Side 1 (16:44) CHRISTMASMUSIC was commissioned to Donald Erb celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Cleve- land Orchestra and is dedicated to conductor SPATIAL FANFARE FOR BRASS AND Louis Lane. It was completed during the fall of PERCUSSION (1:31) 1967 and first heard on December 21 of that CONCERTO FOR TROMBONE AND year. The eight-minute piece features a variety ORCHESTRA of novel musical media as outlined by the (1) 3:49 composer: (11) 450 Some composers of my generation believe (111) 3:31 that traditional musical instruments are (IV) 247 "washed up" as a source of new sounds, and have turned completely either to electronics Stuart Dempster, trombone or the stage as a source of new material. To Louis Lane, conductor me the appeal of "live" music is still irresisti- Side 2 (19:46) ble. Musical instruments and musicians offer Donald Erb constant sources of new sounds. Listed here are some of the sounds you will hear: CHRISTMASMUSIC (1) 3:36 Movement I. Timpani with snare drum (11) 3:25 brushes Glass wind chimes AUTUMNMUSIC Brass players tapping mouthpiece with (1) 458 palm (11) 3: 17 Flutes clicking keys (111) 4:20 Wind players humming and making ton- Louis Lane, conductor guing sounds String players rattling fingers against in- Spatial Fanfare for Brass and Percussion struments Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra A bottle half filled with water used as a (1976) Christmasmusic (1967) Au- percussion instrument tumnmusic (1973) by Donald Erb Movement 11. Piano played with glass on Called by one reviewer "a composer who will strings be remembered when the twentieth century is Trombone played with F slide removed history," Donald Erb is an eclectic author of Harp strings pulled, played like Japanese dozens of works expressed in a vast array of koto musical media. Born in Youngstown, , on Piano played with xylophone mallets January 17, 1927, he began his musical studies at the age of eight. After serving in the Navy, he But the point of CHRISTMASMUSIC goes pursued his interest in music as a trumpet player much deeper than the creation of original sound and arranger for dance bands at the end of the effects. Erb has developed a miniature big band era. He subsequently received degrees philosophical reflection on the dual nature of ' from in trumpet, and from this peculiarly American phenomenon. This ex- the Institute of Music and Indiana plains the contrasting character of the work's University in composition. two movements, the first "quiet and mysteri- His serious composing began in 1949, reflect- ous" in the composer's words, the second ing the major influences of that time, and his "energetic and . . . earthy." study with Marcel Dick gave him a strong background in serial techniques. The composer The festival of Christmas has, it seems to me, feels that his own distinct musical personality two quite opposite aspects to it. Christmas is emerged in 1958, with the completion of sacred and secular; it encompasses the serv- Dialogue for Violin and Piano. Since then, he ice and the office party, the church and the has been constantly searching for new sounds department store, prayers and feasting, the and fresh musical ideas. as is evidenced by the crPche and crass commercialism . . . (Yet) challenging material on this recording. CHRISTMASMUSIC is not meant to be taken Donald Erb has received numerous fellow- either as a sermon, or as a satire. It simply ships and awards, including those from the Ford attempts to deal, in light of today, with a "tra- Foundation, the , and dition" which is constantly changing and the National Council on the Arts. A rarely examined. Guggenheim Fellowship helped make possible a year of study in electronic music at the Case When Louis Lane commissioned the work. Institute, and a second Rockefeller Grant ena- he suggested the setting of traditional Christmas bled the composer to spend a season as material, and Erb obliged by adapting the Composer-in-Residence with the Dallas Sym- beautiful chorale melody "0 Come Em- phony. He is currently Composer-in-Residence manuel." Votivic fragments of the melod!; are at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and lives in used throughout the first movement, toward the Cleveland with his wife and four children. end of which the basses quote the entire The concerto is in four movements. The first melody. The second movement makes use of movement is the most traditional and uses the melody's final phrase. "Toward the end of primarily the time-honored lyric qualities of the this movement." notes the composer, "the trombone. The linear quality of this movement melody becomes gr.dually more audible until draws at least in part on the contributions of near the close it is q~atedin a rather direct and jazz. Many of the great