Frank Corcoran

Irish Composer

A LITTLE SAD STORY – SCEAL BEAG BRONACH

Well, it was after America and things were now very bad. Well, we were in the last stages. But how could I ever prove to the Court that she was starkers ? Raving ? Well, luckily the Judge ordered it. Well, he commissioned Hantel-Quittmann , the Court’s psychologistman. Well, Hantel – Quittmann wrote for the Court his
Report. Well,with this we nobbled her.
Well, you’d have thought that stopped injustice for the family . Well, no.Well, Hantel – Quittmann had written an enormously bloated Court’s Nobble Report .
Out of the thirty pages that the Court needed to nobble her( we’ll call them the Thirty Nobble Pages ) , well, Hantel-Quittmann had blown and bloated it up to make a hundred and thirty nobble pages for his Court
Psychologist’s Nobble Her Report . Well, of course, this quadrupled the Court Psychologist’s nobble fee which he demanded for
writing ( and for bloating ) that blown up Nobble Report .
Well, the Court demanded I pay Hantel-Quittman’s enormous Court Nobble Fee ( call it C.N.F. for short.
Well, broke, I bleated.
Well,broken, I took down a measuring instrument from the Court-walls and in a jiffy I had no trouble at all in demonstrating how good old Hantel -Quittmann had
out of the Thirty Nobble Pages made his hundred and thirty pages .

Well, he had just repeated himself without blushing. How well he’d padded out the thirty pages. our noble nobbler . How well he had doubled and quadrupled his nobble-material

so as, without wink or blush or grin, to swell the C.N.F. enormously. .
Well, I pointed this out first to the Judge and then to the Court ” Revisor” ( – over in Altona he was , I remember ) – I protested that our noble Nobble Report had been swollen to over a hundred andthirty pages whereas its kern needed only thirty nobble pages.
Well, the Court Revisor claimed that all the Nobble Pages were necessary and he

denied that Hantle-Quittmann had blown up his pages out of all proportions, that Hantel-Quittmann had been, well, engaged in a bit of very
expensive fiddling. I’d just have to pay by thenobble page.

Well, I refused to pay a C.N.F. more than for thirty pages. Well, they insisted I pay the C.N.F. in full, Hantel-Quittmann’s grandiosely fiddled hundred and thirty noble pages. Well, I
stuck
to my guns.
Well, the Court then ruled that for each C.N.F. due on each unpaid nobble page I’d just have to sit in jail, – for a nobble, noble page a day.
Well, I then went to jail in Altona. Well, I sat exactly one hundred days (a page a sat day … ). Well.
And that , well, taught me?
Well, it did not. Well, if it had to be done again, would I etc. etc.

Well, I would. Well, no, it’s never easy to nobble. To be noble….
Ah well….

PAVEL BURDA PREMIERED MY U.S.A. “MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS”

Pavel Burda was easily the best conductor ever of my MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS for Five Percussion And

Piano. At the Milwaukee premiere, we are now talking summer of 1990, his reading was startlingly right – a deft and

moving tempo, nimble conducting, the Early Irish argument flowing, sound-explosions properly controlled and

leashed till the exact moments of highest dramatic tension. Great power brandished and wielded with Burda’s gongs

and tam-tam and rhythmic canon with the two big drums and the timps.

Magisterial . Pavel Burda. Immensely moving. Getting on twenty six years now. But that Milwaukee percussion premiere

still sounds. Mighty.

1980 I WAS A ” STIPENDIAT” WITH THE BERLIN ARTISTS PROGRAMM ! WOW!

Das Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (auch DAAD-Stipendium genannt) besteht im Kern aus einem Stipendium für den einjährigen Aufenthalt eines Künstlers in Berlin mit Unterkunft. Jährlich verleiht der DAAD auf Empfehlung einer Jury rund 20 Stipendien in den fünf Sparten Bildende Kunst, Film, Literatur, Musik und Tanz + Performance. Für Stipendiaten aus der Bildenden Kunst gehört zum Künstlerprogramm die Organisation einer Ausstellung in der DAAD-Galerie und die Erstellung eines Katalogs. Literatur-Stipendiaten treten in Lesungen auf. Seit 1964 waren rund 1000 Künstler im Rahmen des Berliner Künstlerprogramms des DAAD in Berlin zu Gast.[4]

