Compositions

Steven has composed for ensembles of all sizes.  Below is a list of compositions for Chamber Ensembles, Large Ensembles, and Keyboard.

Composition Index by Genre

Art Songs

• • "All Our Stories," from Confluence (a collaboration with the Composers' Collective of Vancouver, BC, Voice, Flute, & Piano, 2012)

  • American Fragments (from the poetry of Sandburg and Dickinson, for soprano & piano, 2016)

    • An Hour is a Sea

    • Under the Harvest Moon

    • I am afraid to own a body

    • Dying at my music!

    • Two

  • "Baltic Fog Notes" (poem by Carl Sandburg, for soprano & piano)

  • "Black Riders" - 5 songs from the poetry of Stephen Crane (for voice and piano, 2019)

    • Black riders

    • Mystic shadow

    • Three little birds

    • Places among the stars

    • I saw a man pursuing the horizon

  • "Confessions" - 5 songs from the poetry of Amy Lowell and Walt Whitman (for Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano [3 songs], Baritone/Tenor [2 songs] & piano, 2018)

    • Opal

    • June

    • Aubade

    • To a Stranger

    • Venus Transiens

  • Five Children's Songs (for voice, piano, and plucked piano strings OR voice, piano, bongos, and glockenspiel, 2019)

    • Twinkle, Twinkle

    • Little Star

    • Do you know?

    • Jack fell down

    • Are you sleeping, Frère Jacques?

  • Five Norwegian Songs (for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, & Piano, 2010) -Recording-

  • Five Sombre Songs (for Soprano & Piano, 2011) -Recording 1-   -Recording 2-

  • "Human Nature" (for soprano & piano, A collaboration with the poet Val Mallinson, 2017) -Recordings-

    • Saltwater Heart

    • Leave No Trace

    • Way Finding

  • I Call to the Earth and Sea - Four Songs from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass (for Soprano & Piano, 2013)                                          -Recording 1-         -Recording 2-          -Recording 3-

    • You Sea!

    • Twenty-Eight

    • Night

    • Immortality

  • "Nuit Blanche" - Three songs inspired by French poetry (for Soprano & Piano, 2018)

    • The house should be full of roses

    • Dance the Jig

    • Nuit Blanche

  • Obstfelder Songs - Four songs in Norwegian with poetry by Sigbjørn Obstfelder (for Soprano & Piano, 2018)

    • Eva

    • Kan Speilet Tale

    • Regn

    • Psalme

  • "Precipitations" - Nine songs to poetry by Evelyn Scott (2021)

    • Isolation Ward

    • Tropical Life

    • Interlude

    • The Assumption of Columbine

    • The Naiad

    • Snow Dance

    • Precipitations

    • Destiny

    • To a Sick Child

  • "Resistance" - Five songs to poetry by Joanne Kennedy Frazer (for Soprano & Piano, 2018)

    • Work

    • Tweet, tweet, tweet

    • Communion

    • A would-be prophet

    • Re-visioning

  • Sandburg Songs (ongoing project, begun in 2016)

  • "Sea Songs" (Five songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, 2019) (Text by Fearnside, Jeffers, St. Vincent Millay, Teasdale, and Sandburg)

    • On Christmas Eve

    • Ebb-Tide

    • Low Tide

    • Peace

    • Sea-Wash

  • "Skovvise" (for Soprano and Piano, text by Sigbjørn Obstfelder, 2023)

  • "Smoke and Steel" (Four songs with poetry by Carl Sandburg, for Soprano & piano)

    • Prayers of Steel

    • Monotone

    • Stars, songs, faces

    • Valley Song

  • "Solveig's Song" (for Mezzo-Soprano & Piano, 2011)

  • "Song Offerings" (five songs for unaccompanied treble voice with text by Rabindranath Tagore, 2020)

    • Pilgrimage

    • The Wall

    • Sleep

    • Night

    • Light

  • "There Will Come Soft Rains" (poem by Sara Teasdale, for Mezzo-Soprano & Piano, 2018)

  • Three Biblical Songs (for Soprano & Piano, 2008) -Recording-

  • Three Folk Songs of the Pacific Northwest (for voice & piano, 2016)

    • Seattle Illahee

    • The Girl with the Striped Stockings On

    • The Old Settler

  • Three Norwegian Songs (for Soprano & Piano, 2015)

    • Holder du af mig

    • Diset Kvæld

    • Det første møde

  • "We Wear the Mask" - Four songs from the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (for Mezzo-Soprano & Piano, 2018)

    • We Wear the Mask

    • Theology

    • Curtain

    • In Summer

  • Whitman Songs (ongoing project, begun in 2016)

Mixed Chamber Ensembles

• • Canzonetta (for Viola and Bassoon, 2016)

  • Ceremony (for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and French Horn, 2019)

  • Four Dances (for Flute, Violin, Viola, & Piano, 2008)  -Recording-

  • Norwegian Rhapsody (for Violin, Viola, & Piano, 2020 - Commissioned by the National Nordic Museum)

  • Remembrance (Trio for Oboe, Viola, & Piano, 2018) -Recording-

  • Rite (for Flute, Viola, & Harp, 2011)  -Recording-

Strings

• • Dance for Viola and Piano (2015) -Recording-

  • Elegy for String Sextet (2008) -Recording-

  • Fantasy for Viola and Piano (2009)  -Recording-

  • Folk Dances for Solo Viola (2012)

  • Intermezzo for Viola and Piano (2014) -Recording-

  • Sacred Suite (for Viola and Piano, 2016) -Recording-

  • String Quartet (2012)

Winds

• • Brass Quartet (2011)

  • Ceremony (for Flute, Alto Saxophone, and Horn, 2019) -Recording-

  • Four Pieces (for Flute & Piano, 2009)  -Recording-

  • Five Impromptus (for Solo Flute, 2014)

  • Melodious Fragments (for Oboe & Viola, 2017)

  • Northwest Coast Pictures (for two Flutes, 2017)

  • Prayer (for Flute & Piano, 2012) -Recording-

  • Prelude (for Flute Choir, 2013) -Recording-

  • Suite for Flute and Piano (2014) -Recording-

  • Sax Quartet (2011)

  • Sonata for Oboe and Piano (2016) -Recording-

  • Wind Quintet (2010)

Handbells

• • Campanile - Surround Sound Etude for Handbell or Handchime choir

  • Introit & Prayer - "Many and Great, O God" (for 4 handbell ringers and piano, 2017)

  • Lament (Commissioned by the ringers of Des Moines United Methodist Church, 2017)

  • Prelude - Now the Green Blade Riseth (Commissioned by the ringers of Des Moines United Methodist Church, 2015)

  • Winter Rose (for Handbell Soloist) (2016)

Large Ensemble Compositions

• Wind Ensemble

  • Lament (2011) -Recording-

  • March, Melody, & Jig (2006)

• Orchestra

  • Dark Dances (2011)

Keyboard Music

• Air and Ground Dance for solo organ (2016) -Recording-

• Etude for solo harpsichord (2019)

• Meditations on American Hymn Tunes (2016)

• Over 80 pieces for solo piano

• Nocturne (2008) -Recording-

• Rhythmic Suite (2010)

• Suite of Primitive Dances (2007)

• Suite Parisienne (2008)