MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS
March 5th, 2007 by Frank Corcoran
It was an intolerably humid summer-night at Lake Michigan , 1990 in Milwaukee. My drained year as a Fulbright Guest-Professor in the U.S.A. was ending ; two shadows lay over the family, my wife´s insanity and the violent death of my oldest son, Rory, shortly before. The University of Wisconsin Library purchased a facsimile edition of the Book of Kells in Lucerne. It commissioned me to compose a work for this event. My soul´s flood-gates opened then. This one-movement canvas for a vast array of percussion and , at the end,
Irish pianist ( - I was he- ) paints my Early Medieval Ireland, that strange interfacing of Celtic monastic Christianity and pagan tribal forces, war , peace, prayer, cattle-stealers and saints and druids and kings…. Quiet opening bells and gongs give way to deep drums, later timpani and brake-drums, an great ocean of sound-associations .
MUSIC FOR THE BOOK OF KELLS (1990)
All that we saw was his shadow under his shield
5 perc pf MS13′
Commissioned by Book of Kells Committee
of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
Premiere: 27 May 1990. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA.
New Music Ensemble, Frank Corcoran (pf), conductor Pavel Burda.
Recording:
Mad Sweeney. Percussion Modern, Frank Corcoran(pf), conductor Dieter Cichewiecz.
Black Box 1999. BBM1026
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I’m glad that there is a recording of this! I was there at its premiere 17 years ago (was it that long ago already??) as a quiet 19-year-old disciple of James Liddy, and I was better known as “Dave’s brother Mark” at that time (or: unknown at all).
I remember the intensity of both yourself as well as that of Pavel Burda. I was unaware of all that was going on in your life at that time. The quote, “All that we saw was his shadow under his shield” meant a lot to me at the time, and it still stays with me to this day, along with the music that helped shape that phrase.