In der Sparte Bildende Kunst erhielten von 1963 bis 2009 gut 370 Künstler ein DAAD-Stipendium im Berliner Künstlerprogramm. Dazu gehörten Jorge Castillo (Stipendiat 1969), Daniel Spoerri (1973), Joel Fisher (1973), Richard Hamilton (1974), Duane Hanson (1974), Christian Boltanski (1975), Lawrence Weiner (1975), On Kawara (1976), Jannis Kounellis (1980), Nam June Paik (1983), Erwin Wurm (1987), Ilja Kabakow (1989), Nan Goldin (1991), Marina Abramovi? (1992), Rachel Whiteread (1992), Damien Hirst (1993), Andrea Zittel (1995), Pipilotti Rist (1996), Allan Sekula (1997), Rineke Dijkstra (1998), Steve McQueen (1999), Mark Wallinger (2001) und Willem de Rooij (2006).[5] Die Stipendien für Bildende Kunst sind mittlerweile so begehrt, dass Initiativbewerbungen in dieser Sparte nicht angenommen werden, und stattdessen eine Kommission selbst Kandidaten sucht und vorschlägt. In allen anderen Sparten können sich Bewerber selbst vorschlagen.

Zwischen 1963 und 2009 wurden gut 310 DAAD-Stipendien der Sparte Literatur an Autoren vergeben. Dazu gehörten Ingeborg Bachmann (Stipendiatin 1963), Peter Handke (1968), Ernst Jandl (1970), George Tabori (1971), Lars Gustafsson (1972), Friederike Mayröcker (1973), Stanis?aw Lem (1977), György Konrád (1977), Margaret Atwood (1984), Gao Xingjian (1985), Carlos Fuentes (1988), Susan Sontag (1989), Cees Nooteboom (1989), António Lobo Antunes (1989), Harold Brodkey (1992), Wladimir Sorokin (1992), Imre Kertész (1993), Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski (1994), Richard Ford (1997), Jeffrey Eugenides (1999) und Raj Kamal Jha (2012).[5]

Knapp 270 Komponisten und Musiker erhielten bis 2009 ein DAAD-Stipendium der Sparte Musik, darunter Isang Yun (Stipendiat 1964), Krzysztof Penderecki (1968), György Ligeti (1969), Morton Feldman (1971) und John Cage (1972).[6]

AND THIS AND THAT, DIARY ! 2012

International Choral Festival
43rd Seminar on New Choral Saturday 5th May 2012
Part 1
10.00 John.Fitzpatrick: Opening address
10.05 R.C. Introductions (Paul & choir, & Frank Corcoran)
10.15 NCC Performance of Two Unholy Haikus
10.20 Frank Corcoran on Two Unholy Haikus

ANOTHER ADDENDUM IN DARK DAYS

Certainly there are a few chamber-works waiting in the back drawer – waiting for
the light.
Maybe Tenorlieder, or a work for 2 Clarinets, pieces for Violin and Piano ( – this must in no way smack of culinary compromise, sweet cake or Kitsch ), a string quartet with double bass, an exciting work for ” Pierrot” quintet , a freshly baked Piano Trio ( with Viola ), the exquisite 8 IRISH DUETS for Cello and Piano and more.
They all await the light. Patiently. Also the huge MY ALTO RHAPSODIES with Full Orchestra.
No point in gnashing teeth at the times, paucity of chances, leadership, spondoolicks, understanding, readiness, curators or canon . No point. Tiocfaidh
a la. ‘Ar la. Their performance . Their epiphany. Meanwhile, the back drawer. Back-burner.

ADD SMALL THOUGHTS AND BIG !

I have found writing a ” word – music” radio-programme is also composition. I use time . I weave words and music.
( Yes, the opening matters greatly; also how I end )
There is a rhythm to my setting of musical examples; juxtaposition can be powerful, a passage with only text ( – itself perhaps using one or several voices ).
Then there’s the “information ” versus ” tone ” tension which I must also compose – none of your old Music Appreciation gush.
– What exactly do I wish to convey ? About the music under aural analysis ( the radio-listener has only two ears ) ?
Comparison of motifs and phrases which I first must disect, their bisection and variations and expansions or being whittled down ?
The art of making a radio-programme ” about” and with music . The thinking ear.