Frank Corcoran

” RHAPSODIC BOWING”

for 8 Celli Frank Corcoran ( 2010 )

Yes, I do know, there are those who rape the humble e-mail – even further disappointment ! Divide I up here and thus its myriad abusers into , very broadly enough, say :
1. I e-mail – but shortly before I , hung from my neck
by the left ironed pyjama leg , slip down side-ways from that closed – temporarily- lavatory lid, now closed hopefully for ever.

2. demand, nay, grab Cúchulainnish by a kerne´s hound´s hurley-ball´s churlish throat , me and my present e-mail a hush out in Kepler´s vast, hushed planetary glides and scoops.

3..

2. Because I expect and await and seek / sigh for love from a poor, poorest of glorious execute the e-mail quick.

See H. D. Grünefeld on :
www.nmz.de/online/skeptisches-vertrauen-portraetkonzert-frank-corcoran

Actually it was always “fun” , forming and shaping a radio-programme, a quickie or an epic longie , in whatever language. More for myself than any other I will recall some I made over thirtyfive odd years. “Stravinsky´s SACRE” was a big two hour job for Hessische Rundfunk in them very dark middle eighties. Jump to almost yesterday for a radio-beaut for Lyric Fm : ” Bach Came Through Borrisokane” where I proved the Leipzig Meister´s behind many a sean nós Slow Air ( – more anon on this shape-shifting act of musicology…. No answer from Irish Musikwissenschaftler, any. None. Why ? ) . For Norddeutscher Rundfunk´s ” PRISMA MUSIK ” these past few years I´ve been practising the gentle art of Radiophonic Analysis, an almost Hans Keller analysis of, say Beethoven´s Seventh , ( – was it his “Irish” ? – Really ? ) or Mozart´s c – minor Piano Concerto, or his heart-breaking g – minor String Quintet, and so on. I remember doing a lot of programmes – again those eighties – on traditional Irish music for the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Beginning of the nineties I recorded 6 programmes, ” La Musica dell´Isola Smeralda” for R.A.I. in Rome, including a few orchestral Corcoran works. Grand work for Bremen Radio also. W.D.R. commissioned all kinds of disparate programmes from me , from a large Irish radio-stew of political figures ( yes, I did interview Charlie Haughey for that, many other Irish voices , too ) entitled ” Die Grüne Insel – politische Stimmen ” on to themes closer to my heart like ” György Ligeti´s Frühe Chormusik” or ” Music As Religious Expression “, or “Webern´s Atonality”, or “Frank Corcoran – Self-Portrait” etc. Munich Radio commissioned my big ” Berkeley´s Philosophy ; Esse Est Percipi ! ” There was Sender freies Berlin and His Maestro´s Voice. Then in the mid-nineties they had my week-long NDR Afternoons presenting a grateful Hamburg public all the then recorded works of Charles Ives. I even made a self-portrait for the then German Democratic ( ! ) Republic´s Berlin Radio. To balance things, I then made another for the other crowd, R.I.A.S. Deutschland , too; I remember painting a large radiophonic canvas with my Fulbright Professor´s year 1989 – 1990 in the U.S. for DeutschlandFunk ( – in Cologne by the mighty Rhine where , a few years later, I could capture the wash and spume of that vast water in my “SWEENEY´S VISION” in 1997 ; two years later this won the premier Prix at the ( now in mortal danger from Sarkozy´s chop ) Bourges Festival. ) Back to Lyric Fm and ” James Joyce, the greatest Irish Composer ” and other jewels. With Tim Lehane on RTE Radio there was at least, I remember, ” Do You Call THAT Music !?” and my commentaries – performances of ” Frank Corcoran´s Irische Mikrokosmoi”. There was more, certainly . An archives is a grand thing. Must dig out old mss. old wounds bleed. old broadcasting joy. Ephemeralities ? Depends on your metaphysics – of sound, of time, of smoke, of artistic intent, of enjoyment plus comoposition and words and things and flights of radio-fancies . Yerra !
Oh , I will nearly not forget ” The Quiet Corner” a few sets of them, for RTE. Nor my Brahms Symphony for Hamburg ( which one ? ) . Nor Beethoven´s EROICA which is scheduled for broadcasting on, I think, March 20 coming. Plenty more. The radio liveth yet. The ear understands with it. Great etherial joy. Powerful time-stunts.

