Frank Corcoran

Huge sorrowful eyes

Misted over as horses

Discuss damp sorrow

I REMEMBER. I REMEMBER :

Remember, surfer, thou art but dust. It is the blight.
Wherefore, then, this mess about ashes in urns ? Or is it the sport angle? ( – the morning wilfullness , white bliss, electronic page delicious, calling out to me now : ” Ora et labora!” )
Is that it ? That all ? Sure now ?
It must have been nineteen fifty four, the early June morning already hot, suppressed excitement in the men all ready for go, harnessed horses frisky. The still still hay-knife in its oiled mowing-machine sheath ready for bloody murder, three cleanly cut off legs of a rabbit and an erring corncrake, its unfortunate nesting-instinct.
Far in the future lay her scream ( still dormant in June, that suppressed, silent energy, is how you saw it ). Far in my future lay this thrust to write this out now: how the eyes were filmed over, watching her interior soap-opera starring the greats of culture, a politician, an urn.
Well, that June fused the whole thing, the breadknife, blood culture at its cunning work, silence after Her Big Scream, white silken legs and the locked up meat-carver.
A child´s June bliss, hay smell now in these pixels. ( If you believe that, you´ll believe anything ) . Silence not always the best policy, no little sir. Maybe the muzzle. Wash her strait-jacket; hang out in this marvellous drying day, as they oil the mowing-machine before the huge horses´ nostrils begin dripping green streams of snot.
Get a grip on! You’re a man and not a June whinger! Stop your own inner scream right here or you´ll get a good slap ! Mind that urn.

1971 Feis Ceoil Prize

1973 Varming Prize For Irish Composers

1974 Dublin Symphony Orchestra Prize

1980 Berliner Kuenstler Programm

1981 Founding member Aosdana / Irish Academy of the Arts

1989 Fulbright Professorship

1999 Bourges Festival Premier Prix ( for WDR 1997 commissioned SWEENEYS VISION )

2002 Swedish E.M.S. Prize ( for WDR 1999 commissioned QUASI UNA MISSA )

2013 Cork International Choral Festival Sean O’Riada Prize

2013 International Federation for Choral Music First Prize ( for 8 HAIKUS / Manila University Choir )

Yes, here’s some of my choral music written over more than 40 years. Some:

1971 DAN AIMHIRGIN ( comm. Goethe Institut . Publ. An Gum )

1973 MEDIEVAL IRISH EPIGRAMMES ( RTE Singers rec. 1975 International Rostrum )

1975 HERR JESU CHRIST ( ” 1977 ” )

2005 9 ASPECTS OF AN IRISH POEM for Solo Violin and Choir ( Irish Chamber Choir / C. Antunes )

2008 ” ( NDR Chor / Philip Ahmann )

2013 8 HAIKUS won the International Forum For Choral Music Premier Prix ( Manila Univ. Choir ) Publ. Schott

Very significant news about the shin bone. You will try to get several opinions on the way forward, I suppose. The foot must have been paining badly if it persuaded you to get such a thorough check-up. Obviously, at all costs, you must work to ensure your future mobility is not impaired. Did anyone mention calcium/magnesium supplements? A doc over here urged me to do this too, to push back the threat of brittle bone and weak ligaments as we enter the next third of our lives. Vitamin D works well with cal/mag to ensure it is absorbed correctly by the body.

How did the older generation survive without the wonderful resource of Google as information finder? And Wikipedia. The Mayo Clinic website is very good too on medical conditions and solutions.

VIMEO 3.2.2015

Martin Johnson on Frank Corcoran’s CELLO CONCERTO

North/South Consonance
Midwinter Fest
ns_midwinter700
On Sunday afternoon February 15, the North/South Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Max Lifchitz will introduce New York audiences to five recent works by composers from Ireland and the US.

When & where
Sunday February 15, 2015 @ 3pm
Christ & St Stephen’s Church, 120 West 69th Street (between Broadway and Columbus)
New York

Details
Admission is free – no tickets required

Program
Frank Corcoran Quasi una storia (Nearly a Story)
Max Lifchitz Brightness Aloft

The wren
Earns his living
Noiselessly.

– Kobayahsi Issa

From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon-beholders.

– Matsuo Bash?

Over-ripe sushi,
The Master
Is full of regret.

– Yosa Buson

Consider me
As one who loved poetry
And persimmons.

– Masaoaka Shiki

In the cicada’s cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die.

– Matsuo Bash?

Blowing from the west
Fallen leaves gather
In the east.

– Yosa Buson

Winter seclusion –
Listening, that evening,
To the rain in the mountain.

– Kobayashi Issa

Don’t weep, insects –
Lovers, stars themselves,
Must part.

– Kobayashi Issa

My life, –
How much more of it remains?
The night is brief.

– Masaoka Shiki

An old silent pond…
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.

– Matsuo Bash?

I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.

– Kato Shuson

Over the wintry
forest, winds howl in rage
with no leaves to blow.

– Natsume Soseki

Sparrow’s child
out of the way, out of the way!
the stallion’s coming through

– Kobayashi Issa

Toward those short trees
We saw a hawk descending
On a day in spring.

– Masaoka Shiki

No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.

– Matsuo Bash?

In the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus –
A lovely sunset

– Matsuo Bash?

First autumn morning
the mirror I stare into
shows my father’s face.

– Murakami Kijo

The lamp once out
Cool stars enter
The window frame.

– Natsume Soseki

PROGRAM IV
Monday, March 14, 2011 at 8 PM
St. Patrick’s Day Gala
FRANK CORCORAN
LIVIU MARINESCU
HOWARD QUILLING
MOON YOUNG HA
Songs of Terror and Love
Moto Perpetuo
Anticipation
Fairy Tale
Max Lifchitz, conductor
The North/South Consonance Ensemble

Frank Corcoran entry in :

THE BLACKWELL COMPANION TO MODERN IRISH CULTURE ( 1999 )

Frank Corcoran entry in :

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF IRELAND ( Gill and McMillan, ed. Brian Lalor 2003 )