D. Lee Jackson

New Music for Alto Clarinet Released!

Posted on 2025-04-05 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

ClarinetAndMusic Yet another new piece of music has hit the shelves around here! While self-published this time, it’s no less worthy than the last release about which I wrote. This release is for solo Alto Clarinet with Piano accompaniment, and it’s titled, “3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet.” As you can tell from the title, it has three movements, and it clocks in at just under 10 minutes’ worth of playing time.

The first movement is a standard opener in the classical style. It’s followed by a rondo-esque slow movement in the relative minor key. The finale is a dance in 6/8 time that one listener said had a bit of a “Celtic” sound to it.

I chose the Alto Clarinet for my first foray into instrumental solo works for three reasons. First, there are too few works written for the instrument. Second, I played a bit of Alto Clarinet back during my time at the University of Texas at Austin, and I enjoyed the experience immensely. Finally, I simply got the inspiration to write for it.

I’ve uploaded the music to both SoundCloud and to YouTube (with scrolling score for the latter), and I’ve posted it on my slowly growing page on the Wind Repertory Project . If you like what you hear and want to play it yourself, please grab a copy from the J.W. Pepper “My Score” catalog of my works! Simply click on the link and you’ll be taken to that page:

Published At Last – Real-World Music!

Posted on 2025-03-18 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

hand yes It only took me 61 years, but I am at last a published composer of a real-world music composition! Mark the date of Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, because on that day, the International Horn Society put my work for Horn Sextet, “Bohemian Galop,” up for sale on their Online Music Sales portal. You don’t know how my brain is jumping for joy, where my body cannot.

Here’s the portal link to “Bohemian Galop,” if you wish to purchase a copy. A PDF download of the full score and all six parts costs just $15.00 USD. Buy your copy, download it, print it out, and perform it today! Just click on the picture of the score cover page below to go there now:

(Note: At the time of publication of this post, there was not a listening preview available on the “Bohemian Galop” listing page. So, for now, here is a link to the YouTube recording of the work.)

Now, if you haven’t followed my posts on social media, the story behind “Bohemian Galop” begins with a competition. I wrote it as an entry for the 2024 Southeast Horn Workshop Horn Ensemble Competition Contest. Needless to say, it didn’t win, or you would have heard of that glorious triumph here. Anyway, I posted a recording of it on my YouTube channel and on my MyScore catalog. It got just over 500 views on YouTube, but alas, no sales through MyScore.

A bit later on, some random web browsing and serendipitous Google® searching brought me to the pages of the International Horn Society. I sent the head of their Online Music Sales portal an email, and eventually they replied with a statement of intent to publish my work! One thing led to another, until on Thursday, February 20th, 2025, we jointly signed a Publishing Agreement! Of course, I’m simplifying our relationship a bit, but those are the important parts. Of course, the story ends with today, and publication of the work.

Believe it or not, this is my first published “real-world” work, with “real-world” meaning “playable by real, live musicians.” (“Grabbag” doesn’t count, since it wasn’t written for a live band in the first place.) Until this piece, I have never had a work for traditional instruments published before. I hope it’s not my last. 🙂

New Music – “Fantasias on a Hillside Theme”

Posted on 2025-01-27 Written by D. Lee Jackson 2 Comments

Hillside It’s been a while since my last post here, and for that I apologize. A lot has happened. I’ve had to deal with illness, including problems with my replacement knee, as well as other things that you just don’t want to hear about. So, we’ll leave those behind for now and get on with things that you do want to hear about, like new music.

I have completed a new work of music for concert band which I would like to share with you today. That piece is titled, “Fantasias on a Hillside Theme,” and it is put together in a three-movement format (a “Theme and 1st Fantasia” movement, a “2nd Fantasia,” and a “3rd Fantasia and Finale” movement). The whole thing runs about 13 1/2 minutes long, and would be ranked as probably a Grade 4 on the grade school band difficulty scale.

You can listen to a recording of the work at this YouTube link:
“Fantasias on a Hillside Theme“

Despite the English-sounding title, there is nothing British behind the origin of “Fantasias on a Hillside Theme.” Instead, I pictured some of the better memories of my youth when I devised the theme for this work, and those memories usually happened when I was in the company of my grandparents, who usually lived in properties on the side of a hill: their home on Frazier Avenue in Austin, Texas, or their lakeside property near Lake Travis in Spicewood, Texas.

