Tocsins, written in 2001, is the second of a series of five works for computer music on compact disk. Together, these works are concerned with establishing balance between pitched and non-pitched instruments within a broad, dynamic musical space. This concern further includes balances between taken freedoms and imposed restrictions; while the community of pitched and non-pitched instruments nurtures a diversity of harmonic and motivic activity, the rich timbral diversity may be overwhelming, requiring structural and temporal provisions within which this diversity may nest and flower.

The musical character of Tocsins confronts these concerns with impatience, sometimes offering brazen objections to the pace of the work, sometimes affording displacement of the perceived tempo.

Tocsins was written using Barry Vercoe's Csound.