[1] Atonal and microtonal harmony, intricate rhythms, highly polyphonic textures and large-scale transformational processes[2] are prevalent in Eckardt's compositions.
Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote that Eckardt's music "celebrates harmonic prickliness, rhythmic complexity and a density of ideas".
[8] Subject, part one of Passage, a work for string quartet, uses special concert lighting to recreate the conditions used to interrogate military detainees.
[10] Eckardt has received commissions for his work from several major institutions and performers including Carnegie Hall,[11] Tanglewood,[12] the Koussevitzky Foundation (1999, 2011),[13] the Guggenheim Museum, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (1996, 2008),[14] Chamber Music America,[15] the New York State Music Fund, Meet the Composer,[16] the Oberlin Conservatory and percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
He is currently Distinguished Professor of Composition at City University of New York's Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and Graduate Center.