related works
My Skeletonized Portrait : for violin and orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Violin and orchestra
Scoring:
vl-solo 3fl 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 3trp 2trb trb-b tb timp 3perc hp cel str
Tripel-concert : voor viool, cello, piano en orkest / Hans Lachman
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
vl vc pf 2fl 2ob 2cl 2bn 4h 2tr 3trb 2perc str
Vijf dansschetsen : voor orkest / van Jan R.A. Felderhof
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2122 1100 timp perc str(5.5.3.3.1.)
Drei Praeludien und Fugen : for orchestra / Julius Röntgen; edited by John Smit
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
picc 2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 4h 3tpt 3trb tb timp perc triangle hp cel str
composition
Eruption : for orchestra / Edward Top
Other authors:
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)