Actually it was always “fun” , forming and shaping a radio-programme, a quickie or an epic longie , in whatever language. More for myself than any other I will recall some I made over thirtyfive odd years. “Stravinsky´s SACRE” was a big two hour job for Hessische Rundfunk in them very dark middle eighties. Jump to almost yesterday for a radio-beaut for Lyric Fm : ” Bach Came Through Borrisokane” where I proved the Leipzig Meister´s behind many a sean nós Slow Air ( – more anon on this shape-shifting act of musicology…. No answer from Irish Musikwissenschaftler, any. None. Why ? ) . For Norddeutscher Rundfunk´s ” PRISMA MUSIK ” these past few years I´ve been practising the gentle art of Radiophonic Analysis, an almost Hans Keller analysis of, say Beethoven´s Seventh , ( – was it his “Irish” ? – Really ? ) or Mozart´s c – minor Piano Concerto, or his heart-breaking g – minor String Quintet, and so on. I remember doing a lot of programmes – again those eighties – on traditional Irish music for the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Beginning of the nineties I recorded 6 programmes, ” La Musica dell´Isola Smeralda” for R.A.I. in Rome, including a few orchestral Corcoran works. Grand work for Bremen Radio also. W.D.R. commissioned all kinds of disparate programmes from me , from a large Irish radio-stew of political figures ( yes, I did interview Charlie Haughey for that, many other Irish voices , too ) entitled ” Die Grüne Insel – politische Stimmen ” on to themes closer to my heart like ” György Ligeti´s Frühe Chormusik” or ” Music As Religious Expression “, or “Webern´s Atonality”, or “Frank Corcoran – Self-Portrait” etc. Munich Radio commissioned my big ” Berkeley´s Philosophy ; Esse Est Percipi ! ” There was Sender freies Berlin and His Maestro´s Voice. Then in the mid-nineties they had my week-long NDR Afternoons presenting a grateful Hamburg public all the then recorded works of Charles Ives. I even made a self-portrait for the then German Democratic ( ! ) Republic´s Berlin Radio. To balance things, I then made another for the other crowd, R.I.A.S. Deutschland , too; I remember painting a large radiophonic canvas with my Fulbright Professor´s year 1989 – 1990 in the U.S. for DeutschlandFunk ( – in Cologne by the mighty Rhine where , a few years later, I could capture the wash and spume of that vast water in my “SWEENEY´S VISION” in 1997 ; two years later this won the premier Prix at the ( now in mortal danger from Sarkozy´s chop ) Bourges Festival. ) Back to Lyric Fm and ” James Joyce, the greatest Irish Composer ” and other jewels. With Tim Lehane on RTE Radio there was at least, I remember, ” Do You Call THAT Music !?” and my commentaries – performances of ” Frank Corcoran´s Irische Mikrokosmoi”. There was more, certainly . An archives is a grand thing. Must dig out old mss. old wounds bleed. old broadcasting joy. Ephemeralities ? Depends on your metaphysics – of sound, of time, of smoke, of artistic intent, of enjoyment plus comoposition and words and things and flights of radio-fancies . Yerra !
Oh , I will nearly not forget ” The Quiet Corner” a few sets of them, for RTE. Nor my Brahms Symphony for Hamburg ( which one ? ) . Nor Beethoven´s EROICA which is scheduled for broadcasting on, I think, March 20 coming. Plenty more. The radio liveth yet. The ear understands with it. Great etherial joy. Powerful time-stunts.

