Edward Top - String Quartet #1, Score
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ม.ค. 2023
- Composer: Edward Top
Composition: Strijkkwartet #1/ String Quartet #1 (1997-98)
Performers: Doelen String Quartet
Recording Location: Oudkatholieke kerk, Delft, 2004-05
Score Published at Donemus: webshop.donemus.nl/action/fro...
The work is recorded on CD by the Doelen Quartet, released by Etcetera (KTC 1339): www.etcetera-records.com/albu...
CD on Discogs: www.discogs.com/artist/448380...
www.edwardtop.com
This composition is inspired by the haunting poetic beauty of panoramas of sinful mankind depicted by Dutch artist Hiëronymus Bosch. In his paintings about the Last Judgements, the depiction of Heaven only takes about five percent of the paintings' total space, the rest is left for Hell.
In those 95 percent of space the artist has total freedom to use his imagination to show the horrors of Hell. The terrors of all sorts of disgusting creatures torturing the "fallen men" are shown in an uncensored version to the audience. In his painting The Garden of Delights (ca. 1500) he must have unconsciously been so enraptured by the sensuous appeal of the flesh that the images he coined tend to celebrate what they are meant to condemn. It interests me how in general the evil in existence, the morbidity and wickedness, speaks more to the human imagination than the good.
This string quartet is composed without any before made plans about structure, form, pitches or whatever parameter. It is written rücksichtslos in an angry-chromatic style. With the sound as a result of mathematic models and systems of Modernism between the ears, the monsters come crawling through the pencil to the five lines on paper. Two years before the final version this resulted in a twenty-minutes piece without a head or tail (actually some of Bosch' monsters don't have this either) with which I was not satisfied; it had no form and so I thought it didn't make sense.
Later the piece was cut into short phrases and gestures which were restructured and new material in the same style was added. The final version of the quartet is built up by over thirty fragments of different sizes (three seconds to half a minute) and characteristics although most of them are aggressive and angry characters. Duration of the work is ca 16 minutes.
With this work Edward Top was awarded first prize in the 2003 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award Competition at the University of Illinois, USA. - เพลง
![Quinn Rosenberg - Bomb Cyclone (2023) [Score Follow]](/img/n.gif)
this would kill a victorian child
You made me laugh my ass off!! I do love this piece
that ending is easily one of the most terrifying in all of classical music hands down
I'm not sure how else to put this
this piece is absolutely insane
as a string player myself i do not know how i could read and interpret this, let alone play this
props to the musicians, and yourself for creating this
Thank you Ethan, I appreciate your feedback!
What a massive task to write all of this on paper! Sounds terrifying, love it
This is entirely beautiful, the understanding and coupling between performers and composer heightened to this level really really rarely aligns itself like this. Beautiful work both in the score and the process of performing it.
Thanks!
I hope you're kidding.
@@Proud_Troll Never did they say the music itself is beautiful
@@eboone He said, "Beautiful work both in the score and the process of performing it."
@@Proud_Troll why would they be kidding?
The thought of how much work went into recording this…such a great sound from this quartet!
I'm so glad this appeared on my sidebar. Absolute genius!
Thank you RyanCantPvP
I really enjoyed this. Never heard a quartet quite like this
Thank you!
Awesome! The score is beautiful
Very impressive score if this was done without the assistance of a computer. These extended playing techniques are very complicated and for someone to write these with such precision is spectacular.
Hi, thanks! Yes, definitely no computer, just pencil and paper. Took me two years to find a good purpose for all the extended techniques to make sense in the narrative!
@@Musiqwerty Wow! Thats ridiculous, I see how much I rely on my stupid Mac for composing ): these were the good old days
I write on paper as well. I would never compose through a computer.
I'll definitely be checking out more of your music, this is great! Very dynamic.
Thanks for checking in Jodi.
this is ridiculously cool
reminds me of george crumb quite a bit
Wao wild fesh spotted
Hey, thanks for sharing. Will listen this later.
Such interesting piece!
Really fantastic stuff!
Very rich sound, beautiful glissandos.
I am amazed at the command of extended techniques on display here. As others have said, the score itself is art all on its own.
Looking forward to more listens/watches. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Curtis, for your encouragement! I will upload my second string quartet soon as well.
This is fantastic.
This is amazing!
Magnificent. Incredible composition and performance!
This sounds awsome, Good job!
I enjoy listening to this as I slowly and peacefully drift off to sleep.
Soo lovely
You write by hand? Amazing.
