Frank Corcoran

FRANK CORCORAN
(b 1944 )

Frank Corcoran was born in Tipperary in 1944. He studied in Dublin and Rome, and in Berlin with Boris lacher, returning there in 1980 with a Composer Fellowship.
Since 1983 he has served as professor of composition and theory in Hamburg and in 1989-90 was a Fulbright guest-professor in the United States of America, lecturing at CalArts, Harvard, Bloomington, Boston College and elsewhere.

His compositions include four symphonies, the first of which was first performed in Vienna in 1981, and several orchestral, chamber, electonic and vocal works.

His compositions have been performed widely at home and abroad and he has received many commissions and awards, being represented at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, at Aspekte Salzburg, the Zagreb Biennale and elsewhere.
Role: Classical Composer
Album Title
Catalogue No Work Category
CORCORAN: Symphonies Nos. 2, 3 and 4 Marco Polo
8.225107 Orchestral

MORE HAIKUS:

The day was snowing / This temple farted white birds / How long till my death ?

What colour these gulls / Swerving between the snow-flakes ? / My cold eyes see all

Old Tipperary / cold as wintry Japan / Cold knuckles singing

Cold saki is best / Great hate, little room. Japan / Of my cold mind now.

I love kimonos / Lovely prattering creatures / More wood on the fire

Tonight we roasted Pangar / Ban, lovely cat, from hunger / Who’ll weep for him now?

Rhapsodic Celli:

The Music of Frank Corcoran

CD Release June 2017

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 composer’s arrangements of folk tunes for cello and piano, his ”

DUETTI IRLANDESI ”

informed

by the rhythmic patois of the Irish language.

Frank Corcoran has lived in taught in Germany for most of his professional life but has

retained a profound connection with the literature and traditional music of his native

country. It is this distance from and relationship with Ireland that informs so much

of his music, directly as in the case his short

“Rhapsodietta Joyceana” for solo cello

The results of Marco Polo’s survey of contemporary Irish music has been somewhat variable, to be honest, but this one is surely a highlight.

Frank Corcoran (b. 1944) studied with Boris Blacher and obviously learned a lot, especially with respect to scoring – indeed, one quality that is immediately striking with all three works here is the marvelously effective use of orchestral resources to create a wonderful range of textures and shimmering colors, with particularly effective use of percussion to drive the themes and developments (and wind instruments for color) but vying with growling, smoldering lower strings.

This is far from easy music, however – mostly uncompromisingly avant-garde, at times reminiscent, perhaps, of Elliott Carter or Henze, but for the most part exhibiting a rather distinctive mode of expression.
Striking themes are introduced to be ripped apart by aggressive strings before the remains are scattered across an ingeniously woven, contrastive tapestry.
It is actually quite fabulous stuff, strongly recommended and given far more than adequate performances here; indeed the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland must have been genuinely inspired by the music,

for they drive it on with relentless vigor and fire in a manner that has frankly been missing to a certain degree on other releases in the series.
Sound quality is pretty excellent as well. Recommended with enthusiasm.

ONE HAIKU Frank Corcoran

Watch their broken jaws

Lie with the battlefield flies,

The dying sun low.

Thursday 19 November

2015

10:49

INVITATION: Frank Corcoran Book Launch, 8pm, 24 Nov, Royal Irish Academy of Music

Please find below an invitation to the launch next week of a newly published book on

Irish composer Frank Corcoran.

Please note this book launch will follow on from a CMC salon event, 7pm – 8pm in the

Royal Irish Academy of Music which features music by Frank Corcoran and other composers

performed by the Royal Irish Academy of Music Percussion Ensemble.

?

—

——– The Contemporary Music Centre ——
Nurturing the composition and performance of new Irish music.

