Frank Corcoran

Let’s get this slapped down fast on Humble Hamburg Musings . I writhe it out in a verse:

FESTSCHRIFT FRANK CORCORAN – OLD AND NEW – SEAN AGUS NUA . An Irish Composer Invents Himself

( edit. Hans-Dieter Gruenefeld ) ISBN 987-3-00-05153-1

was published in 2014 for my seventieth birthday. It appears that the Music Librarians of T.C.D., U.C.D., Q.U.B.,

D.C.U., Univ. College Cork, Galway , etc. have not yet got copies of this.

What does this all say about Churchill and the Irish ? Postcolonialism? Music at the Bottom of the Heap? The

Philosophy of Hopelessness ? Foam At The Mouth as THE Motor of Art ?

AMONG MY SOUVENIRS

I was just about to fling it away on the rubbish-heap of history, my CEOL – A Journal Of Irish Music, of April 1983, published in Dublin by the
Department of Education.

Then on the back-cover something caught my eye among the advertised publications of ” AN GUM”, that Department’s publishing house:

” DAN AIMHIRGIN – Seandan Gaelach le leaganacha Nua Ghaeilge, Ghearmainis agus Bearla .
Ceol le Frank Corcoran .
Praghas 80 Pingneacha . ”

” AIMHIRGIN’s SONG – Ancient Irish poem with versions in Modern Irish, German and English.
The music by Frank Corcoran.
Price : 80 Pence. ”

( My keyboard hasn’t got the necessary ” fada”s for the Irish . The Old Gaelic script, close to that of the Book of Kells. )

My hand faltered. Shivered. So my old Dept. of Education had had the gall to publish my choral Opus 1 ? Which the Goethe Institut had commissioned in the early seventies… – With such friends, who needed enemies, I thought. So much for ” publishing”; and for publishing in Irish in Ireland. “An GUM” was hardly the
most exciting or imaginative propagator of my tender score in my depressed Ireland of my seventies in my Dublin.
And yet. I was, I think, the first composer to set this pre-Christian, polytheistic text, the self-definition of the Celtic god of poetry , Aimhirgin.
With my vast, in-a-beehive mutterings of the score’s sixteen sopranoes and sixteen altos singing very softly ” Am gaoth i muir ” ( ” I am the wind on the
sea” ) before the high tenors trumpet it, I had, well, achieved high, choral ecstasy.
I’ll keep that old back-cover from April 1983

Fight that black sea of oblivion.

Hurrah for choral ecstasy.

Another year,

another train-ride up from Orvieto to Mestre.

Perhaps it is the colours the eye wants

. Or the swoosh and whoosh and gear-changing boats’ clutches that clutch my ear.

Not so much the usual Jesuit confessor’s cry : ” since September 2015, my son, how many times ? Tones ?

Musical works I have just crafted included the Piano Trio ( with viola ) of last winter 2016, in Hamburg,then the

gestating Clarinet Concerto,

my delightful 8 Duetti Irlandesi for Piano and Cello

which had, face it, haunted me for a long time ,

also the cello solo piece, ” Rhapsodietta Joyceana ” .

The Arena RTE Interview convinces.

The autumn 2016 RTE programme, ” New Cross-currents ” , also.

Venice next Sunday should bring be colours and time to situate myself a little. Walk. Dawdle. Sounds and sky.

Certainly form matters, the opening strings

‘ rhythmicized chord before the soloist lifts off / in the new Clarinet Concerto for new York 2019 .

A dreamed fragment or a motivic phrase.

I am not to blame for the

musical world’s GREAT mess. No.

So after my death in Venice, release this :

Life was harsh. Hands up those for whom it was not? More help, any help, would have been a great help; a little bitty praise, un poco ” notice” was a sin .

It would have been easy before my death to perform the ( very good ) TENORLIEDER, my massive , choral EIGHT HAIKUS ,

“stunning ” was the I FC M’s International Jury’s word in awarding me their 2013 Premier Prix. m
It would.

It wasnìt to be at all, either snobs or yobs were blocking, blatant incompetence and ignorance . The worst, indifference.

We are bet in the Irish national schools and in the university music-departments and somewhere in between. Bhi an

ceart ag an bPiarsach, ‘ swounds !

So the self and its shadows nimbly snake on , continue to block or embrace or question or accompany each other .

Till death us do part.

Musical death, no doubt, before that, the death of desire and passion to continue the noble slog, the composer as

coal-miner.

