Frank Corcoran

It´ll be soon time to fly south ” ar nós na bhfáinleoga” – the swallows sense there´s sun down there, the sun as a fire-ball, the sun as hope in the face of Black Holes or the “Sea ofHistory / Upon which we all turn / Turn and thrash / And disappear… ” Down below stir the lemons, vipers yawn and brush their teeth. Could be good; keep up the speed, whipping a new-born opening idea for higher strings, keep violas in reserve. My
cellos and bass a burnished brown , seen through certain light, almost olive colour. Keep up composing energy, the will to finish, closure, all initial potentials whacked and whipped and explored and exhausted. Could be a great symphony of light, this one, sounding. My Summer Song Of Strings.

Programm:

John Cage: Five (1988). Netzwerkmusikperformance mit der HAW Hamburg

György Ligeti: Artikulation (1957)
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Gesang der Jünglinge (1956)
Jonathan Harvey: Vivos Voco, Mortuos Plango (1980)
John M. Chowning: Turenas (1972)
Hans Tutschku: Rituale (2004)
Kirsten Reese: Hallenfelder (2008)
Sean Reed: What’s the matter with my head (2010)
Joachim Heintz: Ambi-schlagfluss (2005)

Francis Corcoran: Sweeney’s Vision (1997)

Georg Hajdu: In ein anderes Blau (2012)

Still Life with Guitar
Emma Coulthard, flute – Michael McCartney, guitar

The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Sunday, 17 March 2013, 1 p.m.

In celebration of the shared Celtic heritage of Wales and Ireland, Still Life with Guitar would like to invite you to an exciting free concert of new music for flute and guitar, including works by Welsh composers Mervyn Burtch and Peter Reynolds, plus, for the first time in Britain, works by Irish composers Frank Corcoran, Martin O’Leary and John Buckley.

I was. I am even now terrified by this terrible Atlantic , supposedly so ( ! ) asleep under the altometer of my
sleeping ( ? ) Delta monster as we all ( – i.e. I and the Atlantic ocean… ) flitted, spurted, darted, supremely jetted back to Hamburg from the March 12. 2013 New York Premiere of :
Frank Corcoran´s new : VARIATIONS ON MYSELF ( written and writhed for the North South Chamber Orchestra under its conductor, great MAX LIFCHITZ ) .
Stop. Say it ! Stop! Being born an Irish composer. No, not at all easy, I reasoned , reckoning eleven thousand metres above these terribly indifferent Atlantic waves, their terrible, killing troughs.

NOVA NEPOZNATA GLAZBA – NEW UNKNOWN MUSIC Zagreb 2013

Frank Corcoran: NIKSA GLIGO RENAISSANCE MAN ( A Personal Reminiscence Of Cooperation With Niksa Gligo )

Even the mahogany sheen of the lower strings and the silver glitter of the wind went into it. “My” mere seven tones, ” F R an Cis Es C orcor An” with all their melodic / harmonically spawned
forms unfolded Frank Corcoran´s ” VARIATIONS ON MYSELF ” in the unholy acoustic of conductor Max Lifchitz´s Church of Christ and St. Stephen on Manhattan´s 120th. Street.
It was a new Corcoran work for chamber orchestra, American . Strings´music, metred, but the winds´ lines then not synchronized, that is its rough plan ambling and arguing on to my Endmusik; – but there, over a low held chord ( I kept changing its colouring, of course I would ) the horn, bassoon, clarinet, oboe and finally flute fare well… The work is an ” argument” , a musical one. Boris Blacher, il miglior fabbro in far-off Berlin of my student days, liked to say that a ( good ) composition states at the outset its basic material. When it has exhausted not ( quite – or only – ) its listeners but its material, it finds a way to its final “cadence”.
Well, reflecting with the returning aeroplane´s tail-wind, I did that. Lovely music. Great sound. Combine, twist, run together and disentangle and knot and flow and die.

Issa is grieving / Slice through the poet´s poor feet / His sorrow stinks now.

Issa is smirking / Is God is no thing ? ” Nothing ? ” / Wash his humbly feet.

” Let Justice be done ! ” / Issa stole some from Basho / Yet this was richness .

Still Life with Guitar17 Mar, 1pm (National Museum Cardiff is open for most Bank Holidays, please check prior to your visit to ensure the museum will be open.)
National Museum Cardiff

In celebration of the shared Celtic heritage of Wales and Ireland, Still Life with Guitar presents an exciting programme of new music for flute and guitar, including performances of works by Welsh composers Mervyn Burtch and Peter Reynolds, plus, for the first time in Britain, works by Irish composers Frank Corcoran, Martin O’Leary and John Buckley.

The programme:

Mervyn Burtch: Sonatina for flute and guitar (2011)

Martin O’Leary: Flight for solo flute (1987)

Peter Reynolds: Serenata I for flute and guitar (1994)

Frank Corcoran: Three Pieces for Guitar (1990)

John Buckley: In Winter Light for alto flute and guitar (2004)

www.stilllifewithguitar.co.uk

Upcoming performances of music by Frank Corcoran
Composer Frank Corcoran has a number of pieces, new and old, in performance across the world during March and April.

The recording of Corcoran’s Violin Concerto, premiered last November by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with Alan Smale, conducted by Christopher Warren-Green, receives a number of broadcasts by the Dutch Radio Concertzender.

On 12 March in New York, North South Consonance, conducted by Max Lifchitz, will premiere a new work called Variations On Myself for chamber orchestra (supported by Culture Ireland – more on the concert here).

An Irish-themed event taking place at Cardiff National Museum on St. Patrick’s Day by the Welsh guitar, viola and flute trio Still Life with Guitar will feature the 2012 commission Seven Cubist Cardiff Miniatures, with a repeat performance planned for November this year.

9 April sees the Zagreb Trio, led by Martin Drausnik, perform Corcoran’s 1977 Piano Trio as part of the 2013 Zagreb Biennale in the Lisinki Concert Hall. This is an important work in the output of the composer, which saw him first develop his technique of macrocounterpoint which characterised his later works.

Maria Schwegmann :

Irland heute – Tradition und Innovation in den Streichquartetten FRANK CORCORANS im Kontext der Musik seiner Zeit.
2008 University of Oldenburg