Donald Erb

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Donald Erb: avant-guard composer, conductor

by Richard M. Peery

Tuesday August 12, 2008, 1:50 PM

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS -- Donald Erb, a bold, avant-garde composer who inspired generations of composition students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, died Tuesday, Aug. 12, at his home in Cleveland Heights at age 81.

He conducted and lectured at more than 150 colleges and universities and took pride in the scores of former students who teach on campuses across the country.

Erb was one of the most-performed American-born composers. Major orchestras commissioned and played his work. One of his compositions, "The Seventh Trumpet," has had more than 200 performances by more than 50 orchestras in the United States and overseas.

Erb used unusual sounds from unlikely instruments in his compositions, ranging from soda bottles to wind chimes to chopsticks. Performers might strike piano strings with mallets or use trumpet mouthpieces without the instruments. He explored electronic music early on. His 1965 work "Reconnaissance" premiered in New York with Robert Moog operating the synthesizer.

Donald James Erb

1927-2008

Survivors: Wife of 58 years, Lucille; daughters, Christine Hoell of Columbus, Stephanie of Los Angeles and Janet Carroll of Rockaway, N.J.; son, Matthew of Columbus; and nine grandchildren.

Graveside services: 1 p.m. Aug. 14, Lakeview Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave, Cleveland Heights.

Contributions: Donald Erb Scholarship Fund, Cleveland Institute of Music, 11021 East Blvd., Cleveland 44106; or Hospice of the Western Reserve, 300 East 185th St., Cleveland 44119.

Arrangements: Brown-Forward Service, Shaker Heights.

"Any object can be a sound source; found objects such as pots and pans, leaves and running water or various signals which generate pure electronic sound," Erb told an interviewer in 1969.

Although his compositions defied categorization, much of his music retained influences from his early days as a jazz trumpeter. One of his fondest musical memories was of having heard jazz giant Charlie Parker.

Erb was born in Youngstown but graduated from Lakewood High School. After a stint in the Navy on the USS Baltimore at the end of World War II, he received a bachelor of music degree at Kent State University, a master's degree at CIM and a doctorate at Indiana University. He joined the CIM faculty in 1952. Ten years later, he received a Ford Foundation grant to spend a year as composer-in-residence with the Bakersfield, Calif., school system, then taught at Bowling Green State University. He returned to the CIM faculty in 1965. In 1993, he was given the Distinguished Alumni Award and was distinguished professor of composition when he retired three years later.

He chaired the composer librettist panel of the National Endowment for the Arts from 1977 to 1979 and was president of the American Music Center from 1981 to 1984. His career was studded with grants and fellowships from the NEA; and the Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Kulas, Koussevitsky, Fromm and Aaron Copland foundations. He was composer-in-residence with the Dallas and St. Louis symphony orchestras. He also served residencies at the American Academy in Rome and the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. He had additional faculty appointments at Southern Methodist and Indiana universities. He wrote an article on orchestration in Encyclopedia Britannica.

Although he suffered cardiac arrest in 1996, Erb became a frequent traveler in retirement, crossing the country to hear his work performed. In 2001, he received the Letter of Distinction from the American Music Center.

[Spontooneous]

The few pieces I've heard have been fascinating. Seemed to have a real flair for writing non-traditional concertos with a powerful dramatic arc.

He was also a good friend of Jim Hall's.

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Remembering Donald Erb

By Margaret Brouwer

Published: August 15, 2008

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August 16, 2008

Donald Erb, Composer of Early Electronic Music, Dies at 81

By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER

Donald Erb, a composer with a strong interest in electronic music who was prominent on the avant-garde scene of the 1960s and ’70s, died Tuesday at his home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He was 81.

His death followed a long illness, said his wife, Lucille Erb.

Mr. Erb, who was distinguished professor emeritus of composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, composed “Reconnaissance,” one of the first chamber works for live synthesizer and acoustic instruments. It had its premiere in New York in 1967 with Robert Moog, a pioneer of the synthesizer, playing that instrument.

Mr. Erb wrote many works for brass, including the Concerto for Brass and Orchestra (1986) and “Three Pieces for Brass Quintet and Piano.”

Mr. Erb’s catalog also includes “The Seventh Trumpet,” which was given its premiere in 1987 by Leonard Slatkin and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which commissioned it. That work reflects Mr. Erb’s affinity for incorporating objects into his scores, in this case water-filled jugs and wine glasses, as well as harmonicas and synthesizer. Mr. Erb also wrote many other solo, symphonic and chamber works, some with improvisatory and aleatoric elements that reflected his experience as a jazz musician.

He wrote 10 concertos, including one for the cellist Lynn Harrell; others were given their premieres by prominent musicians like the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.

Born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1927, Mr. Erb played trumpet with a dance band in high school and performed professionally as a jazz trumpeter after serving in the Navy during World War II.

He studied composition with Marcel Dick at the Cleveland Institute of Music, from which he received his Master of Music degree in 1952, and Bernhard Heiden at Indiana University in Bloomington, receiving a doctorate of music in 1964. He briefly studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the early 1950s.

He was appointed to the Cleveland Institute of Music faculty in 1952 and was appointed distinguished professor of composition in 1987. He retired in 1996.

He left Cleveland for several years to teach composition at other institutes, including Indiana University and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He was composer in residence with various ensembles, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1968 and 1969. He was president of the American Music Center (which awarded him their Letter of Distinction in 2001) in the early 1980s.

Mr. Erb suffered cardiac arrest in 1996 and had not been active as a composer since.

Besides his wife of 58 years, Lucille, he is survived by his daughters Christine Hoell of Columbus, Ohio, the actress Stephanie Erb of Los Angeles and Janet Carroll of Rockaway, N.J.; a son, Matthew, of Columbus; and nine grandchildren.

[7/4]

I'm listening to Reconnaissance /In No Strange Land, from a Nonesuch album I remember from when I was a little kid. Described as For Musical Instruments and Electronic Sound and written in 67/68, this was when the Moog synth was a new instrument and everyone was excited about the possibilities...we're pretty jaded about synths these days.

Sounds interesting to me...

[papsrus]

Thanks for posting the obituaries. Learning of a person and his or her accomplishments only upon their death is better than not knowing them at all.

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Those early Nonesuch albums were part of my youth because my Dad had the classical stuff and I'd see the modern music listed on the inner sleeves. And then later I'd see them real cheap in the used bins at the Princeton Record Exchange...so Erb is one of those guys on those albums.