List of Vocal Works, cycles, chamber, songs & chorus

Steven Ebel - Composer (b. 1979) List of Works & Texts

SONG CYCLES

Ringlenätze 2012 – from Kasperle (Joachim Ringlenatz 1883-1934)

1. Kasperlelied 

2. Schenken 

3. Bumerang 

(Youth sting orchestra & high voice – also high or medium voice and piano)

Divan Songs 2010 - from West-Östlicher Divan (Goethe)

1. Bulbuls Nachtlied 

2. Drei Sprüche

3. Die Beiden Welten 

(High voice & piano, medium voice & piano, chamber orchestra & high voice)

Irish Lullabies 2011 (WB Yeats)
1. Heavens' Cloths 

2. An Angel's Lullaby 

3. Come Away! 

4. An old song 

(high voice & piano)

The Only World 2006 - from A Timbered Choir (Wendell Berry 1934- )

1. I come to a little bench

2. The world of machines

3. Sleep is the prayer

4. Hate has no world

5. Finally, will it not be enough

(medium voice and piano)

Der Schatzgräber 2011 – from Das Stundenbuch (R.M. Rilke)

1. Die Stunde 

2. Wie Keiner

3. Gebet 

4. Schwingen 

5. Brich ein 

(mezzo-soprano and piano)

CYCLE 2012 – from The Prophet (Kahlil Gibran)

1. Knowledge

2. Pain

3. Death

(soprano voice & piano)

Look Out 2008 – from Given (Wendell Berry 1934- )

1. Whatever happens

2. This is the time

3. What I fear most

4. A mind that has confronted ruin

5. This then is to be the way

6. I dream

7. The yellow-throated warbler

8. Look Out

9. But do the Lords of war

10. It takes all time to show eternity

(tenor voice and piano)

CHAMBER MUSIC

The Privilege of Art 2008 – from Essays First Series: Art (R.W. Emerson)

(Duet for soprano, tenor and piano four hands)

Diary of a Young Poet 2009, 2012 – from Diary of a Young Poet (R.M. Rilke trans. Winkler/Snow)

(Continuous song cycle for narrator, tenor and piano)
1. Schicksale sind...
2. Alles Gefühl...
3. Und wieder rauscht...
4. Andere müssen...
5. Ich sprach von Dir als...
6. O wie is alles fern...
7. Reich mir Musik...
8. Nacht, stille Nacht...
9. Epilogue

As I walk from her grave 2005 – from Trains Facing Railroads (Jo McDougall 1935- )

1. Burying my mother

2. Homeplace

3. Most of the time

4. To her

5. The first warm day

6. Remodeling

(soprano, string quartet and piano)

The Fool's Air & Prophecy 2007 (Shakespeare – King Lear)

(Tenor, flute, violin, cello & piano)

INDIVIDUAL SONGS

Contrition 2011 (Anglican Mass)

(countertenor & piano/organ)

With Fairest Flowers 2012 – from Cymbeline (Shakespeare)

(bass voice and piano)

FOR CHORUS

Cadillac Rain 2012 – from Coney Island of the Mind (Lawrence Ferlinghetti 1919- )

(SATB, violin, electric guitar, piano & string bass)

Die Welt des Mondes 2011 – from Uncollected Poems (R.M. Rilke)

1. Vergiß, vergiß und laß uns

2. Ach, da wir Hülfe

3. Mondnacht

SSSAAATTBB

My Shy One 2011 - (WB Yeats)

SSAATTBB

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Bulbuls Nachtlied

Click to play sound file on Sound Cloud:

Bulbuls Nachtlied

The nightingale’s nightsong through the shower
Resounded to Allah's lighted throne,
And thanks to the wonderful song
He imprisoned it in a golden cage.
This is like the body of man.
Indeed, it feels confining:
But, when you think about it,
The little soul sings always onward.
        -JW Goethe from the West-East Divan

The first of three songs entitled: DIVAN SONGS

Steven Ebel, composer

Welcome!

I have started this as a website for people to look up my information exclusively as a composer.

I spend most of my time promoting my opera career, but want a forum to show people some of my works and a way to post info about new pieces, performances and ideas.  Feel free to comment.

More info to come soon: texts, list of works, texts, descriptions and links to Soundcloud.com.

Steve

Biography

Steven Ebel was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme as a tenor in 2009-2011 at the Royal Opera House-Covent Garden. Self-taught as a composer, he made history when he became the first singer/composer in the history of the Royal Opera House to perform his own work under its auspices in October 2009. Entitled Diary of a Young Poet, a staged 40 minute work for tenor, narrator and piano set to poems and prose by Rilke, commissioned by the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. He also presented an excerpt from his opera Mogens in the ROH2 Exposure series and has had five song cycles premiered as part of a recital series at ROH: Divan Songs (tenor and piano), As I walk to her grave (for soprano and piano quintet), The being of all things (tenor and piano), Irish Lullabies (soprano and piano) and Der Schatzgräber (mezzo and piano). His International Suite for Solo Violin was premiered at the Royal College of Music in London and Turnings, a suite for woodwind trio, was commissioned and premiered by the Kandinsky Winds at the Chichester Festival. Cadillac Rain for voices, electric guitar and ensemble was recently performed by New Music New York this past summer. Other song cycles which he has premiered include The Fear – premiered at UW-Madison (2008), Vestiges – premiered at the community Church of NYC (2006), A Timbered Choir and Wedding Songs. In the USA, he served as Co-Director of New Music New York (NMNY), for which he has fulfilled many commissions, including the premiere of Look Out, a 35 minute cycle to poems of agrarian poet Wendell Berry, and The Privilege of Art, a composition for multiple voices and ensemble to a poem by Emerson. He has also been the recipient of a Puffin Foundation and Meet the Composer Foundation grants. He premiered The Fool's Air and Prophecy for voice and ensemble at Merkin Hall in New York City with Washington Square Contemporary Music Ensemble. In Germany he has received commissions from Musikakademie diapason in Karlsruhe where last year saw the premiere of Geh' aus mein Herz - Variationen for youth string quartet and sang the premiere of Ringlenätze, a comedic work for youth string orchestra and tenor this May. He is making his French debut as a performer and composer in October at the Theater du Capitole in Toulouse. A further commission in 2013 comes from dramatic soprano Margareta Brandt, a mono-opera on the subject of Maria di Magdelone in Finland. He is currently engaged as a singer at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany and has upcoming engagements in Munich, Toulouse and Santiago de Chile.

From the Press

“this young American has a distinctive ear and an appealing voice”

Keith McDonnell – musicOMH

"beautifully tonal, their chromatic progressions broken by refreshingly unexpected intervals."
Mark Valencia – What’s on Stage

" very promising . . . it was a suitably dark and sardonic score that showed us more than just

a glimpse of what may yet prove to be an exceptional talent. . ."
Anthony Lias – Opera Britannia