MY 2915 COMPOSER REPORT :

Festschrift Frank Corcoran

Cello Concerto . March 13. NSO

Quasi Una Storia 15 February NYC

Hessischer Rundfunk Portrait 1.4.2015

Concertzender ” ”

Trauerfelder for 4 Percussion 24.11.2015 RIAM

Launch Festschrift FRANK CORCORAN ”

James Joyce and Frank Corcoran 26.11. James Joyce Centre Dublin

Dortmund Chormesse 1 – 4. 10. 8 Haikus

Schott Mainz publishes ”

3 Pixels for Oboe and 3 Strings concluded

NDR 4. Symphony 4.4.2015

NDR Cello Concerto 4.12.205

Concertzender Frank Corcoran Portrait 1.5.

Piccolo Quartetto Filarmonico composed for 2016

Czech Radio Frank Corcoran’s Electronic Music 1.5.2015

etc.

Reply Reply All Forward

NORDDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK

RADIOTIPPS

Sonnabend,
SENDEWOCHE 49

3. Dezember

Prisma Musik

Thema: Kleine Schule des musikalischen Hörens:

Frank Corcoran hört das Streichquintett C-Dur von Franz Schubert

Das Werk gehört zu seinen letzten und gilt Kennern als Gipfel dessen, was in dieser Kunst überhaupt möglich ist. Generationen haben sich den Kopf darüber zerbrochen, wie Schubert zum Beispiel die magische Stimmung des Adagio-Satzes erzeugt hat.

Der irische Komponist Frank Corcoran versucht in der Kleinen Schule des musikalischen Hörens den Geheimnissen dieser Musik auf die Spur zu kommen, die einem unbegreiflichen Schaffensrausch auf dem Kranken- und schließlich Sterbebett entsprang.

Danach Frank Corcorans 4. Sinfonie aus dem Jahre 1996

( National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Cond, Colman Pearce )

At Kelvin zero / My music slows un poco / Icy minims burst.

Once it was a jar / All Etruscan arrogance / See this cracked piss-pot

Herald angels sing : Glory to our King´s nappies May they melt this cold

This jar of water As if poor Keats´s urn Will not split across

Happy the camel Under Arabian sky No frost underfoot

From cracked clay that jug Sub-zero temperature Cracks its beauty now

Our unmild Buddha: ” Look ! That crack on the jug´s lip ! ” Cold terra cotta

Frozen electrons Challenge their Cold Creator: ” Heat us up! Kiss us! ”

John Keats , shivering, Turned, touched, stroked his Grecian Urn Ice-drops his poor tears

My tones are cold grapes Frosty in this Polar air I embrace myself

Van Gogh´s cold fingers Daubed in his cold water-jug ” Will Spring come, O Herr ? ”

dúisithe ag oighear an próca uisce scoilte aige ( Gabriel Rosenstock )

Lieder aus Irland
Silbensang & Poesie
Der irische Komponist Frank Corcoran

Samuel Beckett
Warten auf Godot

12.6.1897

( Als Podcast und in der Bayern 2 App verfügbar )

Lieder aus Irland – Silbensang & Poesie

Autorin: Ulrike Zöller / Regie: Petra Herrmann

“Lilting” nennt sich der Silbengesang, mit dem man in Irland mangels Geige oder Dudelsack Instrumente nachahmt. Zum Kauf von Instrumenten fehlte oft das Geld – außerdem ersetzten die Silben die durch die Engländer verbotene Landessprache. Nur in abgelegenen Teilen der Insel konnte sich der Gesang in irischer Sprache noch erhalten. Die Lieder Irlands spiegeln die Geschichte des Landes wieder: Die Geschichte der alten Könige, der Geistermythen, den Kampf um die Unabhängigkeit, aber auch die Tradition der ausgeprägten Erzählkunst zwischen Bauernkate und Dichtersalon, zwischen Theater und städtischem Club.

Heute werden neben englischen Balladen, poetischen Liedern, Rebellenliedern und Folksongs auch irische Totenklagen und Geisterlieder gesungen: Ob klassisch orchestriert, elektronisch umgesetzt oder im Pub bierselig intoniert.

Moderation:
Redaktion: Petra Herrmann

Unter dieser Adresse finden Sie die Manuskripte von radioWissen:
http://br.de/s/5AgZ83