Well, the composer´s ” I ” HAS a ” holy excuse ” ( – See my previous message to a carefully thankful cosmos ) . Uncork ! – Uncork what ? This sake ! Why ? It is because the poet sees : ” New year / New dew-drops!
” – Heavens ! The worth of words, heaving poor WHamlet´s whuge word-and-tone pile, wonder-and- piles a-plenty ! Whisper the vowel-shift and – whorls of Gabriel Rosenstock´s original ” Fís ” , his vow-vision leaf-meal ( – so whither MY choral whither ? Wrist ? Whist ? ) :
” Cactais / Tráthnóna Fomhair / Leamh, gan snua…. ”
I bow my composer´s nib before pith.

A small job, a quickie . Not so, not . We shall suppose that I “set ” the following Two Haikus – how heavenly, keep-the-hand-in – for a little S.A.T.B. relax. The texts, Irish . Consider:

” Uncork the sake ! / I have a holy excuse ! / New Year , new dew-drops…. ” = ” Cúis mhaith chun sake a ól ! / Breathnú ar bhraonta drúchta ! / I mbliana. ”
And now, hushed, my, his second beaut: ” They´re bored . How boring! / These cactus faces have bored / Our autumn to death! ” = ( Gabriel Rosenstock´s original )
” Cactais / Tráthnóna fomhair / Leamh, gan snua . ”
How whittle ? – Mmmm. Best lick , lambent, lovely vowels and fricative glides , melismatic stunts, mini-motivic carpentry, melismatic shavings. Brevity with those breves. Easy now, wood-polish, shape-shifters !
Yes, gleam, shape-glides.
”

NINE PRATOLEVA PEARLS 2008 Piano Solo ca. 8´.

SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE 2010 Bass Voice plus “Pierrot Lunaire” quintet- lineup ca. 12.30´

EIGHT HAIKUS 2010 Choir SS AA TT BB ca. 9´.

CLARINET QUINTET ( RTE Commission 2009 ) Clar. plus String-Quartet ´ ca. 16´

4 ORCHESTRAL PRAYERS = 4 Orchestral Lieder 2009 mezzosop. and Órch. ca.16

QUASI UNA FUGA Revised Version 2009 Full Orchestra of Strings ca. 10

VIOLIN CONCERTO 2009 Violin and Orchestra ca. 17´

QUASI UN PRELUDIO 2008 Solo Violin ca. 2.30´´

QUASI UNA SARABANDA 2008 Cl. Hn. Bassoon, StringQuintet ca. 11´

QUASI UN BASSO 2008 Piano and D.Bass ( A,D,G,C tuning ) ca. 4´

Hinton , RTÉ, NSO/Pearce , NCH, DUBLIN Andrew reviews “Quasi Una Fuga” and ” Four Orchestral prayers” .
Meno male, as they say in Celleno….

New work stirs in 2010. Might be cellistic. Lyric. Lied also ? Leid, too ?
Man flicks, God flunks, kind-of-thing….wdr 3 / Hörproben – but WHICH year, Frank Corcoran, WHICH ? got it right , Aha ! 3,3,2000 with Dr. Michael Trapp, as it so happened. He reviewed FRANK CORCORAN “Sinfonien Nr. 2, 3 und 4. ” Marco Polo 8.225107 ( LC 9158 ) . He praised. He writhed : ” Die warten auf ihren Bartók ” . And : ” Corcoran ist einer der wichtigsten zeitgenössischen irischen Komponisten”. Certainly. He loved my : ” The birth of music was always accompanied by ritual murder! My Fourth Symphony is my dolmen, a grave-monument in stone. Yet again, these tones from my Third pursue me. 1996 was a very hard year for my torturers, tones D and C Sharp. Yes, Orphic tones my oboes at my beginning. Yes, ritual violence, vain control. Yes, my story in tones of Cage and Aristotle, a logic in my chaos. “