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Que No Se Diga

Dan Shaud (horn) & Aaron Trant (drums) perform the 1999 composition "no apologies necessary" (part 2 of 2) by Curtis K. Hughes
Recorded July 1999, Groton MA.

no apologies necessary [1999] - part 2 (of 2)

scraps for loadbang by Elena Doria Winell, text by Emily Dickinson. Performed at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Baltimore, MD on April 29th, 2025

Ty Bouque - baritone
Andy Kozar - Trumpet
Adrián Sandí - Bass Clarinet
William Lang - Trombone

This piece is about fragmentation. The poem is taken from Dickinson's collection of "envelope poems" which were literally scrawled in dull pencil on various scraps of papers and envelopes. Like most of her work, these poems did not see the light of day until after her death. The brief interjection comes from what began as my attempt at 'modernizing' the language of the poem, only retroactively realizing a) how pointless that is and b) how intensely I had projected my own immediate reality into this 'translation.'

scraps

This is My Scary Robot Voice by Kerrith Livengood

Composed for and commissioned by the junQtin keyboard collective, Microlocking explores groove based musical development as well as microtonality. This piece is composed for 6 digital pianos, three of which are tuned a quarter tone higher.

Microlocking

~ Drops ~ (2017)
for saxophone quartet

premiered by the 
Quartet Iberosudamericano

18th World Saxophone Congress
in ACADEMY OF MUSIC Fran Lhotka Hall

The piece was initially commissioned by the association "Friends for Music" of Venaria Reale and was presented in parts by the Vagues saxophone quartet, Toniro – Italy, September 23rd, 2017.

~ Drops ~ (2017), for saxophone quartet

Recording from reading session with the NEC Orchestra on April 29, 2019. Conducted by David Loebel.  

I’ve been trying to remember a lullaby my mother sang to me. Fragments of it would come and go for me.  The fragment that constantly haunted me was this perfect 5th interval that started and ended each line of the lullaby.  It was a such a distant memory that I wasn’t even sure it was my mother’s lullaby and I started thinking that it was something my mind created, maybe in a dream.  I started to believe this after I listened to hundreds of recordings of traditional Vietnamese lullabies and nothing clicked for me.  

Regardless, I decided to sing what I heard in my head on pure intuition, recorded it, and then notated it out on paper.  

I finally called my mom to ask about this lullaby and the most amazing thing happened when she sang it to me.  Not only were my contours correct, but I was also in the right key.  I don’t have perfect pitch.  

The process of discovering this lullaby deep in my subconscious was very humbling. It made me realize on a different level how much a mother’s love can imprint on someone. I know she spent hours singing that to me as a baby and to my little brother.  The words that go along with that perfect 5th interval is “À Ơi”, which means “listen, my child”.

In My Life There Is This Lullaby (2019) - for orchestra

loading screen dream

This piece was commissioned and recorded by Lee Hartman and the Mid America Freedom Band and I can't thank them enough for the time and energy they put into my work.

asphyxiating sky was premiered on Mar. 1, 2020 at the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO.


“asphyxiating sky” seeks to recreate the physical and emotional sensations of fading memories, past fears, & the horrors that humanity has and continues to inflict on itself.

When I was young, I would visit my great great-grandfather in hospice and he would entertain me with stories of his experiences during World War I. One story that often stands out in my mind is one of his accounts of fighting in the trenches, where they first came into contact with mustard gas being used as a weapon. Despite being mostly incoherent due to the drugs to keep him comfortable, he was incredibly lucid during his recount of the fear and helplessness of not being able to breathe.

The musical material of “asphyxiating sky” is based on three WWI era songs: “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier”, “The Rose of No Man’s Land” and “I May be Gone for a Long, Long Time”. After taking original recordings of these songs, I layered, time-stretched, and distorted them to create a sonic manifestation of a mustard gas cloud. The ensemble functions as a living, breathing, cloud of sound that is unrecognizable from its source, yet spiritually connected.

asphyxiating sky (2020)  - for wind ensemble

Piano: Me :)
Vibes: Dan Reifsteck 
Mixing/Mastering: Dan Reifsteck

my technology

www.stephenryanjackson.com

This is a small online portfolio of my music. I hope you enjoy it. My email is stephenjacksoncomposer@gmail.com if you have any questions,  commissions, performance requests etc. please feel free to contact me. I'm always happy to start another project or collaboration!

asphyxiating sky (2020) - for wind ensemble

Stephen Ryan Jackson

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