Frank Corcoran

December 6 – after much Aer Lingus Dec. 5 ( “Hurricane Hamburg” ) grounding , I lifted off from Dublin ( ” A cold stratosphere it was of it ” ) . My Dec. 1 Sunday Noon Hugh Lane Concert had
almost not taken place…. High and vicious dynamics of and with steel, animal skins, wood and gongs , tam-tam, gongs, etc. in my MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS and – worse- those sawed cymbals and triangle suffering-points had , in the rehearsal, begun to make great Renoir´s great
” UMBRELLAS” painting Meisterwerk vibrate. Great . Would his paint flake ? Flake on ?
Well, ten minutes before my High Noon Konzert I got the wink: Yes, ye may flay, slay, bate, strike, pummel and slash sheer percussion down sillion alright. But at a price: reduce your damned decibels, reduce the/ your latent raw energy. We did. Veni. Vinci.
So far so muted. My other Corcoran master-piece, “GORT AN BHRÓIN” / “TRAUERFELDER” / “FIELDS OF SORROW” for 4 Percussion ( 1995 City Of Hamburg commission for the poor enough 50th. poor anniversary of that Auschwitz ( ! ) Liberation ( ! ) we neutered, we performed it .
Is this kind of thing normal?
No. It is not normal. But it mirrors a national contempt. For music, Irish and contemporary, high musical composition, great compositional vision. On-going.