Biography of Donald Erb, from Grove Music Online: After service in the US Navy during World War II, he attended Kent State University (BS 1950) and then studied composition with Marcel Dick at the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM 1952), Boulanger in Paris (1953) and Heiden at Indiana University, Bloomington (DMus 1964). He was appointed to the composition and theory faculty (1953-61), was composer-in-residence (1966-81), Distinguished Professor of Composition (1987-96) and became professor emeritus in 1996 at the Cleveland Institute; he was also composer-in-residence with the Dallas SO (1968-9) and professor of composition at Indiana University (1975-6, 1984-7) and Southern Methodist University, Dallas (1981-4). He was the recipient of numerous awards, prizes, fellowships and commissions.

Erb's approach to composition was mainly intuitive, but was based upon a strong foundation of musical craftsmanship. His conception of form was fundamentally organic: he frequently used a specific intervallic configuration or cell, melodic or rythmic motives, and/or sonic gestures as the basis for a whole movement or work. He employed these 'seeds' to generate growth through developmental processes - using varieties of textures and sonorities as well as limited aleatoricism - towards a goalorientated succession of climaxes, analogues to the concept of variation. Although his works always have a tonal foundation, he used contemporary means, such as pitch repetition and pedal points, to establish a sequence of fluctuating tonics. His works are analogous to traditional forms and exhibit clear musical structures. His interest in incorporating improvisatory and aleatory elements in his music reflects his great interest and background in jazz.

In the 1960s, he developed his mature style based on exploring the sound capabilities of traditional instruments and electronically synthesized sound, as well as relationships between the two. Reconnaissance (1967) was one of the first compositions of its day to utilize the interaction of real-time performance with electronically generated sounds. Such works as Fallout (1964), Kyrie (1965), Fission (1968) and The Purple-Roofed Ethical Suicide Parlor (1972) reflect his response to the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict, and contain violent sonorous explosions. In the 1970s he embarked on a series of virtuoso concertos that made increased technical demands on performers.

His works from the 1980s and 90s reveal a greater emphasis on counterpoint and chromaticism than in his earlier works. Furthermore, he used chorales and hymns in such works as the Concerto for Brass and Orchestra (1986), Watchman Fantasy (1988), Children's Song (1995) and Sunlit Peaks and Dark Valleys (1995). His Ritual Observances (1991) for orchestra was written to honour the bicentennial of the death of Mozart; as a basis for this work Erb used music from the first eight bars of the 'Lachrymosa' of Mozart's Requiem. In all of these works the borrowed passages are seldom clearly audible and fragments are usually used as compositional germs.

Source: John G. Suess. "Erb, Donald." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed October 24, 2012, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/ music/08910.