Frank Corcoran

Dear Mr Corcoran

Many thanks for your permission. I have the necessary CDs which I have been listening to for some time.

My dissertation is entitled ‘The Portrayal of Early Irish Saga-Literature in Post-War Compositions’ with the final chapter devoted to your Mad Sweeney series.

Frank Corcoran BOOK – Here’s the rough outline of a Plan :

Das Buch über Frank Corcoran zu seinem 70. Geburtstag soll eine Hommage von Freunden und zugleich ein möglichst viele Facetten umfassendes Porträt des Komponisten und Autors sein.

I. Biographische Skizze

II. Autobiographische Reflexionen
Frank Corcoran: “It’s A Cold Wind Blows On An Irish Composer” (Kunstmusik, Frühjahr 2005)

Frank Corcoran: “A Composer Ruminates About His Art” (Manuskript)

Frank Corcoran: “Looking Back And Looking Forward” (New Music News, May 2004, CMC Dublin)

Roger Doyle: “Frank Corcoran on Being A Composer in Dublin” (Interview, source?, 19??

II. Die Musik von Frank Corcoran im irisch-europäischen Kontext

a) allgemeine Werkkommentare von

Michael Dervan “A Very Worried Man” (Irish Times 1995)
Dr. Lutz Lesle (Komponistenporträt, DLF – Atelier Neuer Musik 1995 / 96?)
Dr. Lutz Lesle (“Seelenlandschaft einer Insel”, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 4 / 2002)
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld (Komponistenporträt, “Substanzen für die Zukunft”, Music Manual 1 / 2002)
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld (“Simplex” – Interview, Ensemble – Magazin für Kammermusik 4 / 2011)

b) exemplarische Werkkommentare

Axel Klein: Klaviertrio (in: Axel Klein: Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert)

Frank Corcoran: “Do Dolmen’s Lament?” (The Journal of Music in Ireland, 11-12 / 2001)

Frank Corcoran: “My Music Is A Four Letter Word – Ceol” (The Journal of Music in Irleand, 3-4 / 2001

Hans-Dieter Grünefeld: “Quasi Una Visione” (Interview, Music Manual Sommer 2005)

Rezensionen zu: Symphonien 1-4, Mad Sweeny u.a.

III. Gedichte von

James Liddy (To Frank Corcoran u.a.)

Gabriel Rosenstock

IV. Persönliche Hommages (alle Originaltexte) von

Klaus Schöning ( Ars Acustica WDR ), Prof. Tony De Ritis ( Composer , Northeastern University Chicago ), Niksa
Gligo ( Musicologist ; Zagreb Univ., langjähriger Leiter der Zagreb Biennale ) , Georg Hajdu ( Prof. Hamburg , Computer Composer ), Hans-Heinrich Raab ( NDR ),
Gabriel Rosenstock ( irischer Dichter, Akademiemitglied ), Ulrich Leyendecker ( Prof. , Mannheim , Composer ), Ben dwyer ( Irish composer, Prof. at Middlesex University London, Colman Pearce ( Dirigent Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra – er dirigierte mehrere früheren Corcoran-Werke ), Guido Zaccagnini ( RAI Musica und Prof., Santa Cecilia, Roma ) , Eddy Clift ( Dean of Visual Studies , Westbury University USA ).

V. Frank Corcoran als Autor
a) Original Haikus
b) mindestens ein Rundfunkmanuskript mit einer Analyse eines Werkes von Schubert o.a.

VI. Miszellen (Repros)

a) Programmzettel und Konzertplakate
b) Preisurkunde
c) Postkarte von Seamus Heaney
d) Brief von Frank Corcoran (als Jugendlicher) an seine Mutter
e) Partiturseiten (von “Haikus” u.a.)
f) Studentenausweis
g) Porträt-Fotos

Anhang

Biographische Zeittafel

Liste der Kompositionen
(chronologisch mit Premierendaten und Auszeichnungen)

Diskographie
(chronologisch, LPs, Sampler und CDs, evt. mit Abbildungen der Cover)

SIX HAIKUS

1. Five dogs – or seven –
Snarl in the cold morning air:
Barking: ” Kill the Spring!”

2. First light; wintry hope. 3. Who goes there? / Summer!
Frozen iron, hoe and spade. My pen scrawls on white paper.
Another day dawns. Soft horns! Clarinets.

