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
Rhapsody in beer-tonality : for orchestra, 1972/85 / Simon Pluister
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
3222 4330 timp 5perc str
Noah : Symphonic poem for chamber orchestra / Christian Blaha
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 2h tpt timp perc str
Aan mijn vaderland : 3e symphonie, voor orkest, 1886 / Bernard Zweers
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
4444 6343 2altoh 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)