With some nice imaginative scoring touches and musical invention, I found this to be quite enjoyable and engaging even though I’m not that into band music. Good job Lee.
– Mike Hewer, Award-Winning British Composer, on hearing
“Fantasias on a Hillside Theme” (from the TalkClassical forums)

A couple of things about the video: first, I apologize for the score being so small. It’s done at 11″ x 17″ tabloid format, which is very hard to squeeze into a video frame. Second, as you may be able to guess, it is not a live recording. I enlisted the aid of the players of the New West Synthetic Wind Ensemble, provided courtesy of NotePerformer and the Steinberg Dorico Pro application, all of whom went beyond their runtime to bring your this realization of the piece. 🙂 Finally, at the 11:54 mark (during the Finale), there is a “glitch” in the recording, for which I apologize. I tried to fix it, but I could not. Please ignore it if you can.

I hope you will enjoy listening to my music. If you are in the concert band line of work and would like to perform it, please contact me so that we can work out the details. Thank you for stopping by!

Goodbye Cakewalk, Hello Cubase

Posted on 2024-09-08 Written by D. Lee Jackson 1 Comment

I have been a user of Cakewalk Music MIDI writing software for many, many years now, since Cakewalk for Windows 2.0 was released back in the early 1990s. I’ve stuck with them through renamings and reorganizations, but no more. At long last, after almost 30 years, I am making the switch away from Cakewalk to Steinberg‘s Cubase Pro for Windows 13.

I purchased my copy of Cubase Pro yesterday and installed it on my laptop. My reasons were many. First, BandLab, the company now controlling Cakewalk (now known as Cakewalk Sonar), has refused to separate the license of Cakewalk from BandLab membership. I have no desire to join whatever “Social Music Creation Network” that BandLab is trying to put together. I just want to make music without additional terms added onto the software I’m using to make it.

Second, BandLab membership is a subscription that runs $149.50 every year (it’s on sale as I write this, but it likely won’t be on sale as you read this). So, every year, you’ll have to renew your membership in order to keep it (and your copy of Cakewalk Sonar)) active. I don’t want to do that.

Third, I’ve picked up on using Steinberg’s Dorico Pro for Windows 5 lately. I appreciate the level of support I’m getting from the company – it’s better than what I used to get through the Cakewalk channels, relatively speaking.

So, I am switching to Cubase Pro. The main reasons begin with the license. It’s not a subscription, and it’s not linked to any other product as Cakewalk Sonar is. I managed to get a full, non-subscription, non-crossgrade copy for just a hair over $180, thanks to a “40th anniversary discount” plus a “loyalty discount” for owning Dorico and Wavelab. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I feel that Cubase Prowill have better support than Cakewalk Sonar does, based on what I’ve been able to get for my copies of Dorico and Wavelab lately. Last, I see Steinberg finally headed in a strong, positive direction, after many years of reports of negative reviews. The changes to their licensing system to allow copies to be used on multiple home systems was one of the final things that pushed me in Steinberg’s, and in Cubase Pro’s, favor.

I realize I’m going to face a lot of negativity from the Cakewalk community for making the switch. I’m sorry, but I had to make a move, and I think I made the right one for me. I want to thank you for all of the help you’ve given me through the years. Bob Bergen, Mike Enjo, Scott Garrigus, Tony Giannelli, and J. Chewii Wookiee Smith, not to mention Greg Hendershott and a bunch of others I’ve forgotten through the years (my mind isn’t what it once was, thanks to the TIA I had in December of ’23) – I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, whether you realize you’ve done it or not. Thank you all very much for everything. I hope we can all remain at least acquaintances, perhaps even friends.

In the meanwhile, I hope I’ll be making some new friends rather quickly in Cubase Land. I’ve already made several acquaintances in the Continent of Steinberg, mainly in the Dorico Land, since that’s where I spend most of my time nowadays. I assume that Cubase Pro is going to have a hell of a learning curve, so friendship-making is going to be s prerequisite to any of my online studies of it. All I ask is for someone to help guide me through the gloom of night and the jungles of the day so that I may learn how to use this powerful piece of software to its fullest.

Here’s to the future, then. I hope it’s a fun one.