composer
Edward Top was born in Ommen, the Netherlands, in 1972. Top has lived and worked in London, Bangkok, and Rotterdam. He now lives in Vancouver, Canada. Top studied composition and ...
related works
The Grey Tree : for Chinese chamber orchestra / Edward Top
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Large ensemble (12 or more players)
Scoring:
2dizi 2sheng suona 2perc yangqin pipa ruan guzheng 4erhu 2zhonghu vc db
Triptyque II : pour clavecin/synthesizer, saxophone, guitare et percussion, 1992 / Luctor Ponse
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring:
sax perc g(g-b) cemb(synth)
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-11 players); Wind and string and key instrument(s)
Scoring:
fl spt vl vladg
White man CAN jump!! : for pan flute and guitar / Michiel Mensingh
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring:
panfl g
composition
The stillpoint : for violin and vibraphone, opus 4, 1994/1995 / Edward Top
Contains:
In the silent croaking night
As the world turns
A pattern of timeless moments
The point of intersection of the timeless with time
Description:
Program note (English): The basic idea of this work is that two instruments are playing the same melodic material, sometimes in unison, but most of the time put together in asymmetrical rhythms. The piece has four movements, each of them with a subtitle. The first movement (in the silent croacking night) has a mysterioso character. It consists of a melody, based on a six-tone mode, which is played several times in different tempos. The second movement (as the world turns) is more or less a unisonmelody that increases in tempo step by step. Little banal quotes taken from the massmedia are unrecognisably integrated in the modal sound. Through an ascending whole tone scale the third movement (a pattern of timeless moments), where this scale plays an important role, is reached. As indicated in the subtitle, this movement is a melodic pattern consisting of little mosaic-stones with mutually different characteristics; slow or fast, resoluto or mysterioso, unison or just about unison, molto brutale or
adagio desolato. This last germ cell (adagio desolato) will slowly grow to a high, final melody in the fourth movement. The final movement (the point of intersection of the timeless with time) opens with an enormous fortissimo where the vibraphonist lets a glissando ring. From the chromatic field that is sounding, one by one notes are being demped which I call a negative melody (instead of a series of played tones set against a silent background (ordinary melody), now there are a series of silenced tones against a background consisting of all tones of the vibraphone ringing).
This point is the climax of the work. It is the pivot on which everything hangs. - EDWARD TOP