Frank Corcoran

I´ll continue with my List Of A Modest Composer´s Modest Successes; order in disorder, surely ?

2007 David Stromberg played ICE ETCHINGS for Solo Cello at the Unerhörte Musik Berlin .

1980 – 1981 Berliner Künstler Programm of the D.A.A.D. invited me to Berlin for a composing year. I did.

2009 King´s Place London , Darragh Morgan premiered “QUASI UN PRELUDIO “.

2009 in My Magic Garden I discovered the Jacopone Da Todi texts of new SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE ( Premiere March 14 2011 in New York – more anon ! )

2009 My RTE texts for “The Quiet Corner”.

2007 My Dublin James Joyce Festival.

2004 “QUASI UN PIZZICATO” for Wireworks, Hamburg

2005 Hungarian Radio Bartòk Celebrations in Budapest programme “QUASI UN BASSO” as Irish entry.

2005 RTE commissioned “QUASI VARIATIONS ON A Maire De Barra ” forSolo Viola. Wow !

2008 Yes, Bucarest : “QUASI UN DUO”.

1999 Bergamo comm. ICE ETCHINGS NR. 1

1999 WDR commissioned the electronic ” QUASI UNA MISSA” which won the 2002 Swedish EMS Prize.

2009 Czech Radio did a Frank Corcoran Portrait with all my electronig works.

1996 “JOYCEPEAK MUSIK ” won the Studio Akustische Musik Prize.

2002 Malmö Festival : “QUASI UNA MISSA ” and ” MAD SWEENEY ”

2008 Concorde / Jane O´Leary with “THE LIGHT GLEAMS ” for the Samuel Beckett Centenary, Dublin and then for Cerkin Castle Concert, Llubljana.

1983 N.I.C.O. / David Robertson : my work ” CONCERTO FOR STRING ORCHESTRA ” which is out on Composers´Art Label.

2005 “QUASI UN BassO ” for Allan von Shenkel in faraway Washington. ( Hungarian Radio then took this as the Irish contribution to their Bartòk Festival )

2005 N.S.O. / David Brophy : ” QUASI UN CAOINe” for 7 Wind, 4 Str.s, Piano and Percussion, 3 Saxophones PLUS an Accordeon !

2004 Deutschland Radio Berlin commissioned the electronic “TRADURRE TRADIRE “.

2009 I loggedin here my “EIGHT HAIKUS” texts which I then composed in “EIGHT HAIKUS BY FRANK CORCORAN ” for S.S.A.A.T.T.B.B. Choir ( Watch 2011 premiere ).

Also in my Composer´s List Of Goodies :
1977 “MEDIEVAL IRISH EPIGRAMMES ” for the RTE Singers / Hans W. Rosen went to the Paris International Rostrum Of Composers.
( Eric Sweeny later also did a memorable performance and recording of the work ! )

2000 The N.S.O. / Richard Pittman did the revised version of “THREE ORCHESTRAL PIECES – Pictures From MY Exhibition” . ( Colman Pearce´s 1975 performance with the
RTESO was very strong ! )

“FAREWELL SYMPHONIES” for Tape And Orchestra ( RTECO / Seoirse Bodley ) was a RTE entry for the 1982 Prix d´Italie.

1997 WDR commissioned the electronic ” SWEENEY´S VISION ” which then won the 1999 Bourges Festival Preier Prix.

2005 the Croatian ” Cantus ” Chamber Orchestra commissioned my “QUASI UN CANTO ” for their Zagreb season; premiere on lovely Vis Island.

More and more anon. My sound-photos.

This is the beginning of my Special List of works and pomps ( no particular order of time or pleasure) that I treasure in my works accomplished. No mean list. I´ll be decade – hopping . Of course. To write it out in a verse:

1981 My SYMPHONY Nr. 1. ( “Symphonies of Symphonies Of Wind” ) premiered in Vienna by the O.R.F. Symphony Orchestra / Lothar Zagrosek.

