composer
Edward Top was born in Ommen, the Netherlands, in 1972. Top has lived and worked in London, Bangkok, and Rotterdam. He now lives in Vancouver, Canada. Top studied composition and ...
related works
Helix : for orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Instruments:
2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 4h 2tpt 3trb tb timp 2perc hp pf str
You Will Find Them in the Woods : Concerto for violin and orchestra / Wijndert van Woudenberg
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Instruments:
vn-solo picc 2fl 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 2tpt 3trb tb timp perc cel str
Concerto per violino ed orchestra / Robert de Roos
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Instruments:
2233 4310 timp perc str vl-solo
Vioolconcert no. III : (1944) / Henk Badings
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Instruments:
2222 3200 timp str vl-solo
composition
My Skeletonized Portrait : for violin and orchestra / Edward Top
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