Not gonna say that it's super for me, but I like it. Keep working👍
this is what it sounds like when i’m going to the bathroom bro what
Thank you!
this is cool
I dont wanna be your friend. I wanna be your student
Absolutely horrifying, notation and all. I love this for some reason
This is some GREAT stuff, bravo. You really pushed the limits for string performance and got some awesome sounds out of the instrument. As a composer, there's so much to learn from this.
Cheers, appreciate your feedback.
The score is unique and the sounds are varied. I like it!
Brutal!
Heard it live at the Doelen once.
ah ~ classical music is so relaxing
This is tremendously entertaining work. Thank you for uploading this.
pretty cool!
10:30 is really beautiful
C’est manifique, mais ce n’est pas la musique…C’est de la folie.
Mesmerised by it.
Gives me kind of death vibes.
this is incredible 🤩
im curious, whats incredible about it?
@@hendomas7435 the music?
@@WEEBLLOM I mean specifically
@@hendomas7435 the music
@WEEBLLOM that ain't specific.
Like what's your favorite part
WOW, that'll keep those molecules moving!
absolutely losing my mind from 10:30 to the end of the piece. how in the world do you come up with atmospheres and textures like this... so much to learn
Composers are crying in their tombs
I'm afraid to tell you if they're in a tomb they're probably dead
@@WEEBLLOM you’re lying 😨😨
@@mavow_ They are laying, not lying, in the tomb.
I have to say I don't understand wtf is going on (the weirdest music I can handle so far is Bartok) but it looks like you had a lot of fun making it, and it sounds like the performers are really good.
It was great fun for sure! I love Bartok too
Music doesn't work like spice lil bro, you don't gain tolerance. All you're doing when you're thinking you're becoming "more tolerant", is that you're actually just becoming more delusional when listening to music, or noise in this case.
@@Whatismusic123 in my experience it does, and there are a couple pieces you really like that stick and then it makes you understand contemporary music. It opens the door, so to speak. For me the pieces were: Scriabin 5th, 7th, and 9th Sonata, Stravinsky Petroushka, John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean, Feldman For Philip Guston, Philip Glass North Star, and Charles Ive’s Fourth Symphony.
I’m sure if you look hard enough, you’ll find a piece that is the “ahah” moment and helps you understand contemporary music. It does take time to get used to, and there are still pieces I find completely inaccessible to this day (like Lachenmann), but I know one day I will understand it and be able to appreciate it.
@@tylers9006 First of all, Scriabin is not a modernist moron like Edward Top is, or John cage or Boulez or any other of these "music" composers.
Second, there's a large difference between liking something, and something being good. A piece of music can be absolutely terrible, or not be music at all like in this case, but you can still like it regardless, that's the power of delusion and belief.
You're not "understanding" nor "appreciating" anything, you're conditioning yourself to enjoying garbage, by bashing your head at a wall multiple times, hoping it cracks and sticks.
@@tylers9006 there's nothing to understand. This is called a cult.
I literally cannot believe that a string quartet could ever do this
I would not say that I enjoyed listening to this, nor that I would want to come back to it. However, there are brief glimpses of some enjoyable music hidden among what is often a messy, harsh sounding texture for a string quartet. Perhaps there would be times when I would want to listen to this, but at the moment my mood clashes with the aim of the piece
7:53 is relatable
Wow love this. This is both accessible and compelling. Strong sense of journey... narrative. So much unexpected Tonality.
Excellent. Some of the switches from pizz to arco look quite demanding to say the least. I am curious. Interesting work.
Wow, this is wild! Love it.
14:37 I really like the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
very...interesting....;)
The ending for the violas my god
Hot stuff!
okay you know what i do understand it
This is how I play Mozart!!!
sodelicious............
I wonder what came first for this particular piece, the notation or the playing.
Any influence by chance of ysaye sonata no 3? Feel like i heard some motivs there
This is so impressive! I'm definitely going to consider playing this for our next concert, amazing job!
Great, thanks!
I personally enjoyed the section from 10:00-12:40. The slow section is very well written. I think the fast dense sections look cool on paper but I don’t think they sound interesting.
Additionally the “dancelike” section from 12:50-13:50 sounded very nice. It kind of reminds me of the textures in Bartok’s string quartets. I understand that it’s cool to work with new sounds, but I personally think it makes more sense to integrate those sounds and techniques into a more melodic section. These sections I’ve highlighted just feel much more expressive and unique.
I understand and appreciate your thoughts. Writing melodically is merely one of the many other parametres achieving expression. The new sounds, (non-melodic!) textures, and harsh dissonances are deliberately explored to represent the Hellish monsters in the Last-Judgment panels of Hieronymus Bosch the work is inspired by. The slower sections you refer to are representational of Heaven as it appears in Bosch's paintings. Thanks for observing the 'good'!