trombo~istsof the twen- discernible ,manner." tieth century have been jazz musicians and their Louis Lane was also associated with the influence on the development of the instrument composition of another short piece by Donald cannot be discounted. Although lyric, the Erb. Lane was to conduct Erb's well-known movement is in a medium fast tempo. orchestral piece The Seventh Trumpet at a The second movement, the only truly slow Cleveland Orchestra concert, but felt that some movement of the concerto, features several other work should open the evening. The musi- other aspects of the instrument. Brass instru- cians did not get their parts to the SPATIAL ments, particularly the trumpet and trombone, FANFARE until the morning of the premiere. are capable of great timbral variety due to the The work is literally "spatial" in that it calls for use of many mutes which produce beautiful the players to be situated throughout the hall, sounds. Several of these can be employed in a surrounding the audience with sound. Despite variety of ways and in the concerto the per- the musical and logistical problems, the highly former is called upon to make subtle changes in inventive piece for brass and percussion went their use while playing. beautifully. The movement also makes considerable use Six years after CHRISTMASMUSIC, Erb of the lip trill which is produced by moving from wrote AUTUMNMUSIC, commissioned by the one overtone of the instrument to another. The William lnglis Morse Trust Fund and first played soloist is asked to play staccato passages of ele- by Frank Brieff and the New Haven Symphony gant character. on November 20.1973. AUTUMNMUSIC uses The third movement of the concerto is very taped electronic sounds along with the or- similar in character to the scherzo found in most chestra, and calls on the musicians to use their symphonies. In this movement double stops are instruments in new ways. The brass players use produced by playi~gone note and simultane- their keys, the timpanist plays the bowl and the ously singing bother. The extreme upper regis- skin, the bass players use pencils on their ter of the instrument is featured several times in strings. What is the point? To give the audience this movement. a unique musical experience in the sheer joy of The final movement is in many ways the most sound. The piece is in three movements and unusual. Here I drew upon Mr. Dempster's Erb is quite serious when he maintains it is knowledge of the didjeridu, a wind instrument "very much in the classical tradition." The work played by the bushmen of Australia and one of opens with a mysterious, even frightening at- the oldest instruments still in use. There are sev- mosphere, as dramatic as the very last leaves of eral unique aspects of playing the didjeridu. summer falling to earth, leaving a barren tree to One is the ability to play continuously due to a face the frozen winter. The movement dies, technique known as circular breathing. The gradually and inevitably. The second and third Aborigines also interpolate animal sounds such movements are played without a break. Erb as barking through the instrument while the compares the second to a scherzo-trio, and calls playing continues. I attempted to give the the third a finale. movement a thrust that would enhance the The CONCERTO FOR TROMBONE AND primitive quality involved. It also, hopefully, ORCHESTRA, written a little more than eight makes a fitting finale. years after CHRISTMASMUSIC, may be the composer's best-known work. It was commis- This record was made possible, in part, sioned by trombonist Stuart Dempster with as- by a grant from the National Endowment sistance from the Martha Baird Rockefeller for the Arts, an independent agency of Fund for Music. Completed January 26, 1976, the federal government. the Concerto was first performed on March 11, Mr. Dempster's performance was made 1976 by Mr. Dempster and the St. Louis Sym- possible, in part, by a grant from the phony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, another Bascom Little Fund. important champion of Erb's music. The TROMBONE CONCERTO was also a featured Notes by Marshall A. Portnoy work at the 1980 American Composers Or- Cover art @ Judith Lerner 1980 chestra concert in Lincoln Center and received highly favorable notices. Musical America's THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA 333 West Broadway Joan LaBarbara called it "a worthy task, inte- Louisville. Kentucky 40202 grating the extended, experimental sounds of the contemporary. trombone into a traditional Jack M. Firestone, General Manager format. He has succeeded in producing a fine Andrew Kazdin, Producer piece of music . . . " Mr. Erb has kindly provided the fdlowing @ 1980 Louisville Orchestra First comments on his work: Edition Records