Category: composing

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!

I’ve Joined the Knee-dy Once Again

Posted on 2024-08-30 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Let Knee Encircled I could have started off this post with a much larger and more gruesome photo post. Be glad that I did not. [shudder]

I had Exploratory Knee Surgery on this past Tuesday. It wasn’t much fun on its own, but with my wife there to keep me company (and some VERY, VERY strong post-op drugs), I had some fun. That, plus the fun of meeting nurses, doctors, and lab techs that I’d met from previous admissions, and we all had a good lime. I got to tell them about the works I have up on my MyScore account (also loacted at this link, but with score previews and full audio previews online), and I got to play one or two of the latest arrangements I’ve done since April (e.g., Bruckner’s 2nd, 1st Movement).

In any event, the surgery went well as far as I can tell, and the post-operative period is going about the same. I had a goodly about of bleeding into what I’m calling my “blood grenade” (it’s a vacuum pump that’s shaped like an American M26 grenade). I didn’t experience any swelling that I’m aware of this time, so that’s good. My next appointment is in 2 weeks, so we’ll see what happens then.

Now, to cease the medical droning (I know, I know), In addition to what’s been going on with Bruckner’s 2nd, 1st Movement, I’m working on his 2nd movement now, as well! I’m also looking for someone, ANYONE, who could bring me a working cover version of any of the songs on my Calibrations album, with the exceptions of Spicewood (track 12), and the two speech-only tracks in tracks 13 and 14. Only one track entry per true name or synonym, so don’t go off and fire me 20,000 tracks from 20,000 proxies. We *will* check you out.

With that said, have fun, and good luck! I hope you’ll enter. The entry deadline is September 30, 2024.