related works
A Life in a Day : for harpsichord and string orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Harpsichord and string orchestra
Scoring:
cemb str
1 x 1 : quodlibet-variaties, voor orkest, (1957) / Jaap Geraedts
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
3343 4331 timp perc hp str
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2201 1000 cemb str
Prana : for large orchestra / Petra Strahovnik
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
picc fl-bass 2fl 2ob h 3cl cl-bass 2fg cfg 4h 3tpt trb trb-ten tb timp 3perc hp pf 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)