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
Meander : for orchestra, 1994 / revision 1999 / Willem Jeths
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
fl(pic) fl(fl-a) 2ob 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 4trp 3trb tb timp 4perc hp str
Symphonie Nº III : voor orkest / Guillaume Landré
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
3333 4331 timp perc str
Symfonie Nº IV : voor orkest / Herman Mulder
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
3333 4431 timp perc 2hp str
composition
Eruption : for orchestra / Edward Top
Author(s):
Top, Edward
(Composer)
Description:
This piece in itself is an eruption, a celebration of the intense outbreak of youthful vigor, capturing a tour de force of speed that does not diminish for the entire duration. It is the raw and unrestrained crest of musical heights that is captured in the fleeting moment of an eruption.
The idea came about when, by chance, I discovered a striking similarity between cadences in the Ars Nova style, a French medieval musical style, compared to power chords of the modern-day Heavy Metal genre, where the use of parallel perfect fifths plays a pivotal role in its unmistakable sound. The experience might be likened to a modern painter creating cave drawings even when many developments in skill and style have since transpired. It was this primal yet contemporary approach that justified the transforming of elements from the extreme metal subgenre such as blastbeat drumming (intense sixteenth-note strokes on the snare drum), chromatically moving power chords and metrical shifts, into a contemporary symphonic esthetic.
Eruption is commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for joint performances by the TSO and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. It will be performed in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal during the 150th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in 2017. Eruption was composed with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Edward Top, Vancouver (October 2016)