Frank Corcoran

” 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.

Tonight is darker,
Kinder; it keeps its nose dry.
Keeps madness at bay.

If “Maranatha”,
“Advent”, all that kind of thing ?
We´d all be locked up !

1. January 6. 2014 Bayerischer Rundfunk ( B.R. Klassik )
Komponistenporträt Frank Corcoran

2. December 1. 2013 Hugh Gallery Dublin Concerts At Noon. Richard O´Donnell Percussion:
Frank Corcoran MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS for 5b Percussion
and Irish pianist.
Frank Corcoran TRAUERFELDER / GOIRT AN BHRÓIN for 4
Percussion

Get the tone right.

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.

How scutter / scatter in that scullery ? ( – Yes, became my tones and vision, certainly ) My parents had bought Killavalla House, an extraordinary SMACKGOB! ( My ten years old composer´s radar , not so fast, parents ! ) . Elsewhere my writing about 1. Head-first, Afraid, I Wriggled Into Mother´s
Horrible Hens´House, 2. I got that call to Vienna, 1981; Lothar Zagorek wanted , with his Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra , to premiere my ” Symphonies of Symphonies Of Wind. ” He did. I came. We streamed it out to- – –

Why should it always be the ” Cork-screw´s Song ? ”
Short life , bits and fragments, not even a decent look or measure de corpse, quick little
nothings. Shards , a lovely word. This our scopological, post N.S.A. world , peep or look or stare at the banal, trivial, ” The moment of my dying ” , indeed , indecency rife and our dear culture of seeing half , all born out of these sixty ( ? ) years of We Have It Good.
No place for music there, here. Sorry .

“The mind has mountains, frightful ” etc. Imagine that !
Scaling them in the silence of this Lazio night ( still balmy ), this “self” that writes imagines also a musical idea or three, a few tones, a sensuous interval ( eg. a falling , erotic sixth ) , the low flute colour. – Creatio ex nihilo , no ! Yet a marvel.