Frank Corcoran

Dear Sir/Madam,

Only days following the launch of the book Different Voices, which highlights as a central theme the bias against music among cultural commentators and curators, The Irish Times announces Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks – a major cultural curation covering the last 100 years. The project excludes music. As my letter highlights, this is not an isolated occurrence but an ongoing practice of cultural partitionism, which continues to negatively affect the reception, promotion and understanding of Irish classical/art/contemporary music both here and internationally.
We really cannot allow this official rewriting of Ireland’s cultural history to continue without highlighting to the curators of Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks that a tremendous body of world-class Irish music has been composed within the period of the project and that it represents an extraordinarily rich engagement with Ireland – an entire body of cultural expression of the highest artistic degree cannot and should not be ignored.
With this in mind, I wish to send the attached letter to The Irish Times and to the directors of the Royal Irish Academy. It is of the utmost importance that those of us in the music sector (be it performance, composition or education) are allowed to take our place in the cultural consciousness of this country. I would be most obliged if you would give this letter your imprimatur. Your signature will greatly enhance our call for cultural recognition.
Yours sincerely,

January 17. 2016 Dutch Radio CONCERTZENDER :

COMPOSER PORTRAIT FRANK CORCORAN

January 17. 2016 CONCERTZENDER

23.-26.9.1998 Inventionen 98 “50 Jahre Musique concrète”:
Ausstellung “acousmatic visions” der GRM im SFB, Vorträge, Symposium
8 lange akusmatische Konzerte in der Parochialkirche mit einem gemischten Akusmonium von GRM Paris und TU Berlin

1999: Preise
Beim Internationalen Wettbewerb 1999 in Bourges: erste Preise für „Xi“ von Unsuk Chin und „Sweeneys Vision“ von Frank Corcoran.

Yes, see :

here a CMC link for the Festschrift.

A new book on Frank Corcoran celebrating his recent 70th birthday has been published

RHAPSODIETTA JOYCEANA Solo Cello

8 IRISH DUETS Cello and Piano

PICCOLO QUARTETTO FILHARMONICO Bass, Cello, Viola and Violin

3 PIECES Violin and Piano

LOSING SEAHENGE Film by James P. Graham

CELLO CONCERTO ( NSO / Martin Johnson )

QUASI UNA STORIA 13 Strings ( New York )

FOUR LAST WORDS FROM THE CROSS S A T B

AN IRISH XMAS CAROL S A T B

MY ALTO RHAPSODIES Alto and Orchestra

A DARK SONG Bass Clarinet

VARIATIONS ON MYSELF 5 Strings and 5 Wind

5 TENORLIEDER Tenor and Piano

9 LOOKS AT “PIERROT” V / Cello / Pno / Fl / Clar

7 MINIATURES Solo Violin

3 PIECES Piano and Violin

QUASI UN GRAN DUO Cello and Harp

IN THE DEEP HEART’S CORE Harp Solo

4 PIECES 2 Clarinets

8 HAIKUS SS AA TT BB

CONCERTO for Violin and Orchestra

SONGS OF TERROR AND LOVE Barytone plus Ensemble

MEDIEVAL IRISH EPIGRAMMES SATB

TWO UNHOLY HAIKUS SATB

SEVEN CUBIST MINIATURES Guitar, Viola and Flute

QUINTET Clarinet plus String Quartet

QUASI UNA SARABANDA String Quintet, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon

( Plus many radio broadcasts, portraits, “Different Voices”, Festschrift Frank Corcoran …. )

Certainly, there have been a plenitude of blows to my kidneys. Over the dark years.

To my person’s kidneys; and – more unkind – to my composer’s kidneys, badmouthing amd mealymouthing and

all. Struggle on, kidneys, ounds and composing brain, the imagination running free, flying , expanding

sounding bounds , formal bounds of my musical work. New work, chamber- and orchestral- will this year

be straining to be born, to be sounding, performed and packaged. The kidneys are happy with this.

Dear Frank

I am writing from The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) regarding an upcoming exhibition entitled The Moderns scheduled to open in IMMA from 19th October 2010 to 25th March 2011. This exhibition will attempt to look at the most innovative and experimental developments in Ireland during the period from approx 1900 -1975 mainly revolving around Irish art but also considering these developments in the context of the broader culture of the day, tracing the interconnections between art forms including music, literature, film and architecture. The exhibition is curated by IMMA Director, Enrique Juncosa, and Christina Kennedy, Senior Curator, Collections, and will launch IMMA’s 20th Anniversary in 2011. I have attached a summary of the intent of the exhibition.

We would like to feature in the exhibition the developments in modern music in Ireland through a selection of significant music works. To this end we would like to display a selection of 7-8 original musical scores in vitrines in the exhibition, and also possibly reproduced in the exhibition catalogue. We would very much like to feature one of your compositions in this context and the work we would like to suggest is:

Frank Corcoran

Dektet – 1971

Rachel Talbot (soprano), David Adams (piano), Daedalus Wind Quintet, R.I.A.M. Percussion Ensemble / Richard O’Donnell, Frank Corcoran (piano)
Wed, Oct 17, 2001, 01:00

6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet – Ligeti

Hebraische Balladen – Ulrich Leyendecker

Music for the Book of Kells; Wind Quintet-Sweeney’s Wind-Cries; Trauerfelder-Gort an Bhroin – Frank Corcoran

Ligeti’s Bagatelles of 1953 now seem to him to be “absolutely prehistoric”. It is true that they sound rather like a baroque suite with touches of Stravinsky and Bartok, but they are eminently listenable to, have an individual voice and still sound fresh. The Daedalus Wind Quintet played them with bite and rhythmic vivacity.

The other work for wind quintet last Sunday in the Hugh Lane Gallery was Sweeney’s Wind-Cries by Frank Corcoran who, born in Tipperary and resident in Hamburg, combines a knowledge of Irish culture, including the prehistoric, with a compostitional freedom acquired on the Continent. In his music it is as if the sounds of nature are transformed, but only half tamed, so there is a nervous balance between discipline and what sounds like licence.

Each of his works immediately creates an atmosphere, strong but impossible to particularise. Music for the Book of Kells opens with a solo for tubular bells, which may suggest the life of monasticism, but when the other members of the R.I.A.M. Percussion Ensemble join in, with much use of the bass drum, it seems that more elemental forces are brought into play. And when the piano enters, toward the end, played by the composer, it utters primitive sounds not at all like a piano.

Gort an Bhroin is perhaps the best embodiment of the recital’s title: “Irish and German Tonal Landscapes”. In it four percussionists make a threnody for the victims of Auschwitz. The work opens with tubular bells, but with the accompaniment of a snare drum. The two effects, rightly, are a world apart.

Hi Frank,

Many thanks for your email, I hope you’re well.

We don’t have these works as yet – could you send them in when you get a chance please:

Four Last Words From The Cross for SATB . 2015 ( edition Ferrimontana ) 4′
An Irish Christmas Carol SATB 2015. ( edition Hayo ) 4′
3 Pieces for Violin and Pianoforte 2015 ca. 12.
Music to James P Graham’s SAVING SEAHENGE 2015. ca. 9.’

Don Francisco
it’s up on youtube at http://youtu.be/rZNq-JAXgJU

Your ‘channel’ is at http://www.youtube.com/user/QuasiunCanto
This is where you will see all of the videos you upload.