This song is about love that sends you "head over heels," that "throws you for a loop," where the sense of what is up or down is blurred and you feel a weightlessness, a lack of gravity almost. So the banner image shows space, a place where up and down don't exist in the same way

Even though there are lyrics for this song, this recording happened late one night, in just single takes, through my iPhone headset. I recorded it when my young nephew was visiting, asleep in the nearby room and I didn't want to wake him up. When I listened back after laying down a few tracks, I liked how it felt joyful and simple with just the layered humming voices and rhythmic clapping. So I went with it.

Head Over Heels

This piece, for 4 percussionists on 2 marimbas, gets musical layers grooving, inspired by the technique of sampling and by the idea of the composer as DJ. Its rhythmic foundation is found in “Don’t Stop the Music,” which sampled the line “mamase mamasa mamakusa” from Michael Jackson’s “Wanna be Startin’ Somethin,'” which originated in Manu Dibango's 1973 "Soul Makossa." A rhythmic ostinato begins in the lower register of Marimba 1. Each player is given a musical line to state, then these lines are layered and gradually saturated with sixteenth-notes. Once this process has run its course, the piece spins itself out.

Mamase - Mamasa - Mamarimba

This piece takes inspiration from the “American” sound of the mid-Twentieth Century. Much of Part II was influenced by motion, written while driving or running. The main theme (played by the flutes) lent itself to be paired with musical quotation. The original melody and the quoted material are primarily structured through a process of layering. The use of imitation creates an element of playfulness. The piece closes in a manner similar to its opening, yet instead of just one theme being played, each main theme is stated simultaneously.

Matt Braun, Haley Schwalbe: Flutes;
Eleanor Weigert, Clarinet;
Gabe Stevens, Piano;
Elba Paloma Garcia, Violin;
Ross Casey, Viola;
Ben Coyte, Cello;
Glenn Llorente, Conductor

Wagon Wheel Part II

Wagon Wheel takes inspiration from the “American” sound of the mid-Twentieth Century with a main theme that calls for the use of two flutes. The slow pace of Part I is later balanced by the vitality of Part II.

Matt Braun, Haley Schwalbe: Flutes;
Eleanor Weigert, Clarinet;
Gabe Stevens, Piano;
Elba Paloma Garcia, Violin;
Ross Casey, Viola;
Ben Coyte, Cello;
Glenn Llorente, Conductor

Wagon Wheel Part I

This neo-impressionist piece uses the concept of sound existing in space-time as inspiration for its meterless and measureless music. It is an exploration of how sound exists in physical space; how sound lingers in our multi-dimensional world. The music is not just in the notes as they are being played but also in the lingering resonance after the instruments have stopped playing.

Darryl Black, Violin
Jessica Cheng, Piano

Flying Makes The Ocean Deeper

With soaring and yearning melodies, this piece expresses ideas centered on togetherness, separation, and other ideas the title suggests. It calls on the clarinet and violin to play characters. It opens as the piano creates sonic space into which the clarinet’s sound grows. The intervals of the octave and ninth help to form the main theme, one filled with a sense of longing, of yearning. The violin enters quietly, not yet capable of having its own voice. As the clarinet’s melodic line dies away, the piece enters a period of transition that introduces a more temporal world. The violin and clarinet are then able to react to one another in more direct ways and the violin becomes capable of singing with the clarinet. After a dramatic section that builds toward the end, the piano moves beyond embodying time and space; it more directly interacts with other instruments.

Taka Koike, Violin
Susana Volente, Clarinet
Pamela Younger, Piano


Standing On The Outside Looking In

Rhythm gives energy to this piece, which takes its driving music into ever-tighter passages. From just one note, the music builds across two pianos becoming more saturated and compressed until it crashes in on itself. This collision leads to musical section as if in a dream state, or clouded mind. Once “awake,” the music has become out of sync; one piano plays in 7/8 the other in 9/8 and shifted between two different keys. The music ultimately comes together in a clamorous conclusion.

Steven Homestead, Piano I
Jessica Cosley, Piano II

Running Of The Bells

This setting of original text for choir and piano whispers to us that the small, the still, the quiet can contain a power greater than we might first realize.

Soprano 1: Kristin Princiotta, Melanie Harvey, Danielle Wells
Soprano 2: Sara Bruton, Sarah Goodwin, Stella Yi
Alto 1: Colleen Chester, April Mendiola, Kaleigh Schiro
Alto 2: Vanessa Castañeda, Lupe Ojeda, Alexa Prax
Tenor 1: Frederic Hallas, Brandon Harris, Andres León
Tenor 2: Josh Elmore, Christian Guebert, Gabriel Stevens
Bass I: Ryan Clippinger, Will Reeder 
Bass 2: Rusty Blakey, Adam Braun, Patrick Bryant, Art Duran, Tanner Wilson

Jessica Cheng, Piano
Steven Homestead, Conductor 


Softly, as the Snow in Falling

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. 

