Robert Erickson; Composer, Educator

Robert Erickson, contemporary composer, author and educator who wrote California’s official anthem and co-founded the UC San Diego music department, has died. He was 80.

Erickson, known as a creative Modernist in his composing, died April 24 at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, Calif. He had been bedridden for several years with polymyositis, a progressive inflammatory disease of the skeletal muscles.

Although the 1913 ballad “I Love You, California” is California’s official state song, Erickson’s composition “Sierra” is the official anthem and shows up more often on concert programs. The lyrics are a litany of names of small towns and mining camps in the Sierra, interlaced with quotations from naturalist John Muir:

“Coulterville. Moccasin. Jimtown. Sonora. Mormon. Ah . . . Jackass Hill. Tuttletown. Angel’s Camp. Hello Mark and Bret. Where’s Gold?”

Lyrics like that and Erickson’s pioneering work with Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone scale were not greeted with applause in San Diego 30 years ago.

“This was a campus full of scientists whose expectations were little more than to amble quietly over to a secluded auditorium after a long day in their labs and peacefully listen to somebody play Bach or Mozart,” Erickson told The Times in 1984, sitting in his UC San Diego office.

“They were imbued with standard European concert culture, and the thought of contemporary music filled them with fear, trembling and horror.”

Erickson’s ultra-contemporary works not only included unusual tones and lyrics but also were meant to be performed on unusual instruments--sometimes of his own invention. One such example was the “stroke rod,” which produced eerie sustained vibrating sounds. He created it specifically for his percussion piece “Taffytime,” which premiered in 1984.

The musician wrote two books, “The Structure of Music: A Listener’s Guide” in 1957 and “Sound Structures in Music” in 1975. He was also the subject of two biographies, both published in 1996.

Among Erickson’s honors were grants from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1985 he earned the Friedheim Award for chamber music for his string quartet “Solstice.”

His final composition, “Music for Trumpet, Strings and Tympani,” was completed in 1990.

Erickson’s work was performed and commissioned by the Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles orchestras, the American Composers Orchestra and such ensembles as the Kronos Quartet and San Diego’s resident Sonor.

He had taught at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn., UC Berkeley and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music before moving to San Diego in 1967.

Born in Marquette, Mich., Erickson studied piano and violin as a child and earned degrees in composition at Hamline University in St. Paul. He served in the Army in World War II.

Erickson is survived by his wife, artist Lenore Erik-Alt.