This looks (and sounds) like what happens when you slam your keyboard over and over while in Musescore.
No
@@WEEBLLOMyes, this is just avant-garde noise
@@justamusician7846 no :D It's music
Listen to it attentively a few more times and you might not think that anymore.
9:22 at this moment they play like "Qobyz" (I reference kazakh instrument (bcuz I'm kazakh), but maybe they more like kyrgyz instrument)
the string quartet must have made their living solely off of performing this lmao
I see this piece as a response to Black Angels by George Crumb, which is why such a piece like this doesn’t deserve the title of “String Quartet #1”. That gives listeners absolutely nothing about what to expect, or the intention behind this piece, which is articulated so clearly in the description. The title should match what the piece is about. Because it doesn’t, most people who click on this video will write the piece off as more atonal gobbledegook with no real meaning, which is not what this piece is.
The title "Black Angels" doesn't provide any information that would help you to listen to that piece
@@garrysmodsketches What do you mean? Of course it does! When I read the title "Black Angels" and the subtitle "13 Images From a Dark Land", that gave me a very clear idea of what the piece was about. The title made me understand why the piece sounds so terrifying. The piece wouldn't have captured my interest if it was called "Electric String Quartet". Titles are more important than you give them credit for
@@codascheuer8426 Do you really believe this? If a piece of music has terrifying character, this fact will be apparent just by listening. What you are saying is that without reading the title you won't be able to hear the terror in the music, which is impossible unless you are deaf.
@@codascheuer8426 it's a gateway to delusion
I have no idea if they’re playing it right
What does it mean to play it right? :)
@@GUILLOM *tips fedora* a deep thought, my fellow redditor
@@Whatismusic123 imagine being a redditor
8:03
3:27
thats a moment
@@holoslaw It's not just a moment, it's one of the moments of all times
12:46
What happened at the end? What was that sound?
Okay, we get it. You know how to notate sheet music 🤣
I hear some Brahms in this, and, not surprising (also not in the context of Brahms), the early Schönberg and Alban Berg.
Berg and early Schönberg, and even more, Webern, were haunting me, you're right. I was playing their music quite extensively in the period that I composed this piece (Berg's Kammerkonzert, Schoenberg Suite Op.29 and Kammersymphonie Op.9, Webern Symphonie Op.21 and Konzert Op.24 etc.). Brahms I like as a performer, as a listener not so much, as a composer, you're making me think... I don't know. I played his violin/piano sonatas at the time of composing this quartet, so it could be.
@@Musiqwerty Yeah, Berg's Kammerkonzert came to my mind, and also the Kammersymphonie op.9 by Schönberg.
Sounds like open door
Did they just break the bow at the end?
what is the point of alternating d sharp and e flat
It is a way to have colouristic change and motion of the same pitch, which is played on D and G string (and therefore enharmonically spelled to E-flat and D-sharp).
@@Musiqwerty Oh... that's INSANELY smart. In fact this WHOLE QUARTET is insanely smart
Also did the violists bow snap
Impressive! Did you hired a copyist or this is your penmanship? Great work!!!
Incredible piece!!!! Really love it. This score is handwritten, yes? It looks really beautiful. Would be interested in trying my hand at computer-notating this, though!!!
Thank you! All pre-computer age, yes :) (I started using Finale two years after writing this piece)
@@Musiqwerty ah cool!!
@@Musiqwerty The first thing I thought when I saw your notation was, "this looks like George Crumb's notation!"
@@theoriemeister well spotted! Crumb is an important source of inspiration
@@Musiqwerty i got here through crumb's works! youtube sometimes brings me to such lovely things i would've never found otherwise
initially figured he might've been an inspiration, and then everything kinda clicked when i saw the notation at 9:58 haha. really nice tribute in a way. amazing stuff, looking forward to hearing more :D
I'm struggling to understand the sound at 3:27, it's amazing, as if there's wind instruments playing at the same time
Its just the effect of flautando (a technique in strings)
@@humanoidx977 How do you do that?
@@amj.composer You use the bow closer to the fingerboard (like a 'sul tasto' indication). It gives the strings a more "airy" quality, thus the name flautando which tranates as "flute-like". The opposite would be doing 'sul ponticello' (using the bow near the bridge) which gives a metalic and sharp sound.
@@CaptainPhen thank you!!;
👀
👂
8:00
Should not listen after dark.
Excellent for chasing homeless and hang-out youths away out of public places.
wut
This piece is great may I ask what it's inspiration was?