Twas nobler in the mind. Release this jumble, certainly. Much good.
Reply Reply All Forward

FRANK CORCORAN IRISH COMPOSER “PRISMA ” NDR KULTUR PROGRAMMES

in 2014 und 2015:

25.01.2014 I 20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Kleine Schule des musikalischen Hörens
Frank Corcoran hört das Violinkonzert von Johannes Brahms

21.06.2014 I 20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Kleine Schule des musikalischen Hörens:
Frank Corcoran hört „Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche“ von Richard Strauss

20.09.2014 I 20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Kleine Schule des musikalischen Hörens:
Frank Corcoran hört die 9. Sinfonie von Antonín Dvoøák

01.11.2014 I 20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Schuberts „Winterreise”
Eine Sendung von Frank Corcoran und Gerhard Müller

—————————————————————————————————————————-

04.04.2015 I 20:00 – 22:00 Uhr
Kleine Schule des musikalischen Hörens
Frank Corcoran hört Mozarts Jupiter-Sinfonie

“Remember me ! ” that age/old cry, piteous, imperious, born out of terror , oblivion being our threat….

Remember me in tones, bronze, the name of a lousy street, a tomb as a clarinet concerto, what else ?

Motor of art, with death a motor of religion, that which binds us.

I chisel it in , write it on water, in the sky,

all orchestral trumpets blazing.

Change the nib.

Begin a new composition.

Oblivion will lap. Of course it will. Stoics

and Epicureans and our Buddha and all the Celtic saints of the Burren and great or indeed bad, indifferent workers in

all the arts yell quietly those four syllables. ” R ” and ” M ” and ” B ” , enclosing just two vowels…. Not bad.

Try push and self-publicize ; the Irish composer as not quite there or here ….

Aha – is it The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture ?

Okay, dear Frank,

I’ll put 1 Dec in my diary and in the meantime I’ll keep you posted on any NEW GROVE developments.

es, Irish musicology hurrah ! Hipp hipp hurray !

FRANK CORCORAN

Yes.

Today is even more Keatsian, 25 degrees, kindly heat, kindly, nearly serene the lot, my lot. Post Venice colours,

water/colours and / sounds,

lagoon lyrics to be explored. Began my 4. String Quartet, dreamed last night….

This:

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

Three long years have passed / An Morfhile mailed me lines / Long melted the snow….

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

My Tipperary / cold as wintry Japan / Blue knuckles singing

Cool saki is best / Great hate, little room. Japan / my frozen mind now.

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

Tonight I roasted Pangar / Ban, my cold love , from hunger / Curse, weep for Issa

Ex patria lebend hat der irische Komponist Frank Corcoran eine ebenso kritisch-distanzierte wie kulturell-bewusste Affinitaet zu seiner Heimat.
Deshalb evozieren seine DUETTI IRLANDESI zwar in monophoner Cello-Stimme traditionelle Chants, denen Martin Johnson mit Respekt und Einfuehlung vokale Qualitaeten gibt, aber Pianist Fergal Caulfield fuegt die Sarabande-Rhythmen und schoene Klangdekors hinzu.

Ganz anders ist das RHAPSODIC BOWING fuer 8 Celli, indem es eine Oper im Oktett inszeniert, die Rollen durch diverse Spieltechniken charakterisierend.

Der Prosa-Aesthetik ist die RHAPSODIETTA JOYCEANA fuer Solocello zugewandt, wobei Johnson die Motivzellen und Syntaxeigenschaften ueber diverse Spieltechniken verbindet.

Eine schwierigere Aufgabe hat er beim CELLO CONCERTO, denn dieses opus magnum fordert Intuition und Kraft des Solisten. Johnson gelingt es, seine Vokalise durch alle Register des episch-lyrischen Parts vor gravitaetischen Brass-fanfaren und Perkussion souveraen zu gestalten, sich auf den knurrig-geschmeidigen Canto einzulassen, der metallischen Attacken der Violenza Selvaggia abzuwaehren und en bravura die episodisch angeordnete Conclusio zu
bestehen .
Ein grandioses Serk dieses Genres.

Hans-Dieter Gruenefeld

27. January 2018 . 19.00 Hamburg

GEMEINDE AKADEMIE BLANKENESE THE MUSIC OF FRANK CORCORAN

Vokalise for Heinz Gellrich ( Piano and Mezzosoprano )

2. SYMPHONY ( Tape Version )

5 HAIKUS Premiere

21:08

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (I) In Aonar Seal

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 2:48
21:11

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (Ii) Séan Ó Duibhir An Ghleanna

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 3:11
21:14

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (Iii) Príosún Cluain Meala

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 2:44
21:17

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (Iv) Na Conneries

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 3:20
21:21

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (V) A Úna Bháin – I

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 1:55
21:22

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: A Úna Bháin – Ii

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 2:32

21:25

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: A Mháirin De Barra

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 2:50
21:28

Title: Duetti Irelandesi For Cello And Piano: (Viii) Mo Roisín Dubh

Composer: Corcoran, Frank

Performer(s): Fergal Caulfield (Piano)

Album: Rhapsodic Celli: The Music of Frank Corcoran / RTE lyric fm / CD154

Duration: 4:34