San Diego Spotlight : Erickson’s ‘Sierra’ a Ripe State Anthem Candidate

The Golden State has inspired a fair amount of popular music, from the official state song “I Love You, California,” a mildly campy 1913 ballad that sounds like a football fight song, to the Mamas and the Papas’ 1966 classic “California Dreamin’ .” And pop crooners regularly lament that they “left their heart in San Francisco.”

But, on the serious side, a good case could be made to make Robert Erickson’s “Sierra” the Golden State’s official anthem. After four years’ of production and recording, Composers Recordings Inc. finally released its compact disc of six chamber works by Erickson, including “Sierra” performed by baritone Philip Larson and SONOR, UC San Diego’s contemporary music ensemble.

Recorded by musicians who worked with the composer and know his style intimately, the disc is an invaluable record of this unique chamber repertory. Of the six performances, “Sierra” and “Postcards” stand out.

“Sierra” is a humorous and sometimes mystical melange, a litany of names of small towns and mining camps in California’s high Sierra surrounded by quotations by naturalist John Muir.

“Coulterville. Moccasin. Jimtown. Sonora. Mormon, Ah--Jackass Hill. Tuttletown. Angel’s Camp. Hello Mark and Bret. Where’s Gold?” is one of Erickson’s own verses and typifies his terse juxtapositions. Both music and poetry invoke the rugged open landscape without resorting to the oozing cliches favored by travelogue soundtracks.

Erickson, emeritus professor and one of the founders of the UCSD music department, has long been considered a prime exponent of the California school of composition, although most composers cringe when such categories are invoked. With fellow Californian Lou Harrison, Erickson has influenced at least two generations of West Coast composers.

Music critic Alan Rich, longtime observer of contemporary music in California and an unabashed Erickson fan, had this to say in the CRI album’s liner notes: “Certainly the teacher who inspired a generation of musical hotheads around San Francisco in the 1950s--electronic experimenters Morton Subotnick and Pauline Oliveros in the aerie known as the San Francisco Tape Music Center--was a spokesman for freedom of expression, with a healthy thumb of the nose toward serial organization.”

The CRI compact disc is an apt tribute to the 75-year-old composer, who sadly is confined to his North County home with a wasting disease of the muscle system. But, according to UCSD music staff member Bonnie Harkins, he is still able to do a limited amount of composing. UCSD trumpeter Ed Harkins, her husband, premiered Erickson’s most recent opus in November.

In the recording of “Sierra,” Larson’s baritone is in fine form, intoning Erickson’s cadences with sympathetic majesty and just the appropriate hint of mock bravado. Under the baton of Thomas Nee, SONOR gives spirited, colorful support.

The disc’s other gem, “Postcards,” another vocal work, was written in 1984 for soprano Carol Plantamura, who sings it here. More playful than “Sierra,” “Postcards” takes the predictable scribblings of postcards Erickson sent from six European cities and turns them into clever art songs with lute accompaniment. The humor stems from setting the banal phrases--the predictable “having a wonderful time, wish you were here”--in an ardent declamation that gently parodies the serious Renaissance lute songs that Plantamura and German lutanist Jurgen Hubscher frequently performed and recorded. Erickson enjoyed tailoring his compositions to specific performers, and Plantamura returns the compliment with a warm, witty performance.

Not all of the disc, however, is equally accessible. “Dunbar’s Delight” for solo percussionist Dan Dunbar and Ricercar a 3 for solo contrabassist Bertram Turetzky seem dry in places and tend to ramble on. But “Kryl,” played by trumpeter Ed Harkins, remains a classic collage of extended instrumental techniques--buzzing in the mouthpiece alone, singing through the trumpet, creating multiphonics--telescoped in a single dizzying, athletic tour de force. “Quoc” for solo bass flute has much of the same energy, propelled incisively on the disc by Jon Fonville.

The Erickson homage illumines a few of the composer’s classic moods, especially those that involve tongue-in-cheek description and end with a subtle wink of the eye. For his more sublime moods, we await recordings of Erickson’s late string quartets and the magical “Arouras” for full orchestra.

Ma feted. Before Yo-Yo Ma played his Civic Theatre recital last week, the Mesa Humanities Institute honored the celebrated cellist with its Humanities Appreciation Award at the home of Mesa College art curator Kathleen Stoughton. The award, given annually since 1982, is presented to a celebrity in the humanities’ fields. The next year, a continuing Mesa College student receives a scholarship named for the celebrity by the nonprofit institute.

Ma received his honor with predictable grace. After San Diego Community College District vice chancellor Allen Brooks praised Ma with a smattering of critical bouquets, Ma said: “This feels like a retirement party. I’d like you to send copies of those kind words to my mother. She needs to see them.”

Ma then offered two movements from a J. S. Bach Suite for solo cello as his thank you and farewell.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

A WINNING TRIO

La Jolla’s Athenaeum arts library will present the three winners of the La Jolla Symphony young artists competition Monday in a free noontime concert. Hong Lin, a promising Chinese pianist who has been studying at UCLA for the last two years, will play works by Ravel, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Soprano Leann Sandel, will sing several Mozart arias, and violinist Ben Jacobson will play sonatas by Mozart and Novacek. The program is sponsored by San Diego Mini-Concerts.