Tag: composing

Song Renamed – “Elegy 137”

Posted on 2026-04-07 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

RTFM I received some good advice from someone about my “Central Texas Elegy” work. Basically, they said I was doing the piece no favors by giving it the title I’d given it. In their opinion, I was limiting its appeal by calling it “Central Texas” anything.

I agreed. As a result, “Central Texas Elegy” is dead. Long live “Elegy 137.”

Those of you who have read the former’s informational posts will recognize the meaning of the new name instantly. The “137” part is a direct reference to the current number of lives known to be lost to the Central Texas flooding of the July 4th weekend of 2025. So, you see, I haven’t changed the song’s reason for being. I’ve only changed its name.

I welcome discussion of this in the comments. Thank you for reading this.

New Concert Band Work – “Central Texas Elegy”

Posted on 2026-02-18 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Floodwaters Over the weekend of the Fourth of July, 2025, as much as 20 inches of rain fell in parts of Central Texas in just a matter of hours. This triggered some of the worst flooding ever seen in the area, causing catastrophic damage and massive loss of life. At last count, 137 people had lost their lives in the flooding, with at least 2 people still reported missing.

Shortly after the disaster, I began work on a piece of music for concert band dedicated to the memory of those who were lost. It took a lot of starts and stops, writes and rewrites, and just plain-old, heavy duty, back burner contemplation to get it to a point where I felt it was ready to be released to the public. Finally, on the 15th of February, 2026, I uploaded a Dorico Pro / NotePerformer rendition of the work to my YouTube channel. It took a further 3 days for me to finish the proofreading of the score and parts so that I could make this post to my personal website. It had a name by now as well – “Central Texas Elegy.”

If you would like to hear “Central Texas Elegy,” either click here or click on the marked image (at the right side of this article, if you’re visiting using a full-blown computer). You’ll be taken to the page on my YouTube channel for the song. Once you’ve listened to the piece, I’d appreciate it very much if you’d “like” the video, “subscribe” to my channel, and then leave a comment at the bottom of the page to let me know what you thought of the work.

You can also go to an audio-only page for “Central Texas Elegy” thanks to the miracle of SoundCloud. Simply click here to be taken to that page.

Another thing, if you’re able: please take a moment to make a donation to the Central Texas Flood Recovery Fund. The people affected by the flood are still trying to rebuild, and they can use all the help they can get. A donation today could help them get back on their feet tomorrow, so please give if you can. Your support would be most appreciated.

https://www.rebuildtx.org/fund/central-texas-flood-recovery

One final note: if you represent a concert band, wind ensemble, or other group that could play “Central Texas Elegy” and might be interested in doing so, please contact me ASAP via the Contact Page of this website. I’ll get back in touch with you to work things out as soon as I can. Thank you in advance for your interest!

Major Publication Development!

Posted on 2026-01-19 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

A major musical event took place for me over this past weekend (January 17th-18th, 2026). I’d been waiting for word from Cimarron Music Press regarding several works which I’d submitted for their consideration of publication. As it turns out, I got the word on every one of my works all at once, and wouldn’t you know it – the word was YES!!! I could barely believe my eyes. I’d sent in seven (7) works, and every last one of them was approved for publication!

After years of rejection and disappointment, I now know the joy of acceptance and approval. I’m wearing a nearly unerasable inner smile at the moment, and I’m guessing it’ll be there for a while. This was some seriously good news, and I hate to imagine what it’d take to knock the smile off of my face.

For those of you keeping count, here are the works that were approved:

November Duet (Bassoon and F Horn version)
November Duet (Tuba and F Horn version)
November Duet (2 F Horns version)
Solo No. 2 (for Alto Clarinet and Piano)
Woodwind Quintet No. 1
Woodwind Quintet No. 3 (“Black Mesa”)
Woodwind Quintet No. 4

As a bonus, Cimarron also put the score and parts online to my Euphonium quartet arrangement of the end of the 2nd Movement of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6. It’s linked from my Cimarron aggregator page, and will be joined by the rest of the above works soon after they go online.

