He created new music that blended classical European–American styles with American–Indian melodies that earned recognition beyond the Northwest.

[1] Many of his compositions drew inspiration from the people and environment of the state of Washington, where he was an active composer and pianist as a long-time resident on Puget Sound.

For example, "Froggie Went A-Courting", a ballad dating at least to sixteenth century England and circulated for generations by both oral and written traditions, finds modern adaptations by US artists as dissimilar as the classical composer Gregory Short (as part of his American Bicentennial Sonata no.

[9] In addition to Native American cultural traditions, he found inspirational themes in the Bible, novels of J. R. R. Tolkien, essays of Khalil Gibran, and pivotal social changes such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[8] With a long career as a pianist, "I wanted to put together the life I wanted to live.

[10] In the years before his death, Short was composing and arranging for piano and orchestra with the aid of his computer.

[11] His song cycle on Native American poetry was performed in Boston, MA, before his death.