Bouncing About explores the various relationships possible between the violin and piano. Composed in the fall of 2000, while studying composition at University of California, Irvine with Grammy winning composer Billy Childs, Scully employs a harmonic language that emphasizes the upper tertian extensions found in contemporary tonal music – from jazz to neo-romanticism – and embraces those dissonances both harmonically and melodically.

The composition is in a traditional A-B-A form. There are at least two distinct themes in the A sections and much of the melodic material in the A sections is derived from the first two intervals heard in the violin – an ascending minor 6th and a descending tri-tone. The B section provides a contrast harmonically, rhythmically and melodically. This slower section is less a developmental section and more a dreamy detour from the rhythmic, agitated material from the A sections. A strict recapitulation brings the material from the A section back to wind the piece toward its conclusion.


Rondo for Brass Choir and Percussion (1998) (excerpt)
Rondo
Members of the CSU Bakersfield Concert Band - Jim Scully, Conductor

Drudging Along for piano (1998) (excerpt)
Drudging Along
Karen Johnson, piano

Movement for String Quintet (1997)
String Quintet

Musings on a Pentatonic Theme for piano (1997) (excerpt)
Musings
Karen Johnson, piano

Tape Works

*The Hard of Things for tape (2008)
The Hard of Things

*Truth in Time for tape (2008)
Truth In Time

*These works are main title themes for original plays entitled The Hard of Things and Truth in Time. These recordings were created using either Logic 8 or Garage Band and the software instruments and Apple loops found within those software applications. The plays ran for two-weeks at CSU Bakersfield in February of 2008 as part of the Theatre for New Voices project directed by Mandy Rees, Chair of the Theatre Department at CSU Bakersfield.

The Eleventh Hour for tape (2001)
The Eleventh Hour

The Eleventh Hour was composed in 2001 while in residence at the University of California, Irvine under the tutelage of Dr. Christopher Dobrian and Dr. Michael Zbyszynski. There are only two sound sources in the entire piece – a synthesized bell sound and my voice. All audio recordings were thoroughly manipulated in the ProTools environment before mix down. This had a premier in Irvine, CA in 2001 as well as a performance at the First Annual Electro-Acoustic Juke Joint at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi in November, 2007.

Did You Hear That? for tape (2001)
Did You Hear That?