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
Square : version for large orchestra / Roel van Oosten
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
4444 8532 timp 4perc 2hp str
Aus der Spanischen Reitschule : for orchestra / Jan Brandts-Buys
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2fl 2ob 2cl 2fg 4h 2tpt 3trb tb 2perc str
Autumn Refrain : for orchestra / Walter Hekster
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
fl eh 2cl 2trp cl-b fg cfg h trb tb 3perc hrp 12vl 8vla 6vc 3cb
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)