I heard it was inspired by paintings of Bosch's depictions of hell.
what is this☠️
When Schoenberg started writing atonal music, his initial (and correct) instinct was to write shorter pieces (compared to his earlier, tonal works), i.e. the atonal language is so wild that it is most suitable for short pieces, miniatures. Webern also understood this.
This quartet is way too long. It's like telling the same joke again and again and again for 15 minutes. The listeners (including 99% of musically trained listeners) will get the idea of the piece in the first 30 seconds. After that they'll just get bored.
How do you know his instinct was correct
@@WEEBLLOM 1. He himself didn't hesitate to admit it in his essay "on composing with twelve tones".
2. His very talented students Alban Berg and Anton Webern had the same instinct, which Schoenberg also mentioned in said essay.
3. Common sense: large musical forms require contrast between sections. If the music is extremely expressive and intense all the time, a composer risks to back themselves into a corner. There is very little space for maneuver. This is why Glenn Gould said that highly chromatic post-Wagnarian language was an enormous liability for composers like Richard Strauss.
@@garrysmodsketches So it's just pure intuition. Cool
@@WEEBLLOM I mean, yeah. Art is not a science. Intuition plays a huge role. But we are talking about the intuition of great master-artists, not just some guy from the street.
Schoenberg was no less incompetent than this.
Sounds better without the video... 😀
The purpose of music and all art is to be beautiful, not to merely be innovative or creative or boundary-breaking for its own sake.
Exactly!
No it is not
What a poor definition about the purpose of art and music.
@@FelipeFinelli6088 Whether you like it or not, there is a science to creating good, compelling art. If you want to ignore the science and push the boundaries of creating art, be my guest. Just don’t expect other people to enjoy it or find it good or find it beautiful.
@@calvinmendoza7911 The science of art? what utter nonsense you are spewing, the popular apreciation to art swiftly shifts periodically, science can explain why people view art the way they view it, but creating art by "using the science of art" is a soul-less and meaningless thing, art is just the expression of an idea, it doesn't have to please the viewer, it doesn't have to cause any emotion at all, "pushing the boundaries of art"? I really question your sentience and ability to reason, how do you think a magnus opus is made? Most of the time if not all times, is by "pushing the boundaries of art" which is another utter nonsense, elitism is a disease, go look for a brain
This is offensive.
To offend is a right, to be offended is a pleasure, and he who refuses this pleasure is a moralist.
that small violin part at 1:30 reminds me of an autistic friend I had a while back. strange
This music sucks absolute ass, but the process it takes to be able to perform it is a beautiful display of human perseverance
Wow rude
@@WEEBLLOM ong someone put their soul and made this just for someone to say "sucks absolute ass"
Le Garbage.
Le rude
Yuck
Just because you spend effort on something, does not mean it's art. It's called wasted effort, because what you've made is actually effortless randomness a computer could produce, which you've deluded yourself into believing has purpose behind it. Tell me, what "emotions and ideas" do you wish to express? Because sorry bud but that's impossible outside of fairytale.
your comment more aptly describes your minecraft music arrangement than this quartet
@@MatheusKulik you're hating without reason.
@@MatheusKulik also your reply makes absolutely no sense anyways
@@Whatismusic123 I usually avoid making negative comments on people's music, because each one has the right to explore art in whatever way they find better and share it. But seeing you don't treat others like that I just find it fair to express that I do find your arrangement mechanical and uninspired, whilst this quartet is quite obviously a legitimate art work. I'm not hating without reason, I just find it funny that you project your insecurities about your own music on other people and other aesthetics
@@MatheusKulik because it's not a personalized arrangement, it's a note-for-note transcription. Moron. There's no "inspiration" in literal copying.
Awful
Full of awe*
This is absolutely horrible. I don't think I'll ever appreciate post modern atonal classical music.
And yet you click on post modern atonal classical music videos, presumably just to leave rude comments I suppose
If you don’t like this type of music then maybe don’t listen to it?
Firstly, nobody is holding a gun to your head and telling you that you have to like this music. Atonal music comes in all shapes and sizes, and most of the time - at least in my experience - it tends to be an acquired taste. The key word here is 'taste'. If it's not to your taste, which is absolutely fine, why not just say that? I ain't gonna judge you for saying that it's not to your taste. The problem is when people act like their tastes are more important than everybody else's and are really mean about it. Personally I really like this music. In my opinion, it's way more accessible to the performer than Ferneyhough's music, for example, but it still achieves a sense of flux in the rhythms which I really like.
Take John Cage's advice. He said that when he heard something he didn't like he'd listen to it another 10 or 12 times and discover he liked it after all.
Go listen to like the wiggles or something then idk
This is not music.