Frank Corcoran

“Stop bashing Basho !”

Issa was furious now,

The bottle weeping.

25.1.2014. NDR – KLASSIK ” Prisma Musik ” .

Frank Corcoran´s radiophonic analysis of Brahms VIOLIN CONCERTO and

Frank Corcoran: VIOLIN CONCERTO .

TWO XMAS HAIKUS

Wine, songs, feasting
Halt for a moment my slide
Down Time´s cold ski-slopes.

Children, wrap up warm!
Old Red Fattie´s a-comin´,
Reindeers shit on snow.

The two works by Frank Corcoran, who was on hand to respond to the
dilemma in his unique, witty, wordy way, had to be toned down, so that
Corcoran’s music, which often comes across as Xenakis meets Irish
mythology, had an exceptionally mild manner on this particular occasion.

The Hugh Lane Gallery has this month added to the perversity of
affliction that can be inflicted on performers. The first concert of
the month, a programme of work by Frank Corcoran (Music for the Book of
Kells and Trauerfelder) and Thom Hasenpflug given by the RIAM
percussion ensemble under Richard O’Donnell, very nearly had to be
cancelled, and in the event Hasenpflug’s Bicksa had to be dropped.

The problem was volume. Percussion pieces are often very loud (the
marking on the fortissimo opening page of Bicksa is “Burnin’!”) and the
level of sound in rehearsal set off the alarm system. The energy
transmitted through the air caused an amount of movement in an
extremely valuable artwork that was sufficient to trigger the alarm.
Turning off the alarm was not an option, as it would have invalidated
the gallery’s insurance policy.

Horizonte Epen, Klagen, zwinkernde Zwischentöne
Frank Corcoran | Bild: Eugene Langan

Montag, 06.01.2014
22:05 bis 23:00 Uhr

BR-KLASSIK

Der irische Komponist Frank Corcoran
Von Ulrike Zöller

Die Klänge seiner Kindheit in der Grafschaft Tipperary am irischen Fluss Shannon bestanden aus Flussrauschen, Naturgeräuschen und, wie Frank Corcoran schmunzelnd erzählt, einem „Schweineorchester“, 100 Schweinen in vielen Tonlagen. Mit 21 Jahren hörte er zum ersten Mal ein Streichquartett und begeisterte sich so sehr für die Musik, dass er neben seinem Studium der Theologie und Philosophie auch Musik studierte. In den Studienjahren in Dublin, Rom und Berlin entdeckte der Komponist bei sich die Fähigkeit, seine Faszination für alte Mythen, die Erinnerung an die Klänge seiner Kindheit und seine literarische Begeisterung in Musik umzusetzen. An der Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg lehrt der 1944 geborene Corcoran bis zu seiner Pensionierung Komposition. Daneben schreibt er in vielerlei musikalischen Formen, für verschiedene Klangkörper, Ensembles, auch mithilfe elektronischer Mittel. Immer wieder aber scheint bei seinen Kompositionen die alte Welt der Druiden, der irischen Heiligen, der Feen, der Naturwesen und weitsichtigen Literaten durch – ebenso wie die ersten musikalischen Eindrücke seiner Kindheit: Die archaischen Klänge der Totenklagen wie auch das „Schweineorchester“ seiner ländlichen Heimat.

” For a small country, we have an impressive reputation for our contribution to the visual, literary and dramatic arts. We know how valuable the arts are as an expression of ourselves as a nation, not just economically but also as an articulation of our identity and imagination and consciousness in the world. ”
Fine words above from a contributor to the Irish Times´end-of-2013 Artists´Ideas On Saving Irish Arts… “Contribution to the visual…. ” Wait a minute ! He forgot to mention Irish music, Irish composers, Irish art in tones and symphonies . Why ? Because ceol na h Éireann, irische Kunstmusik he neither knows nor cares about nor is impressed by nor impinged upon…. Irish art-music is just not there. in his imagination. Nor in any kind of “national” consciousness. Not there. No composers in Ireland. – I´ve been preaching this for years ; our second-rate , post-colonial, freed State, – no idea of me as an Irish composer.
Weep. Groan. Tomorrow´s brave new Irish 2014 ´ll be the same.

Survived yet another Winter Solstice, our planet whirling , apparently out of control. Still, very glad 2014 is coming up fast now. Not that it promises a lot in the way of :
any Irish acceptance of Irish composers; Irish artists´ ( even big ones, mind you ) understanding why we composers are also creating Irish art; national institutions waking up to the fact that I have done the State some service and brought modest kudos occasionally to my native fields…. Irish composition. Such tunes. Nor will Irish musicology quickly grow up, nor indeed any consciousness of an Irish musical canon or half-way decently prepared curators of festivals and music-shenannigans of all kinds. Earned self-confidence in matters musical, is all I´d modestly be asking for in 2014.

We ( composing composers ) limp on; we lurch towards Christmas. Is it ” Ignis aequat omnia” again, well ? the Old Song Of The Cosmos?
But sure I thought we had dealt with that last Christmas ? I thought I´d pointed out, cleverly enough, that if we all thought thus all of the time we´d never get anything done. Nor written down.
Keep that in your Christmas background, will you ? Do the best you can; write with your usual maximum elegance, but with great courage. Not for gold or golf. Don´t copy my last explorings. Forge on. Nothing wrong with limping; it´s arguably better than slouching.
Happy Christmas, sun-tipped grey December rain-clouds. You´ll never see the likes of 2014. Never.