4. Bits of sticky sleep 5. Suppose God is light?
My eye tries to see itself A mountain´s shadow purple?
Evening birds chitter “Ciúnas, a h-anaim!”

6. Sunset, ” tramonto”,
Tiptoes through this, our window.
Well, is this then death?

FRANK CORCORAN : Irish composer, living in Hamburg and Italy. Member of Aosdana. Studied in Dublin,
Maynooth, Berlin, Rome. 1980 – 1981 Berlin Ártists Fellowship. 1989 – 90 Fulbright Professor in the U.S.A.
Many composer-prizes, distinctions and commissions, including
2012 Cork International Choral Festival Seán ´O Riada Prize . Works performed and broadcast in Europe, N. American, Australia. See www.frankcorcoran.com also for discography and work-list. Among newest works : 2013 CELLO CONCERTO. 2012 VIOLIN CONCERTO ( NSO / Alan Smale/ Christopher Warren-Green ). EIGHT HAIKUS ( Manila University Choir ) . 2011 SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE ( New York NORTHSOUTH ), 2010 9 ASPECTS OF AN IRISH POEM ( North German Radio Choir ), 2009 QUASI UNA FUGA ( Irish Chamber Orchestra ), 2008 QUASI UN CANTO ( Zagreb Philharmonic ) . etc. etc.

Buildings of note

Whilst there are other buildings of architectural interest in and around Borrisokane, the following are featured in ‘An Introduction To The Architectural Heritage Of North Tipperary’ [29] and on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage website [30]

Semi-detached houses with integral arch, Main Street (c. 1800): Pair of semi-detached three-storey houses with integral carriage arch.
Water Mill, Mill Street (c. 1810): Two four storey blocks. (Demolished 30 April 2010[10])
Church of Ireland church, Main St. (1812) Single-cell Board of First Fruits church.
Former miller’s house, Mill Street (c. 1815): Three bay two-storey house attached to mill.
Kylepark Agricultural School, Kyletombrickane (c. 1843): An agricultural school founded on his estate at Kyle Park, Borrisokane by Thomas George Stoney[31]
The Terrace, Nenagh Rd. (c. 1815) Two pairs of semi-detached houses and a detached house, two storey over basement with outbuildings and yards. Listed as protected structures by Tipperary County Council (RPS Refs S425 to S429).[32]
Old Church Centre, Mill Street (1839): Cruciform plan gable fronted former church.
Borrisokane Courthouse and College (c. 1850): Former Workhouse and courtyards.
Methodist Chapel, Main Street (1868): Gable fronted single cell church.
David Clarke Hall, Mill Street (c. 1930): Gable-fronted memorial hall. Briefly converted to the Stella cinema during the 1950s and 1960s.[33]

Notable people

Frank Corcoran, Irish composer, born and lived at Killavalla House

The Goethe-Institut Choir comprises a refreshing mix of singers of all ages and many nationalities. Founded in 1965 at the request of the then Director of the Goethe-Institut Dublin, the choir was privileged to have Cáit Cooper as musical director until her death in June 1998.

Since then, with renowned conductor John Dexter at the helm, the choir has continued to live up to its high reputation and play a vital and vibrant role in the cultural life of Dublin. The Choir performs at least three concerts per year, including the very popular Christmas Concert in the National Concert Hall, Dublin. The performance schedule also includes annual concerts performed in spring and summer, in addition to special events such as the St. Cecilia Orchestra’s Bach Cantata Series or the Carmichael Centre’s Good Friday concert held in the magnificent and historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

Since the choir’s foundation, programmes have featured the music of a wide range of composers including Vittoria, Schütz, Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner, Haydn and Britten. A significant feature of performances has been the inclusion of the work of Irish composers, including Brian Boydell, Seoirse Bodley, Frank Corcoran .

