Frank Corcoran

RHAPSODIC CELLI:

THE MUSIC OF FRANK CORCORAN

RTÉ lyric fm CD154

Soloist Martin Johnson explores Frank
Corcoran’s writing for cello in all its
nuances, from the swagger of a concerto
and the rhapsodic polyphony of his
work for eight cellos through to the
composer’s arrangements of folk tunes
for cello and piano informed by the
rhythmic patois of the Irish language.

WEEK DATE PROGRAMME TITLE

4 02.04.95 John Field und seine Zeit
41/42 17.10.99 Charles Ives-Porträt zum 125. Geburtstag
12 22.03.03 „Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh“ – Stille in Musik
29 19.07.03 Great Britain läßt bitten (Länderschwerpunkt SHMF)
47 22.11.03 Franz Schubert zum 175. Todestag
06 07.02.04 Eine Winterreise
20 15.05.04 Charles Ives zum 50. Todestag
24 18.06.05 Irland – die Insel der Barden
02 13.01.07 Hörschule: Franz Schubert Sinfonie C-dur D 944
52 29.12.07 Frank Corcoran hört die Sinfonie g-moll
19 10.05.08 Frank Corcoran hört die 4. Sinfonie von Johannes Brahms
46 15.11.08 Frank Corcoran hört Beethovens 7. Sinfonie
23 06.06.09 Frank Corcoran hört Haydns Oxford-Symphonie
39. 26.09.09 Frank Corcoran hört Schuberts Sinfonie C-dur D 944
02 16.01.10 Frank Corcoran hört das Klavierkonzert c-moll von Mozart
11 20.03.10 Frank Corcoran hört die „Eroica“ von Ludwig van Beethoven
03 22.01.11 Frank Corcoran hört die 3. Sinfonie von Brahms
19 14.05.11 Frank Corcoran hört die 1. Sinfonie von Mahler –
26 02.07.11 Frank Corcoran hört die Sinfonie C-dur D 944von Franz Schubert (Whlg.)
50 17.12.11 Frank Corcoran hört die 2. Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler
15 14.04.12 Frank Corcoran hört Mozarts Klarinettenquintett
18 05.05.12 Frank Corcoran hört Mahlers Vierte
06 09.02.13 Frank Corcoran hört die 2. Sinfonie von Johannes Brahms
04 25.01.14 Frank Corcoran hört das Violinkonzert von J. Brahms
25 21.06.14 Frank Corcoran hört Till Eulenspiegel von Richard Strauss
38 20.09.14 Frank Corcoran hört die 9. Sinfonie von Antonin Dvo?ák
44 01.11.14 Frank Corcoran hört Schuberts Winterreise (Whlg)
14 04.04.15 Frank Corcoran hört Mozarts Jupiter-Sinfonie
03 23.01.16 Frank Corcoran hört das Cellokonzert von Antonin Dvo?ák

I am Frank Corcoran, Irish composer…

I am Francis Corcoran, Irish citizen…

I am Pr’oinsias ‘O Corco’rain, Irish Music Inspector

Is mise ” ” ” Cigire Ceoil ( Roinn Oideachais / Department of Education )

– Got that ? Hangs together ? Hmmm.

SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE

( Texts by Jacopone Da Todi ca. 1303 . English Version by Frank Corcoran 2010 )

1. Chi pro Cristo va empazzato / Pare aflitto e tribulato ! / Chi pro Cristo ne va pazzo / Alla gente si par matto ! / Chi vuol entrar in questa danza / Trov´ amor desmesurata !

He who raves for Christ´s insane / Most afflicted his great pain ! / Who for Christ loses his mind / He looks lost to all mankind! / But he who begins with this dancing / Measureless

love he´s sure to find !

2. Allegom´en sseppultura / Un ventri lupo envoratura ! / E l´arliquie en cacatura / In espineta, e rogatura !

I chose for my last tomb and shroud / A wolf´s belly after he´s devoured / Me ! My last remains that wolf´s shit / In among thorns in a deep pit !

3. Che farai, Fra Jacovone ? Ei venuto al paragone ! / / Well, what now, Fra Jacovone ? Now you´ve come to your trial ! The lodgings that they gave me is a hole underground. No denial !

Una casa sotterata; aréscece una privata ! / Non fa fragar de moscone ! / / Here a stinking jakes disgorges ! It won´t smell of perfumed roses !

They placed my legs in leg-irons . These rustle like sirens ! / / Porto jette de sparveri . Sonnegliano nel mio giro ! / Nova danza ce po´odire che sta appresso mia stazone / /

Listen askance ! / – You can hear my new dance !

4. O Papa Bonifazio ! Molt´hai jocato ´l mundo ! Penso me , che jocondo non te´n porrai partire ! / Per subita ruina, Ei preso´n tua masone !! / E null´om se trovone a poterti guarire ! / /

Oh Pope Bonifazio , with the world you played : ” Peek! Oh! ” / Yet I judge that your dying / Will be more than mere sighing ! / Your ruin has reached you / In your palace it´s breached you

! No doctor can heal you ! No nurse dare feel you ! / / El mundo nunne´cavallo / Che sse lass´enfranare ! / Che´l pozzi cavalcare ! / Secondo tu´volere ! / /

This world´s not a race-horse / To goad on with your spurs ! / To rein in at your whim / Till with your desires it concurs ! / /

Dell´aneme redente / Par che ne curi poco ! / La ve´t´accunc´ il loco / Saperai lo al partire ! / /

It´s not all souls´ salvation / It´s you´ve reaped your own damnation / At your parting thus, your passing / You will find out your destination !

