Frank Corcoran

irish composer

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THAT AGE – OLD , PITEOUS CRY ” REMEMBER ME ! “

REMEMBER ME :

“Remember me ! ”

– that age/old cry, piteous, imperious, born out of terror , oblivion being our threat.

Remember me in tones, in bronze, in the name of a lousy street, or a tomb as a clarinet concerto, what else ?

Motor of art, as with death a motor of religion,of that which binds us.
I chisel it in , I write it on water or in the sky, all our

orchestral trumpets blazing.
Change the nib. Begin a new composition.
Oblivion will lap. Of course it will.
Stoics and Epicureans and our Buddha and all the Celtic saints of the Burren and great , even bad, indifferent workers in,
well, all the arts yell quietly those four syllables. So ” R ” and ” M ” and ” B ” enclose just two vowels…. Not bad.

WAS THIS NEW YORK PERFORMANCE IN 2013 ?

The North/South Chamber Orchestra, NEW YORK / MAX LIFCHITZ

Tuesday, March 12 at 8 PM

Christ & St Stephen’s Church
120 West 69th St (bet Bway & Columbus), NYC

Free Admission. No tickets necessary

http:www.northsouthmusic.org

North/South Consonance, Inc. continues its 33rd consecutive season of free-admission concerts on Tuesday evening March 12. The GRAMMY nominated North/South Chamber Orchestra under the direction of its founder Max Lifchitz will premiere five works especially written for the occasion by composers representing a wide variety of styles and hailing from Ireland and throughout the US. The composers are: Harry Bulow, Frank Corcoran, Binnette Lipper, Joyce Solomon Moorman and William Pfaff.

The concert will start at 8 PM and will take place at the auditorium of Christ & St. Stephen’s Church (120 West 69th St – between Broadway and Columbus) on Manhattan’s West Side.
Admission is free — no tickets necessary.

The event will feature the first performance of ” Variations on Myself ” by the noted Irish composer,

Frank Corcoran.

A founding member of Aosdána – Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists – Corcoran was born in Tipperary in 1944 and completed his musical education in Berlin under the supervision of Boris Blacher. His Two Unholy Haikus won the Sean Ó Riada Award at the 2012 Cork International Choral Festival and the First Prize in the 2013 International Federation of Choral Music.
Several of his orchestral and choral works are available on recordings issued by, among others, the NAXOS, Col-Legno, and Caprice labels.

For almost thirty years he taught composition and theory in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg, Germany.
Corcoran first visited the US in 1989 as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Subsequently, he has been invited to lecture at Indiana University, CalArts, Harvard

University, Boston College, New York University and Princeton.

As basis for his recently completed work, VARIATIONS ON MYSELF,
Frank Corcoran employs a melodic theme derived from the pitches suggested by the composer’s name: F-D-C#-Eb-C-A.

Melodic and harmonic materials are generated by mutating these pitches while strict
metrical writing of the strings contrasts with undulating lines in the wind
instruments often moving at their own speed.

DIE WELT 2004 KULTUR KOMPAKT

DIE WELT

MUSIKHOCHSCHULE HAMBURG

: Frank Corcoran

Veröffentlicht am 30.04.2004 | Lesedauer: 2 Minuten
Von Katja Engler
Kultur kompakt
0

Das Studio 21 für aktuelle Musik gibt heute um 18 Uhr, im Mendelssohn-Saal der Hochschule für Musik und Theater

ein Geburtstagskonzert für den irischen Hochschulkomponisten

Frank Corcoran (60).

Zur Aufführung kommen u.a. seine Werke Ice-Etchings für Cello,
Joycepeak-Musik,
Bachs 3. Suite für Solo-Cello.

Nach dem Konzert findet ein Gespräch mit dem Komponisten statt.

Der Eintritt ist frei.

4 HAIKU DE CHUID G. ROSENSTOCK

Bhí poc ina chónaí i dTeamhair
A bhí cráite gan comhluadar gabhair:
Ní fhanfadh níos mó
Ar seisean: ‘Let’s go!’
Agus d’imigh sé – glan as a mheabhair!

~

Bhí bean rialta i gCathair Chinn Lis
(Is i luimneach atá sí anois!)
Chuaigh a cat i bpoll móna
Is ar feadh an tráthnóna
Ar sise go brónach: Pis! Pis!

~

Bhí striapach bheag dheas ann, dar Duach!
Nár dhuine í chuige ach muruach.
Deireadh custaiméirí, ‘Conas?’
Ach ba chuma sa donas
Ach an craiceann a fháil is a luach!

~

Bhí ollamh i gCathair Saidhbhín –
Ollamh le Ceol, le bheith cruinn:
Is leor orlach mar nod
Rug sé greim ar a bhod
Agus sheinn a dhá váls ar veidhlín!

FRANK CORCORAN NEW WORKS :

RHAPSODIETTA JOYCEANA for cello solo

is a short tribute composed with the 5 notes that I get from the 5 tone-names in the words,
” James Joyce” i.e. using the German, Italian and English versions ,
j A Mi Es j dO y Cis = or A, E, E flat, C, C sharp

to get the fun going ; which is almost over before a true rhapsody gets started.
Tender and reflective too. Just a little rhapsody.

