related works
Concerto : for violin and two orchestras / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vl-solo 2picc(fl) 2ob cl(cl-b) fg(cfg) 2trp 2trb tb-b perc hp pf(synth) str
Concert voor viool en orkest : for violin solo and large orchestra, 2003 / Klaas ten Holt
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
2232 2220 perc hp str vl-solo
Violin concerto No 2 / Willem Jeths
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
fl fl(pic) 2ob 2cl fg cfg 2h 2trp 2trb tb timp perc str vl-solo
Sewing Little Sister Sonatine : for violin and piano / Willem Breuker
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Violin and keyboard instrument
Scoring:
vl pno
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