Frank Corcoran

Each year , including this one, I have to buy a new sun-hat. Why ? A lone squirrel is pinching now from my walnut tree. And all parturitioning vipers keep about their invisible business as the nights get really cold here . Two hens, like dogs , answer the call of old Maria-Rovensa , next garden. Morning birds chitter alright after the rapidly dying heat. While thinking of the New York premiere ( early in 2011 ) of newest ” SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE ” ( I englished Jacopone Da Todi´s great shout ! ) I scribbled this October Haiku:

Grease this chalice, grace !

“E lucevan le stelle” ….

Basho hiccups twice.

I am gathering there IS a modest readership. Beware – again , again, it threatens sane sanity´s composer´s logic – the Anti – Corcoran Theorem : ” The quality of the work ( qQ x Ww = I P ) is equal to its performances , how many , my son? How grave ?

I put this to myself ( it is now three in the October morn , about to be born ) : when awake, bake a Haiku or three.

Twice Basho scribbles.
” Harder than planting rice is
To wash my own back….”

Or what about this Haiku-baking:

Sweet Heart of Jesus,
You, my gentle vocative.
Underfoot an ant.

Well, is this, then death?
A last, lonely ciccada
Is worried no more.

Is glic iad lucha / San fhomhar oll-órga. Ari´s / Ní bheidh a leithéid ann….

( A last baked Haiku for now as our roses-fingering dawn sneaks in …. )

Guarda i ratti !
M´immenso di Autunno .
– Ciascuno così

I put this to myself ( it is now three in the October morn , about to be born ) : when awake, bake a Haiku or three.

Twice Basho scribbles.
” Harder than planting rice is
To wash my own back….”

Or what about this Haiku-baking:

Sweet Heart of Jesus,
You, my gentle vocative.
Underfoot an ant.

Well, is this, then death?
A last, lonely ciccada
Is worried no more.

Is glic iad lucha / San fhomhar oll-órga. Ari´s / Ní bheidh a leithéid ann….

( A last baked Haiku for now as our roses-fingering dawn sneaks in …. )

Guarda i ratti !
M´immenso di Autunno .
– Ciascuno così

2005 Spring “Kunst/Musik” Cologne: “It´s An
Ill Wind Blows On An Irish Composer”.

2002 Music Manual Vienna: “Frank Corcoran”.

2004 New Irish Press “The Sounds Of Exile”.

2007 December 13 Ireland House . N.Y.U.

Ditto Dec. 14 Princeton University : “The
Dolmen´s Lament” presentation.

2008 Jan. 22 Hugh Lane Gallery Dublin: Calleno Quartet premiere my FIRST STRING QUARTET

2008 February in Salzau Castle : “ACOUSTIC TURN” ( Wilhelm Fink Verlag )

2008 January 21. Lyric Fm :” IRISCHE MIKROKOSMOI” for the Irish Chamber Orchestra

Is there more. Yes. Sicut fumus. Our little life is rounded with a sleep.

This is what . I am not attempting to dinge time ( or Time ) with a belt of a rubber hammer. Yet it behoves that I list quietly and soberly details of works of mine and their performances or premieres in order:

1. to fix them here.
2. to fix them for at least myself.
3. to write ” Fuit”. They have happened.
Once they were ” are”. Once , too, they
were keenly awaited by me , their birth-
pangs and – delights. They have been. Are
they has-beens ? Not necessarily . They,
my composed composing deeds and tonal
structures and musical images and sonor-
-ous dreams and fashioned edifices and
bits and singing pieces can be again. In
each new performance.

That´s why.