Holy, Holy, Holy.
Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory. 

'Sanctus' is part of an entire mass setting titled "Recursive Mass." This movement’s meditative opening pairs a chanted ostinato with the main theme of the Sanctus, treated using isorythmic variation. Each vocal part has a different rate at which it states the theme. This creates an amoeba-like sound that blossoms into a more clear statement. After the opening, this theme fluctuates like the wings of the heavenly beings whose words on which the Latin text is based.

The next section receives new contrasting music. Instead of using step-wise motion, the music launches out with octave leaps. This theme is then set in imitation in Chorus I while the Basses, Tenors, and Altos of Chorus II sing a melodic line comprised of half notes. By the end of this section, after paired imitation and layers of counterpoint, the voices align to state the text one final time in near homophony. 

This piece takes a spiritual journey from outward praise to quiet and internal pondering, returning to celebration and praises that have been influenced and carry with them the meditative, exuberant, and quietly reflective sections that have come before. Thus, the final section consists of all previously heard material in layer upon layer.

Soprano I: Kristin Princiotta, Melanie Harvey, Danielle Wells
Soprano II: Sara Bruton, Sarah Goodwin, Stella Yi
Alto I: Colleen Chester, April Mendiola, Kaleigh Schiro
Alto II: Vanessa Castañeda, Lupe Ojeda, Alexa Prax
Tenor I: Frederic Hallas, Brandon Harris, Andres León
Tenor II: Josh Elmore, Gabriel Stevens 
Bass I: Ryan Clippinger, Will Reeder
Bass II: Rusty Blakey, Adam Braun, Patrick Bryant, Art Duran, Tanner Wilson
Jessica Cheng, Piano
Anthony Caro, Christian Guebert, Percussion
Steven Homestead, Conductor

Sanctus

The Wintry Mind 
Text by Witter Bynner (1881-1968)

This piece sets the text of Witter Bynner’s subtle and powerful poem. It uses two modes of symbolism to convey the text’s wintry world. For the listener, this comes through the overall sound-symbolism, but for the performers, there is an added element of visual symbolism placed in the score. The piano part is written across three staves instead of the traditional two; this extra layering in the score references the layers of snow in the text. The use of tied whole-notes throughout the piece provides both a still, sound-world and visually represents snow in piles and drifts. The eighth-note and quarter-note activity in the piano’s treble staff represents snowflakes when in the key of C, and leaves when in C-sharp. The sharp signs in the new key area visually represent the dried leaves of late autumn that winter will cover over or sweep away. Different chords serve to symbolize various concepts in the poem: such as warmth, cold, growth, etc. The interval of the second is used to set the word “winter.” This piece also quotes a musical line from the accompaniment of composer Ned Rorem’s setting of the same poem and makes reference to it in the length of the final note.

Josh Elmore, Tenor
Gabriel Stevens, Piano


The Wintry Mind

The opening violin and cello lines mirror each other; from these, the viola emerges. Passages in the piece sound as if the strings are trapped in a whirling dance. The opening lines echo throughout. The ending reaches a burst of energy that opens outward, using the opening motive in reverse.

Kimberly Empeno, Violin
Arial Walden, Viola
Alisha Bauer, Cello

String Trio

This is a setting of a powerful speech given extemporaniously by Sojourner Truth. I came across it when I was 16 and set it to music. Listen to the moving vocal performance by my friend Linda Jackson.

Linda Jackson, Soprano
Steven Homestead, Piano

Ain't I A Woman

Fun, playful, and in a throwback style, this three movement piano duo was written as a birthday present to myself between 2002 and 2005. March is the first of the three.

Eunice Jung, Piano
Steven Homestead, Piano

The Incessantness Of Youth: March

"Play" is the second of three movements from a fun and impish piano duo composed between 2002 and 2005.

Eunice Jung, Piano
Steven Homestead, Piano

The Incessantness Of Youth: Play

"Dance" is the final movement from a fun and impish piano duo composed between 2002 and 2005. This piece started as a birthday present to myself.

Eunice Jung, Piano
Steven Homestead, Piano

The Incessantness Of Youth:  Dance

An excerpt from an orchestral reading from my days at UCLA.

Hollywood & Sunset

Scuba's Spooktacular Fiesta of Fright

This march plays off of the popular perception of monkeys as playful and mischievous yet also conveys their mercurial and dangerous nature, which is often overlooked. To represent this, the music changes from back and forth from major to minor and layers different melodies, growing in intensity to invoke simian frenzy.

Monkeys on Parade!

Written in 2004, "Five Patterns" is a collection of short piano solos I composed to represent visuals through music. The third piece in the set is called "Checks." It conveys this pattern through rhythm and harmony.

Gi Yoon, Piano

Steven Homestead

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