2006 The American premiere of ” MAD SWEENEY ” with Boston Musica Viva / Richard Pittman , Speaker: Frank Corcoran.

2005 Zagreb Philharmonic / Conductor Chikawara premiere of ” QUASI UN CANTO” at the World Music Days. ( The N.S:O:I. did it later that year in Dublin. )

1980 for Sender Freies Berlin : Concorde / Jane O´Leary / soprano : Anne Woodworth premiered ” CÚIG AMHRÁIN DE CHUID GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK” in the divided city I was then living in as a D.A.A.D. Berliner Künstlerprogramm invitee.

1990 University of Milwaukee Library commissioned ” MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS” ( UWM Percussion / Pavel Burda ; Frank Corcoran, Klavier ). I was a Fulbright Professor there.

2007 ” QUASI UNA FUGA” at the Shannon Festival ; in Limerick Cathedral with the Irish Chamber Orchestra / Anthony Marwood .

2010 National Symphony Of Ireland / ColmanPearce / soprano: Chloe Hinton. My
” FOUR ORCHESTRAL PRAYERS” for Mezzosoprano and Orchestra.

2009 North German Radio Choir / Phillip Ahmann: ” NINE ASPECTSOF AN IRISH POEM ” for Solo Violin and Large Choir.
( And , oh yes, its 2007 Irish premiere with the National Chamber Choir and Celso Antunes ! Catherine Leonard, violin ! Wow ! )

2005 at the Dublin Festival. Sian Edwards and Ensemble Modern premiered my Festival commission , ” QUASI UNA VISIONE”.

2009 the Swiss Ensemble , “Antipodes” , premiered ” QUASI UNA SARABANDA” in Basle, Zürich and Bern ( Radio DRS recorded it ).

I will . Very soon. Compose a Corcoran Special List. Works and dates and special hiccups in my , by now, lived life. For me to live is to write. Tones and toons. Watch this space . As closely as you have in the fickle past dared. ( You did ? WHO is ” You” ? )

Dear Accusative / Nominative ” ME”,

1. Are you ?

2. Are you YOU ?

3. Are you ME ?

4. How can I ever be – come you ( – or, of course, “You”, eh ? )

5. which of us loves which ? whom ?

6. Will you prove revengefull – also to my childer ?

7. Should they best kill you, YOU or me ? Us ?

8. I have enough action with My Heavy Arsed First Theorem, certainly : ” I = I ” ( – premature and

banal to walz in here with our ” me” )

FOUR HAIKUS 2010

1. “E-mail me ” I whinged.

Not one duck in this white plain.

Sad eye is sad world.

2. He´s going blind too,

The phone was dead this Christmas

Bach´s organ very still

3. It is Parkinson´s

Two white organist´s knuckles

Cranned in the snow-clouds

4. My bicycle song:

” Steely fugues, white over black”

Thought keens thus this night.

The poet´s world cold,

Whitens , shivers and glitters.

Thought and word frozen.

( Próinsias Bán ´O Basho ; Nollaig 2009 )

Nova
Bernard Clarke Sunday, July 18th. RTE / Lyric FM Radio
9-11pm

Presented by Bernard Clarke. Nova is about new composers, new trends and new audiences. All new music here and now, chronicling what’s radical and what’s conservative, who’s established and who’s in the avant garde. A blend of contemporary classical, electronic, experimental and more. Featuring composer interviews/profiles, Irish works, and concerts from home and abroad.

Frank CorcoranComing up on Nova
Sunday July 18th: This week we hear Frank Corcoran’s Horizon concert recorded in the National Concert Hall last January. Featuring the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Chloe Hinton, this was a rare chance to hear some of the larger scale works of this Hamburg based, Tipperary born composer. A founder member of Aosdána, his output includes chamber, symphonic, choral and electroacoustic music, through which he explores particularly Irish issues like language and history.

Ciccadas today going for the late afternoon, I hear. The Irish love not their contemporary Irish music ; all a matter of marketing, you´d think so. Heavens ! Give us a bit of a tune! Sure I saw it at the 2005 Zagreb World Music Days, myself a mighty juror, Stanko Horvat now dead nearly as long. A Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra that´d practise my ” QUASI UN CANTO ” ; that´d be the hot Croatian day…