related works
Eruption : for orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl(picc) 2ob cl cl-b 2fg 4h 2trp 2trb trb-b timp 3perc hp str
Violin concerto : for violin and chamber orchestra, 1993 / Lorre Lynn Trytten
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2fl ob ob(eh) cl cl(cl-b) 2fg 2h 2trp trb 2perc str vl-solo
Concerto carnavalesque : pour violon et orchestre, op. 36 / Luctor Ponse
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2233 sax-a 4331 2perc str vl-solo
Concerto Nº 2 [Dreamscape Voyage] : for violin and orchestra / John Borstlap
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vn-solo 2fl 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 2fg 4h 2tpt timp perc str
composition
My Skeletonized Portrait : for violin and orchestra / Edward Top
Other authors:
Top, Edward
(Composer)
Description:
This 10-minute work is based on the etching with the same title of Belgian artist James Ensor. On separate panels, it shows two states of the artist himself. One is a ‘skeletonized’ version of the other, as if the artist celebrates the wearing of his own death mask. This transformation from one state to the next, from the real to the surreal, from the ordinary to the grotesque is the main element in the composition. The orchestral introduction already shows this process of transformation. The first violins play the initial phrase of a melody in the style of Tchaikovsky that is soon brought into a surrealistic realm of celesta, harp and strings harmonics. This process is then applied to the large form. The violin solo expands the initial phrase after which the mood entirely changes into a grotesque dance, entitled ‘Entry of the Masked Skeletons’. ‘My Schizoid Portrait’ is the subtitle of a cadenza-like section, which culminates in a grand and slow postlude.
Edward Top