related works
Rescriptio : for intercultural string orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Large ensemble (12 or more players)
Scoring:
3erhu 2kamancheh 2vn 3vla 2vc db
Secret Notes : Violin Concerto no. 2, for violin and orchestra / Marijn Simons
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2fl(pic) 2ob(ca) 2cl(cl-b) 2fg(cfg) 2hn 2trp 2trb 2perc acc vl-solo str
Concert : voor 2 violen en orkest / Hans Kox
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2202 0220 timp perc vibr str 2vl-solo
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
Author(s):
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