Robert Erickson

Robert Erickson (March 7, 1917 in Marquette, Michigan–April 24, 1997 in San Diego, California) was a composer. He suffered from a wasting muscle disease, polymyositis, and was bedridden and pained for fifteen years before his death, though his final work was 1990's Music for Trumpet, Strings, and Tympani. He studied with Ernst Krenek from 1936-1947: "I had already studied--and abandonded--the twelve tone system before most other Americans had taken it up." He influenced notable students Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Paul Dresher. He is also the author of The Structure of Music: A Listener's Guide, which he claimed helped him overcome a "contrapuntal obsession", and Sound Structures in Music (1975).

External links

• University of Akron Bierce Library Smith Archives Composer Profile: Robert Erickson
• ClassicToday.com Review of Pacific Sirens by Robert Erickson Artistic quality: 8, Sound quality: 9.
• Dunbar's Delight Review of Sierra & Other Works by Elliott Schwartz, American Music, Fall, 1998

Listening

• Art of the States: General Speech (1969) by Robert Erickson, performed by Stuart Dempster, from New Music for Virtuosos (1998 New World Records 80541).