Compositions

• • "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

  • "Irradiations" - Three songs to poetry by J G Fletcher

    • Irradiations XXIV (All you stars up yonder)

    • Irradiations XX (I dance, I exist in motion)

    • Irradiations XXXV (What weave you, what spin you?)

  • "July Midnight" (Poem by Amy Lowell, 2022)

  • "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

The poetry of Carl Sandburg continues to inspire Steven to compose.  He has set the following poems to music, and they may be performed in various combinations (as song cycles) or individually.

• • • Baltic Fog Notes

    • Between Two Hills

    • Bringers

    • Flux

    • From the Shore (for voice & flute)

    • Grieg Being Dead

    • Have Me

    • Monotone

    • My People

    • Prayers of Steel

    • Sea-Wash

    • Stars, songs, faces

    • Summer Stars

    • Swirl

    • Two

    • Under the Harvest Moon

    • Valley Song

  • "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" (Five songs to poetry by Carl Sandburg, for Soprano & piano)

    • Under the Harvest Moon

    • 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

  • Teasdale Songs

    • A December Day

    • Other Men

    • Peace

    • There Will Come Soft Rains

    • Tides

    • When I am with you

    • The Years

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

    • Lament

    • Song

    • Revelation

  • 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)

• Over 80 pieces for solo piano

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

• Etude for solo harpsichord (2019)

• Meditations on American Hymn Tunes (2016)

• Nocturne (2008) -Recording-

• Rhythmic Suite (2010)

• Suite of Primitive Dances (2007)

• Suite Parisienne (2008)

• • 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) (Recording)

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

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

• Valparaiso (for mezzo-soprano, soprano, two baritones, and piano - Composed 2023, Premiered March 2024)  

See the Valparaiso page for more info!

•  F. Melius Christiansen: Lullaby on Christmas Eve (for voice, viola, & piano - 2020)

• Edvard Grieg: Bergliot (New English Translation - 2023) (Recording)

• Edvard Grieg: Der Skreg en Fugl (for voice, flute, & piano - 2023)

• Edvard Grieg: Foran Sydens Kloster (for 11 piece orchestra [fl/ob/cl/bn/hn/pno/vln/vln/vla/vlc/cb] with soprano and alto soloists and treble chorus - 2023) (Recording) 

• Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite, op. 40 (for vln/vln/vla/vlc/cb/pno - 2024)

• Edvard Grieg: Jeg Elsker Dig (for voice, flute & piano - 2023)

• Alf Hurum: Ave Maria (from Lilja) (for soprano & piano - 2023)

• Laura Netzel: Three Songs (For soprano & string quartet - 2023)

  • Fjäriln

  • Din frid, var han en drömgestalt? (Recording)

  • Om min tanke långt från gruset (Recording)

• • 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)

• • 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)

Wind Ensemble

• • Lament (2011) -Recording-

  • March, Melody, & Jig (2006)

Orchestra

• • Dark Dances (2011)