Golden Sounds was commissioned by Margo Halsted, University Carillonist at UCSB 2008–2018, and Wesley Arai, University Carillonist at UCSB 2008–present, for the fiftieth anniversary of the sixty-one-bell carillon in Storke Tower at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The piece incorporates three themes associated with UCSB: the university motto, Fiat Lux "Let There Be Light," played for many years at ten minutes to the hour; the university hymn St. Anne "O God, Our Help in Ages Past"; and an excerpt from the university alma mater "Hail to California."

These musical references are mixed in with carillonic gestures and flourishes that include percussive chords, a "fan-shaped" glissando-like motive (scale passages beginning on one pitch and gradually widening), a "feathering" in which there is a gradual accelerando or ritard, repetitive patterns utilizing the various registers and dynamics of the instrument, and canonic treatment of the motives.

—Emma Lou Diemer