Tag: music

New Music Premiere at ClarinetFest 2025!

Posted on 2025-07-08 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Clarinets One major problem I’ve faced in my classical music writing endeavors is the problem of getting my music performed. For one work, that will hopefully come to an end this Sunday, July 13th, 2025. You see, I’ve written a little ditty called “Crosswise Dance for Low Clarinet Choir,” and it’s scheduled to get its premiere during a workshop that’s part of the International Clarinet Association‘s ClarinetFest 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas.

I wrote the piece over the course of two days, more or less, after Mr. Bret Newton put out a call for assistance for Texas-related low-clarinet works for a reading workshop he would be leading at ClarinetFest. At first, I offered up “3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet,” but he said he was looking for something for a low clarinet choir. So, I fired up Dorico Pro, and the inspiration hit me. I sent him the work, and he said yes, but asked if I could add parts for Basset Horn and Contra-Alto Clarinet (those were missing from the original). That took less than 2 hours. Finished piece handed off.

I’ve applied for comp tickets for myself and Brenda for the event. All we’re supposed to do is show up at registration and pick them up. There won’t be an official recording made, but I’ve got a piece of software on my phone which will let me record 48KHz WAVs. I just wish it would do 24 bits.

The event is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. through 12:30 p.m. Central Time, in Ballroom 5. If you’re going to ClarinetFest 2025, please come by and check it out – it’s listed in the schedule as the Voces Grandes y Bajas Low Clarinet Choir Reading Session. In the meantime, if you’d like to perform the work yourself, it’s available for purchase from Sheet Music Plus and Sheet Music Direct.

New Album Out – “Going Big”

Posted on 2025-06-04 Written by D. Lee Jackson 1 Comment

Going Big album cover It’s been a long time since I released an album, so forgive me if I’m a bit rusty with the release announcement particulars. Here we go!

I’ve released a new album called “Going Big,” available on Bandcamp! It’s got seven tracks of my bigger works, by various definitions of the word. Some of them are for big ensembles, some are just long works, and others are simply big in scope. The running time is approximately 1 hour and 7 minutes, so you definitely get your money’s worth.

Speaking of money, the album costs just $9 USD. That’s cheap at twice the price! Downloads are available in 48KHz/24-bit WAV, FLAC, or ALAC, or you can get smaller MP3 files if you prefer.

As a bonus for buying the album, you get a free PDF full of liner notes with details about each track. I go in depth into the background of each composition. It’s a great value for your money!

Please do me two favors: buy a copy today, and then spread the word about the album. I’d appreciate it very much! Thank you! Once again, here’s the link:

https://leejackson1.bandcamp.com/album/going-big

More Music on “My Score” Store!

Posted on 2025-04-27 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Lighted Score with Piano Keyboard Over the past month or so, a few kind people finally noticed that my wind music is online for immediate purchase from the J.W. Pepper “My Score” online store. I’ve sold a couple of copies of my new solo work, “3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet,” and a copy of my brass sextet, “Fanfare and Processions for Brass Sextet.” This is wonderful news. There are other works available on my catalog which have not yet sold, however, so I’d like to take a moment to let you know about what’s up there on the site.

I have a total of eight works available for purchase on “My Score.” Three of them are works for Concert Band. These are as follows:

Fantasias on a Hillside Theme (original work)
Prelude No. 7 in Eb Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (by J.S. Bach, arr. Lee Jackson)
Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, 1st Movement (by Anton Bruckner, arr. Lee Jackson)

(You may wonder what happened to my arrangement of Bruckner’s 6th Symphony. I’m revising it, so I took it down temporarily.)

The remaining five works are for solo and ensemble performances, and are all original compositions. Here they are:

3 Short Pieces for Alto Clarinet (Alto Clarinet solo w/Piano accompaniment)
Fanfare and Processions for Brass Sextet (2 Bb Trumpets, F Horn, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba)
Woodwind Quintet No. 1 (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, F Horn, Bassoon)
Theme and Tangents (Flute, Oboe, Bb Clarinet, F Horn, Bassoon)
Interweave (Flute, Bb Clarinet, Bass Clarinet with C-extension, Bassoon, C Trumpet (alt. Bb Trumpet part provided), F Horn, Trombone)

All of these works are available for either hardcopy purchase or instant PDF download purchase. If you order the “regular” version that ships from J.W. Pepper, they will custom-print a full copy of the score and parts and send it out to you ASAP. If you choose the “ePrint” option, you will be given PDFs of the score and parts to download instantly upon clearing of your payment. (All of the purchases that have been made from my catalog so far have used the “ePrint” option.)

If I’ve piqued your interest by now and you’d like to see my catalog for yourself on “My Score,” all you have to do is click on the following button! It’ll open up the site in a new tab for you:

Click for the “My Score” catalog!

While I’ve got your attention, I have one other work available that isn’t listed on “My Score.” That would be my piece for horn sextet, “Bohemian Galop,” which is published through the International Horn Society’s Online Music Store. For more information on “Bohemian Galop,” please see my previous post about it.

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: