Instrumental Music
Symphony No. 1
Bukowski’s Symphony No. 1 (2020 - 2021) is a deeply personal piece for the composer. Performed in three movements, the 44-minute composition is a kind of self-portrait through music that offers vignettes into the composer’s life, told through common themes.
The first movement, Brash, evokes familiar baroque and classical idiomatic rhythms, but the melodies and harmonies are written in a chromatic, biting language that challenges the listener and creates a sense of unease.
The second movement, Anguished, presents its two main musical ideas up front, then spends the remainder of the movement offering themes and variations on them. The movement is sombre, cold, and despairing. A brief moment of romantic fervor is felt about halfway through, only to be cut short and met with a growing, painful crescendo that has the orchestra playing at full volume.
The third movement, Triumphant, is a cautious rejection of the first two movements. The music is anticipatory and fleeting. Each musical section deliberately left unresolved, the result being that the piece has a constant state of forward motion. The final climactic moment, a cacophony of rich sonorous sounds, ends on a dominant chord, which evokes the sense that there is much more to come from the composer’s heart and mind.
High Tides
High Tides (2016) was the winner of the Queer Urban Orchestra’s 2017 Composition Competition. It was first performed in May 2017 in New York City at the Church of the Holy Apostles. The piece is the third movement of a three-movement tone poem called Out of the Rolling Ocean, the music being partly inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem of the same name.
Originally designed to be performed as a kind of flash-mob orchestra, the piece starts with one solo cello and slowly grows into a huge cacophony of sound, similar to the high tide rolling in.
Ipomoea Alba
Ipomoea Alba (2018) is a chamber piece written with the intention of using a variety of instruments from each family, while also using the least amount of melody. The piece is roughly 7 minutes long and consists on one long, drawn out melody that develops throughout the piece. The name Ipomoea Alba is the scientific name of the moonflower, a plant that only opens at night in the light of the moon, and closes in the early hours of the morning. The piece similarly starts very quiet and subdued, blossoms into a lush melody, then returns to its gentle drone to end the piece.
Waiting
for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
Waiting (2011) was first performed by the Zodiac Trio in February 2012 in Boston, MA. It jumps between a reflective drudging ostinato, and a harsh passionate expression. Written for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano, the piece offers familiar harmonies and dramatic changes.
Waiting
for Chamber Orchestra
In 2023, Bukowski reworked Waiting for chamber orchestra. The rework includes several new instruments and new harmonies. Instead of staying on a constant pedal tone, the bass shifts throughout the piece.
Apsis Crossing
Apsis Crossing (2024) is an example of Bukowski’s love of the natural world, and how it inspires the music he creates. The piece is written for full orchestra and performed in two movements. The movements are deliberately symmetrical, with the first, Approaching Perihelion, starting slow and etherial, and ending with a bombastic forceful energy. The second movement, Aphelion Wakes, starts loud and chaotic, and ends in a soft delicate space. The piece utilizes a celeste; while the instrument is not a frequent part of an orchestra’s instrumentation, it’s use in this piece helps to create the necessary juxtaposition against the orchestra’s full force at different points in the piece.