Folks, I am as stoked as a person can be right now! My thanks go out to Cimarron Music Press and its owner, Mr. Bryan Doughty, for working so diligently with me on these pieces. Here’s a glass raised to many more to come!

Traditionally Published, At Long Last!

Posted on 2025-09-04 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, in March, actually, I proclaimed that after 61 long years, I was finally a published composer of real-world music. While technically true, there was just one shortfall to that statement: I wasn’t traditionally published. I was only published in the digital realm, my distribution being that of PDFs only.

This is no longer the case. As of Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025, I have signed a contract with Cimarron Music Press to have fully traditionally published not one, not two, but SIX (6) of my chamber works for winds in the near future, as soon as program notes are ready for them. They will not only be offering PDFs, but printed copies by way of brick-and-mortar stores where such items are still stocked. This is a major development for me, one I’ve been looking forward to for years. Seriously.

Here are the pieces that Cimarron Music Press will be publishing, together with their YouTube links:

3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet – https://youtu.be/fduLR9Gkymk
3 Short Pieces for Bb Clarinet – https://youtu.be/Do6bhxWJ5Ts
Crosswise Dance for Low Clarinet Choir – https://youtu.be/1RIjI1b7SMY
Fanfare and Processions for Brass Quintet – https://youtu.be/zO3R3CXwvEk
Interweave (for mixed brass & woodwind septet) – https://youtu.be/EP7nfgp-bx8
Theme and Tangents (for woodwind quintet) – https://youtu.be/DmQaJ2VT3o4

Things have just gotten off the ground, so as of now these five works have been removed from publication on the self-publishing sites (i.e., My Score, ArrangeMe.com, and ScoreExchange.com). I’ll post another update with information on how to purchase the new versions once they’ve been commercially published.

I want to express my thanks to company owner Bryan Doughty for all of the help he gave me during the contracting period. There’s an interesting story that covers that timeframe, I must admit. It started with someone announcing on Facebook that they’d received a contract from Cimarron Music Press to publish their clarinet composition. I looked up Cimarron and saw that they had a lot of clarinet works in their catalog, specifically works for clarinet choir, so I thought there might be a chance at my getting “Crosswise Dance” published through them.

There was no link for submissions on any of Cimarron’s web pages, so I took a chance and used their Contact form to ask for instructions on how to submit a piece, thinking I’d get my email routed to the right department. What ensued was a reply from the owner of the company (Bryan Doughty), who said he’d be interested in hearing what I had to submit, and who gave me instructions on what to submit (PDF, MP3, notation program file (in my case a .dorico file)). I figured I was safe in that I had everything submitted for copyright protection, so I went ahead and submitted.

One short day later, I received the following email:

Cimarron Music Press would love to publish. What a great chart! Attached is a contract to look over, sign and return. Email is easiest. PLEASE ask any questions.

I was stunned! An acceptance letter, and so quickly! My experience with publishers had always been slow, even with the one acceptance I’d had previously, so this was a shock to the system. Of course, I had a lot of questions for Mr. Doughty, and he patiently answered each and every one.

At one point, I asked him if he might be interested in some of my other works. I directed him toward my Score Exchange listing to browse what else I’d written. He came back and said he might be interested in my chamber works, so I put together some evaluation packages. He eventually accepted “3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet,” “Interweave,” and “Theme and Tangents” out of what I did submit. I asked if he’d also want to include the companion piece, “3 Short Pieces for Bb Clarinet,” and he agreed to do so.

So, in the end, I was looking at five pieces to be published through Cimarron Music Press, all on a single contract! I signed it on Wednesday the 3rd of September, as I mentioned earlier. A sixth piece, “Fanfare and Processions for Brass Quintet,” was added shortly afterward. The contract terms, while I won’t go into them here, are good, and I’m happy with them. I’m hoping that this is just the beginning of my relationship with Cimarron, since I’ve got more finished music for Mr. Doughty to look at, and even more under construction for Cimarron to see in the future.