Tag: YouTube

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’ll Be G-ing You

Posted on 2024-07-28 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

trebleclef Some learned colleagues in the Facebook Concert Band Orchestration group have shown me the light of day, as it were. I’ve been carrying the torch for a straight transcription of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 in A Major from orchestra to band without a key change, thinking that any such change away from A Major would be “dumbing it down.” Turns out I’ve been shooting myself in the foot. The key of A Major is so hard for some instruments, especially Eb instruments like saxes, that it’s nearly impossible to play for all but the most professional of ensembles. I’ve been limiting the number of ensembles that could perform my arrangement. This was made quite evident when I made a copy of the score of the 1st movement available for review.

I have since transposed my arrangement into the key of G Major. This retains some of the feel of the A Major original, yet cuts down on the number of sharps in the key signature for everyone. As a result, it should open up the arrangement for more ensembles to be able to play it.

Here’s the YouTube link where you can listen to the two versions back to back and compare them:

A Major Version: https://youtu.be/bGvums5A6jg
G Major Version: https://youtu.be/S5E2X2x6TIs

If you have an ensemble and wish to perform this movement, please contact me and I’ll get a score out to you ASAP. Thanks for listening!

At Last, Bruckner Symphony No. 6 is Finished!

Posted on 2024-04-15 Written by D. Lee Jackson Leave a Comment

Bruckner Symphony No. 6 Movement 4 Cover It took a very long time – from August 2023 to the present, in fact – but at long last, my arrangement for concert band / wind ensemble of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 in A Major is finished. I’ve put it through the proofreading wringer several times, just to be on the safe side, and I’ve done the musical equivalent of dotting all of the Is and crossing all of the Ts. Everything is as tidy as I can possibly get it, so I’m calling it done.

For any of you who might be reading this with a possible interest toward performing it with an ensemble, but you’re not sure if you can commit to taking on a full four-movement Bruckner symphony, worry not. I have divided the movements into four separate score-and-parts sets. You can try just one, or you can go for the whole package. It’s your choice.

Naturally, I’ve put demo recordings of the individual movements online, this time on YouTube. I’ve also put up a Playlist with links to all four movements, in case you’d like to listen to the symphony in the traditional manner. Here are the links to the videos:

Movement One
Movement Two
Movement Three
Movement Four

Playlist Link (all four movements)

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you are interested, or if you just have feedback on the movements. I’m waiting eagerly to hear from you. Thank you!

Contact page – https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/contact