Reply Reply All Forward

Mad bishop, Patrick,
He baptized all iguanas,
Penguins, too; lemmings !

Sent: Fri, Mar 17, 2017 8:04 pm
Subject: Re: Frank Corcoran Sár Haikíúadóir na Sleibhte

Patrick was hard stuff
Hard his slave’s pig and sheep stick
Yet he died crying

Cruach Phádraig –
fanann na seandéithe
glan uirthi

Covered their faces
On fasting Patrick´s Mountain
Noone wants old gods

It is a black wind
High up on Cruach Phádraig
Those gods´ faces cut

Swoosh down the mountain
Cowed gods, beaten, forgotten
By the newly washed

Adze-head Patrick
Whacked the mountain with his stick
All gods ran away ( F. Mac Culo )

21. Jan. NDR-KULTUR . 20.05 ” Prisma-Musik ” . Frank Corcoran hoert Dvoraks Cellokonzert .

22.05 Frank Corcorans Cellokonzert ( NSOI / Martin Johnson. Dirigent : Kenneth Montgomery )

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

17. January 2016

17.00 Utrecht time.

Dutch Radio Concertzender : Portrait FRANK CORCORAN

21. Jan. 2016 HAMBURG NDR-KULTUR . 20.05 ” Prisma-Musik ” . Frank Corcoran hoert Dvoraks Cellokonzert .

22.05 Frank Corcorans Cellokonzert ( NSOI / Martin Johnson. Dirigent : Kenneth Montgomery )

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

17. January 2016

17.00 Utrecht time.

Dutch Radio Concertzender : Portrait FRANK CORCORAN

Oh yes, I was a Fellow at the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts. It was summer 1990.

( How distant now. How many were the roads taken or not since that hot, hot June… Oh, the mystery of it all, my

life unwinding as a film-spool. ) I remember the great heat, even of that black lake, impenetrable, where I

went swimming with friend, Eddy Clift who later became the youngest Dean, then the youngest President of a well-

known Californian Fine Arts university.

The sound of a giant turtle plopping down from a tall tree into that still water would put my heart cross-wise.

( – Its jaws could crack thick wooden branches… )

My eyes in the great sun were peeled for copper-heads . I remember the thick black snake that daily rolled up from

its tree-nest to the kitchen backdoor for breakfast from Joe, himself very black. The week before I arrived as a

Composer Fellow Joe’s brother, Jim, had died in mysterious circumstances ; while fishing from his boat in the

shallow water at the wooded end of Sweetbriar Lake; he had apparently toppled in and drowned. We Fellows, mostly

from New York and the North , didn’t believe a word of the official police version. My nose smelled racialism,

foul play. Everybody clammed up. I remember , too, of a Sunday going to a Jerry Falwell service in his church in

nearby Lynchburg. Wacky. ( Yes, ” Lynch ” as in ” they lynched blacks in the good old days… ” ). My studio , piano

and bed were almost cool. I, too, gave an evening-presentation to my fellow- Fellows of my recent Opera,

“GILGAMESH ” before I returned for ever to Europe and Hamburg, my family lapped around with great sorrow and

mental illness, total break-down.

Eheu fugaces indeed….

Great that I enjoyed it greatl, Lutoslawsky’s CELLO CONCERTO

. A great work and a great opening strategy. ( I’d got to the Warsaw Spring in 1977 – it now seems so

incredible that the

good old Roinn Oideachais let me go. – Warsaw was an incredibly gray city with gray Jaruselskian soldiers all

over the place – it appeared as if not a stone from the Germans’ onslaught on the Ghetto had been repaired yet

…. Truly awful.

And yet so many East European composers were so grateful for that glimmer of hope and

that opening to us spoiled Westerns which the Festival provided .

Lutoslawski and the Missus stood at the top of the staircase in Symphony Hall and we all shook the

heroic hand – moving stuff…. It gob-smacked me as to how hugely important new music was for the Poles.

But also to see how vibrant also the other ( half-starved ) arts played their role.

And I was also puzzled by how they all hated the Govt.. . but yet how you couldn’t say a bad word about stiff,

half-blind, old General Jarusewlski who presided over it .

And me then coming out of a little country which understood nothing of ” Irish ” composed music.

Strange.

Subject: Cross Currents Radio series

– 9, 16, 23 September 2017

Hi,

Just sending you a quick email to say that the radio series, Cross Currents, that I interviewed you for is airing

tonight, 9 September at 7pm on RTÉ lyric fm.

It’s been a long road and I’m delighted that the series is finally made.

I’d like to thank you for being so generous with your time and for allowing me to interview you.

I really enjoyed working on the project.

1. September 2018 AMELIA

18.00 Palazzo Petrignani Sala dello Zodiaco

Prof. Frank Corcoran : “Sean Agus Nua – An Irish Composer Invents Himself. “