composer

Top, Edward

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

String quartet : for string quartet, 1998 / Edward Top

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: String Quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
Scoring: 2vl vla vc

Sonate : fluit, hobo, fagot, cembalo, 1959 / Henk Stam

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players); Wind Ensemble and keyboard instrument (3-8 players)
Scoring: fl ob fg cemb

Treklip : for flute/piccolo, 2 harps and 2 pianos, 1993 / Chiel Meijering

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring: fl(pic) 2hp 2pf

Schelp : fluit, altviool, gitaar, 1964 / Ton de Leeuw

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring: fl g vla

 

composition

The stillpoint : for violin and vibraphone, opus 4, 1994/1995 / Edward Top

Publisher: Amsterdam: Donemus, 1998
Publisher's number: 09482
Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring: vibr vl
Remarks: Cop. 1997. - Tijdsduur: ca. 13'
Duration: 13'00"
Number of players: 2
Year of composition: 1995
Status: fully digitized (real-time delivery)

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

Sheet Music
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Product Description Price/piece Count
Score Download to Newzik (A3), 30 pages EUR 21.61
Download as PDF (A3), 30 pages EUR 25.93
Hardcopy, normal size (A3), 30 pages EUR 43.23
Hardcopy, study size (A4), 30 pages EUR 29.50