FRANK CORCORAN JOYCEAN AESTHETICS COLONIALISATION
( – The Wild Colonial Boy indeed…. )

They just went live with the essay on Colony…SEE: http://www.colony.ie/#!joyceanaesthetics/csdx

Text, audio, manuscripts and photos…..I think it looks, sounds and reads

well….this is a very hip journal and everyone on Dublin in reading this right

now……!!!!!!

Access through CHROME…..NOT Safari

Very gladly I reprint here below my 2006 little vignette. Good work well written. Courageous prose.
Polyphonic associations, too; the words spin out.
Like well-wrought music. It was just before I composed ” QUASI UNA FUGA” for 18 Strings. Benfatta, indeed.

In einer eMail vom 16.01.2006 22:15:09 Westeuropãische Normalzeit schreibt FBCorcoran:

My heart is white. Croí Bán. Them Corbianco cows will be my medal, my matins.
They’re now lowing that our garden is ‘‘classical’’?
Serpents keep insisting, though, on the ‘‘Romantic’’ character of red-ochre-peperino play, a higher symmetry resulting from the play of the up-close
drunken trip-up on a magic garden’s railway-sleeper or a stopped Georgic sewer with,
say, my Croí Bianco’s Stent blanching at the death of music since Verdi’s letter to
Giulio Ricordi.

I did try to couple stippled (- why ‘‘stippled’’?) madness with the
non-raving, wavy line.

Keep to things of the white heart. Even before we get into Trakl’s
‘‘Die ungebornen Enkel,’’ ‘‘Clann clainne nár rugadh,’’ your and yere and ours.

Mine is bluish, a purple ventricle about its proper business in North
Lazio’s cow-world. Neither Narcissos nor Hiakinthos is what’s comin’ through on
the Corbianco cows’ internet this tender – is- indeed – the- blue-black
Montefiascone night, not a Grodeck in sight.

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Awards

Corcoran has won a number of awards throughout his career. His awards include:
Feis Ceoil, Dublin, 1972.
Varming Prize , Dublin, 1973 ( Chamberpot Sonata )
Dublin Symphony Orchestra Prize, Dublin 1975 ( 3 Orchestral Pieces )
Berliner Kuenstler Award, Berlin, Berlin 1980.
Fulbright Professor , USA , 1989 – 90.
Founding Member , Aosdana – Academy Of The Arts, Dublin 1982.

StudioAkustische Kunst, Cologne, in 1995 (Joycepeak Music)
Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition in 1999 (Sweeney’s Vision)
EMS Prize, Stockholm, in 2002 (Quasi Una Missa)
Sean O’Riada Prize, Cork International Choral Festival, in 2013 ( Two Unholy Haikus )
International Forum for Choral Music First Prize , in 2013 ( Eight Haikus )

He has been a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of the Arts which honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland, since its inception.
Bibliography

Annette Kreutziger-Herr: “Frank Corcoran”, in: Komponisten der Gegenwart (KdG) (Munich: edition text+kritik, 1992ff.), 5th supplement, July 1994.
Axel Klein: Die Musik Irlands im 20. Jahrhundert (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1996).
John Page: “A Post-War ‘Irish’ Symphony: Frank Corcoran’s Symphony No. 2”, in: Gareth Cox & Axel Klein (eds.): Irish Music in the Twentieth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), p. 134–149.
Benjamin Dwyer: “An Interview with Frank Corcoran”, in: B. Dwyer: Different Voices. Irish Music and Music in Ireland (Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2014), p. 94–111.
Hans-Dieter Grünefeld (ed.): Old and New – Sean agus Núa. An Irish Composer Invents Himself. Frank Corcoran. Festschrift at Seventy (Lübeck: the editor, 2015); ISBN 978-3-00-050153-1.

References

Hazel Farrell: “Corcoran, Frank”, in: The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, ed. by Harry White & Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), p. 243–5.
“Frank Corcoran”. Current members. Registrar of Aosdána The Arts Council. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
“Frank Corcoran”. Irish composers. Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
Corcoran, Frank. “Frank Corcoran”. Retrieved 3 January 2010.
Brian Lalor : The Encyclopedia Of Music In Ireland ( Gill and McMillan 2003 )
Blackwell Companion To Modern Irish Culture ( Blackwell 1999 )

Frank Corcoran Festschrift (März 2015)

TITELSEITE

Frank Corcoran Festschrift At Seventy

Hans-Dieter Grünefeld (ed.)

