related works
My Skeletonized Portrait : for violin and orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vl-solo 3fl 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 3trp 2trb trb-b tb timp 3perc hp cel str
Kleine symfonie : voor solo viool en kamerorkest, 1989 / Henk Alkema
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2222 2000 timp str vl-solo
The Tender Wind of Elysium : for violin and orchestra / Olga Rayeva
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vn-solo fl ob cl fg h perc hp pf str
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vn-solo 2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 2h 2tpt 2trb perc pf cel 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