1999 Bergamo commssion for ICE ETCHINGS

( 9 Winds )

1993 4 CONCERTINI OF ICE Düsseldorf Sin

-foniker / Mark Schlingensief

22003 W.D.R. ( Dr. Michael Trapp ) reviewed my Symphonies 2, 3 and 4 . Great !

2008 October World Haiku review , vol. 6, Issue 4, brought my Prize Haiku.

2008 Futura Festival, Crest, France, ” QUASI UNA MISSA ”

2008 March 17. Dutch Radio Frank Corcoran Portrait, incl. QUASI UNA MISSA, PIANO TRIO, ROSENSTOCK LIEDER, 3. WIND QUINTET, SWEENEY´S FAREWELL.

I´ll continue with my List Of A Modest Composer´s Modest Successes; order in disorder, surely ?

2007 David Stromberg played ICE ETCHINGS for Solo Cello at the Unerhörte Musik Berlin .

1980 – 1981 Berliner Künstler Programm of the D.A.A.D. invited me to Berlin for a composing year. I did.

2009 King´s Place London , Darragh Morgan premiered “QUASI UN PRELUDIO “.

2009 in My Magic Garden I discovered the Jacopone Da Todi texts of new SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE ( Premiere March 14 2011 in New York – more anon ! )

2009 My RTE texts for “The Quiet Corner”.

2007 My Dublin James Joyce Festival.

2004 “QUASI UN PIZZICATO” for Wireworks, Hamburg

2005 Hungarian Radio Bartòk Celebrations in Budapest programme “QUASI UN BASSO” as Irish entry.

2005 RTE commissioned “QUASI VARIATIONS ON A Maire De Barra ” forSolo Viola. Wow !

2008 Yes, Bucarest : “QUASI UN DUO”.

1999 Bergamo comm. ICE ETCHINGS NR. 1

1999 WDR commissioned the electronic ” QUASI UNA MISSA” which won the 2002 Swedish EMS Prize.

2009 Czech Radio did a Frank Corcoran Portrait with all my electronig works.

1996 “JOYCEPEAK MUSIK ” won the Studio Akustische Musik Prize.

2002 Malmö Festival : “QUASI UNA MISSA ” and ” MAD SWEENEY ”

2008 Concorde / Jane O´Leary with “THE LIGHT GLEAMS ” for the Samuel Beckett Centenary, Dublin and then for Cerkin Castle Concert, Llubljana.

1983 N.I.C.O. / David Robertson : my work ” CONCERTO FOR STRING ORCHESTRA ” which is out on Composers´Art Label.

2005 “QUASI UN BassO ” for Allan von Shenkel in faraway Washington. ( Hungarian Radio then took this as the Irish contribution to their Bartòk Festival )

2005 N.S.O. / David Brophy : ” QUASI UN CAOINe” for 7 Wind, 4 Str.s, Piano and Percussion, 3 Saxophones PLUS an Accordeon !

2004 Deutschland Radio Berlin commissioned the electronic “TRADURRE TRADIRE “.

2009 I loggedin here my “EIGHT HAIKUS” texts which I then composed in “EIGHT HAIKUS BY FRANK CORCORAN ” for S.S.A.A.T.T.B.B. Choir ( Watch 2011 premiere ).

Also in my Composer´s List Of Goodies :
1977 “MEDIEVAL IRISH EPIGRAMMES ” for the RTE Singers / Hans W. Rosen went to the Paris International Rostrum Of Composers.
( Eric Sweeny later also did a memorable performance and recording of the work ! )

2000 The N.S.O. / Richard Pittman did the revised version of “THREE ORCHESTRAL PIECES – Pictures From MY Exhibition” . ( Colman Pearce´s 1975 performance with the
RTESO was very strong ! )

“FAREWELL SYMPHONIES” for Tape And Orchestra ( RTECO / Seoirse Bodley ) was a RTE entry for the 1982 Prix d´Italie.

1997 WDR commissioned the electronic ” SWEENEY´S VISION ” which then won the 1999 Bourges Festival Preier Prix.

2005 the Croatian ” Cantus ” Chamber Orchestra commissioned my “QUASI UN CANTO ” for their Zagreb season; premiere on lovely Vis Island.

More and more anon. My sound-photos.