SEITE 2 (innen)

Buchinfo

Porträt-Foto Frank (AOSDNA)

Bibliographische Angaben (ISBN etc.)

SEITE 3

Titel

Hans-Dieter Grünefeld (ed.)

SEITE 4 (oder 5)

Aetna Haikus

SEITE 6

Preface (Hans-Dieter Grünefeld)

SEITE 7

Contents

I. Biographical Sketch (AOSDNA)

II. Autobiographical Reflexions

1. Grandfather Clock (F. C.)

2. It’s A Cold Wind (F. C.)

3. Looking Back (F. C.)

4. Interview Roger Doyle

5. Dolman’s Lament (F. C.)

6. “To Dear Frank” – On The Occasion Of Your 70th Birthday (by Alan Smale)

III. Portraits

7. “The loss of the culture in Ireland is why I am interested in mytho-poetic remembrance and imagination” (Interview by Benjamin Dwyer)

8. “The Light Gleams An Instant” (F. C.)

9. “The light gleams…” (by Jane O’Leary)

10. Composer Portrait (by Lutz Lesle, Deutschlandfunk)

11. On The Music Of Frank Corcoran (by Wolfgang Tolk)

12. Substance For The Future (by Hans-Dieter Grünefeld)

13. “Quasi Una Trasmissione Radiofonica” (by Hans-Heinrich Raab)

14. “It’s A Long Way From Tipperary. Irish Composer Frank Corcoran Appointed Professor At The Hamburg Hochschule Für Musik” (by Lutz Lesle)

15. “Tales, Shadows, Signs, Stains” (by James Liddy)

16. “On Haikus And Other Items” (Interview by Georg Hajdu)

IV. Comments And Analysis Of Compositions – Chamber Music

17. Simplex – The Chamber Music Of F. C. (by Hans-Dieter Grünefeld)

18. Piano Trio (by Axel Klein)

19. Composer’s Note On “The Piano Trio” (F. C.)

20. Composer’s Note On ” String Quartet No. 3″ (F. C.)

21. Composer’s Note On “Songs Of Terror And Love” (F. C.)

22. Composer’s Note On “The Book Of Kells” (F. C.)

23. Quillspill – On Hearing A Performance Of “Music For The Book Of Kells” And “Trauerfelder / Góirt an Bhróin” (by Philip Casey for Frank Corcoran, on his 70th Birthday)

V. Comments And Analysis Of Compositions – Symphonical Works

124. A post-war ‘Irish’ Symphony: Frank Corcoran’s Symphony No. 2 (by John Page)

25. Composer’s Note On “Some Orchestral Works” (F. C.)

26. Composer’s Note On “Symphonies Of Symphonies Of Wind” (F. C.)

27. Composer’s Note On “Quasi Una Storia” (F. C.)

28. Hommage To Frank Corcoran (by Nikša Gligo)

29. On Frank Corcoran’s Music (by Ulrich Leyendecker)

30. Composer’s Note On “Quasi Un Basso (F. C.)

31. Composer’s Note On “Quasi Una Fuga” (F. C.)

32. “Quasi Una Visione” (Interview by Hans-Dieter Grünefeld)

33. “Texts Of Four Orchestral Prayers” (F. C.)

34. Frank Corcoran – Composer (by Colman Pearce)

35. “Guiness, Paddy’s Whisky, Salmon” (by Guido Zaccagnini)

36. “Joyceian Aesthetics, Ethnic Memory, And Mythopoetic Imagination In The Music Of Frank Corcoran” (by Benjamin Dwyer)

37. Composer’s Note On “Quasi Una Storia” (F. C.)

38. “Alto Rhapsody” (F. C.)

39. “To Frank Corcoran” (by James Liddy)

40. “Eight Haikus” (F. C.)

EPILOG

41. Farewell Haiku
(Irish / English)

VI. Notes On The Authors And Sources

VII. Discography

For more information (e. g. complete catalog of works) see:

www.francorcoran.com
www.cmc.ie