SEVEN MINIATURES for violin solo

is composed of seven little ” Charakterstuecke” that echo the great literature for the virtuoso
fiddler.
Number 1 with its echo at the end , Nr. 7 , is a pale imitation of a Bach sarabande.
In the intervening 5 movements , each being faster than its predecessor,
the whole work , from shadow-sarabande to shadow-sarabande, is a kind of composed speed – up.

My tribute to this noble instrument.

Variations on A MHAIRIN DE BARRA is exactly that. I have always loved this great Munster love-song with its tale of the unrequited passion of the singer for his bitch – lover; she has got between him and God.
This is a lovely, myxolydian melody with its architecture of 4 phrases, its dizzying leap up to its highest note and then the resigned descent at the end…. Variation-technique has, of course, a long and honourable history in music . Here the dark colours of the solo viola’s open strings are predestined to highlight the passion of the song and the singer. It was commissioned by Lyric Fm in 2005 in order ” to bring the listener from the old to the new, from the Sean to the Nua. “

7.4.1981 BERLIN T.U. ELECTRONIC STUDIOS ” STIMMEN “

D A A D KOMPONISTEN 1981 KONZERT

stimmen 4 (TU-Lichthof)
im Rahmen der DAGA’81:

»vergleichendes Konzert« mit je einem instrumentalen und einem elektroakustischen Werk, Solisten: Michael Ranta (perc), S. Toettcher (vc), N. Maejima (vc), M. Pedzialek (ob)

von

Takehito Shimazu: Zytoplasma (Band) & Monogonie (mit Cello),

Frank Corcoran: Balthasars Traum & Solosuite für Cello,

Boguslaw Schaeffer: Maa’ts & Proietto (für Oboe & Band),

Sukhi Kang: Mosaico & Bronzezeit (für Schlagzeug und Band).

The Irish Chamber Orchestra (ICO)

is an Irish classical music ensemble, administratively based at the University of Limerick.

János Fürst founded the ICO in 1963.[1] The ICO consisted only of strings as its regular ensemble for many years, adding wind, brass and percussion players on a freelance basis when needed. The ICO was reformed in 1970 under the name of the New Irish Chamber Orchestra and the principal conductorship of André Prieur.[2] The orchestra first toured North America in 1978. In 1995, the orchestra was again reconstituted, reverting to its original name of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.[3] The ICO formally added horn players and oboes to its roster in 2008.

Following a succession of Artistic Directors including Fionnuala Hunt, Nicholas McGegan and Anthony Marwood, the orchestra has taken a new approach, appointing two artistic partners: Hungarian conductor Gábor Tákacs Nagy (Principal Artistic Partner) and the clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann (Principal Guest Conductor/Artistic Partner).

Leading Irish composers who have worked with the orchestra include Frank Corcoran, John Kinsella, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Bill Whelan and Elaine Agnew.

FRANK CORCORAN :

Born 1944 in Borrisokane, Tipperary, near the mighty Shannon river.

Studied philosophy, music, ancient languages, theology, in Maynooth, Rome and Dublin and compositio in Berlin ( Boris Blacher ) .
Has written orchestral, choral, chamber and computer music .1980 – 81 Berliner Künstlerprogramm. Professor at Hamburg 1983 – 2008 .
1989 – 90 Fulbright Professor in the U.S.A. Guest lecturer at Harvard, Princeton, Indiana, NYU, CalArts, etc.
Member of the Irish Academy of the Arts Aosdana since 1982.
His works have been recorded and broadcast in Europe, U.S.A., Canada, Australia, etc.
First Symphony premiered in Vienna1981.

Represented several times at the International Composers´Rostrum.

For his seventieth birthday 2014 CMC Film:
” The Light Gleams ” .

Many commissions and distinctions. Awards include :

First Varming Prize for Irish Composers 1974, Dublin Symphony Orchestra Prize 1975,
Studio Akustische Kunst 1995 ( JOYCEPEAK MUSIK ),
Bourges Festival Premier Prix 1999 ( SWEENEY´S VISION ) ,
Swedish E.M.S. Prize 2002 ( QUASI UNA MISSA ) ,
International Foundation for Choral Music 2013 First Prize ( EIGHT HAIKUS ) ,
Cork International Choral Festival 2012 ( TWO UNHOLY HAIKUS ) etc.

New works include :

CELLO CONCERTO ( N.S.O. Dublin 2015 ) , ALL MY ALTO RHAPSODIES ( Italy 2014 ) QUASI UNA STORIA for String Orchestra ( New York 2015 ), VIOLIN CONCERTO ( Irish Radio / N.S.O. 2012 ) CLARINET QUINTET ( RTE commission 2011 ) , NINE ASPECTS OF AN IRISH POEM for Choir and Solo Violin ( NDR 2010 ) , FOUR ORCHESTRAL PRAYERS ( N.S.O. 2010 ) , MAD SWEENEY ( Boston Musica Viva 2006 ) etc.

For discography etc.

see www.frankcorcoran.com