Frank Corcoran

irish composer

Sound And Music

Dear Frank,

I have now added the videos and audio excepts from the

‘Different Voices’ page to your profile. You can view your profile

here: http://thecollection.soundandmusic.org/composer/frank-corcoran

RAPSODIA TOTALE

My new little solo cello miniature,  Rhapsodietta Joyceana, uses the tone names in ” James” and “Joyce” to get the fun rolling , its A E Es ( = E flat , of course, in German ) C and Cis ( = C sharp );  5 -tone music to mirror Joyce’s thrilling , lyrical lines, their throb and audacity and springiness and silly impudence, snide slyness, hiding high seriousness.

A tiny tribute . Rhapsodic , being wrapped up in their own 5 – tone play, saying something mighty high. “Joycean”, a much maligned adjective today. Still.

The Contemporary Music Centre announces New York premiere by Irish composer, Frank Corcoran 14 March 2011
March will be a busy month for Irish composer Frank Corcoran. His Imagine Ireland 14 March concert in New York will feature the world-premiere of his new Songs of Terror and Love for Bass, David Salisbery Fry and the North South Consonance Ensemble under Conductor Max Lifchitz, at Church of Christ and St. Stephen on 69th. Street, Manhattan.
 

Frank Corcoran’s work Songs of Terror and Love to texts by Jacopone Da Todi for bass voice and Pierrot Ensemble was composed in 2010 in Todi, a delightful little Medieval Italian town not far from the Tiber river.

Corcoran was born in Tipperary and studied in Dublin, Maynooth, Rome and Berlin with Boris Blacher. He was the first Irish composer to have his ‘Symphony No. 1’ (1980) premiered in Vienna. Since 1983 he has been professor of composition and theory in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Hamburg. Awards include Studio Akustische Kunst First Prize 1996 for his ‘Joycepeak Music’ (1995), Premier Prix at the 1999 Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition for his composition ‘Sweeney’s Vision’ (1997) and, more recently, the 2002 Swedish EMS Prize for ‘Quasi Una Missa’ (1999). CDs of his music have been released on the Black Box, Marco Polo, Col-Legno, Wergo, Wergo, Composers’ Art, IMEB-Unesco, Zeitklang and Caprice labels. Frank Corcoran is a founding member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists. www.frankcorcoran.com
The North South Consonance Ensemble is an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary/classical from the Americas. It was founded in 1980 and is based in New York City. It is directed by the pianist and composer Max Lifchitz who is also the ensemble’s founder. The ensemble has performed over 850 different works by composers from around the world and has released many CDs on its own label, North/South Recordings. www.northsouthmusic.org
 

In addition The Gregg Smith Singers will record Corcoran´s  newest choral score  Eight Haikus for  Choir on 15 March in New York.  Gregg Smith, who will be eighty at the end of the year, has with his Gregg Smith Singers been a legend in American music these last forty years. He and they have worked with Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Eliot Carter and made legendary recordings of new and old choral music.

The Contemporary Music Centre is Ireland’s national archive, resource centre and promotional body for new music, supporting the work of Irish composers from the Republic and Northern Ireland. Frank Corcoran is a composer registered with the Centre. The Centre is supported by the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

 

For further information on Frank Corcoran, the Contemporary Music Centre and Irish composers contact Karen Hennessy, Promotion Manager, The Contemporary Music Centre, 19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. Tel: 01 6731922 Email khennessy@cmc.ie web site www.cmc.ie

 

 

Notes for Editors

 

St Patrick’s Day Gala
Part of Imagine Ireland
Suppported by Culture Ireland

 

8pm, Monday, March 14, 2011

 

Songs of Terror and Love  Frank Corcoran
Moto Perpetuo  Liviu Marinescu
Anticipation  Howard Quilling
Fairy Tale  Moon Young Ha
David Salsbery Fry, bass-baritone
Max Lifchitz, conductor
The North/South Consonance Ensemble

 

Christ and St. Stephen’s Church
120 West 69th Street (between Broadway & Columbus),
New York City

 

DIG. DIG THIS ELECTRIC LEFT FOOT

High octane, high electric ; my works do aim at highest targets, high result, high effects intended.

Take my recent 9 miniature Duets for Cello and Piano ( 2015 ) and their ( legitimate ? ) use of 8 of our greatest Irish Slow Airs ….  Mixolydian, sarabande – derived, A B B A architectural form mostly. Dare I ? Should I?  Touch linear ( and anti-harmonic, anti European )  and ornamented perfection ?

High octane; my cello is a sean nos singer, the piano is my orchestra.  Aim high. Higher.

DORTMUND CHORAL FESTIVAL OCTOBER 2015

Morgen Frank!

Your  stunning choral score EIGHT  HAIKUS  for SS AA TT BB

( It won the 2013 IFCM  First Prize Outright  )

is now published by Schott and will be presented at chor.com

in Dortmund!  ( 1. – 4. October )

Better come over, beer is on me. Dortmunder Bier . Best. Stark….

https://www.chor.com

 

Frank

PRESS ! STOP ! STOP PRESS !

I weigh it in my hand, handsome, feisty Festschrift Frank Corcoran.

Festschrift At Seventy           ( Hans-Dieter Gruenefeld editor ).

SEAN AGUS NUA  – OLD AND NEW : AN IRISH COMPOSER INVENTS HIMSELF.

 

2015.   ISBN 978 – 3 – 00 – 050153 – 1

Euros  24.95

 

Check with Amazon and Contemporary Music Centre Dublin.

The Book Of Tipperary ( not Kells ) . ” An Leabhar Mor “.

 

 

HIGH POINT UMBRIA

This weekend at Orvieto ( Teatro Mancinelli ) and Bolsena ( Piccolo Teatro Cavour ) it was high wire acrobatics and high octane music on the piano and viola and cello as my three great Dublin musicians from the N.S.O. of Ireland played for me three of my new Irish Duets , SEAN O DUIBHIR AN GHLEANNA, A MHAIRIN DE BARRA and UNA BHAIN, plus Schubert and Popper and my Viola Variaions and Brahms’s Piano Trio.

Highest standards of playing. Great heat; great music. The high hot shots on bowing and plucking and their keyboard hot, too. Molto speciale. Si.

OKAY FRANK

Suoni d’Irlanda per Frank Corcoran a Orvieto e Bolsena

martedì 28 luglio 2015 19:29

Suoni d'Irlanda per Frank Corcoran a Orvieto e Bolsena

Due appuntamenti imperdibili per chi ama la musica classica e al contempo una grande occasione per celebrare uno dei massimi compositori irlandesi viventi che da alcuni anni ha deciso di trascorrere gran parte dell’anno nella campagna alle porte di Bagnoregio.

In onore di Frank Corcoran, nato a Tipperary nel 1944, tre solisti della National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (Martin Johnson, Adele Johnson, Fergal Caulfield) eseguiranno musiche di Schubert, Popper, Brahms e dello stesso Corcoran in due date, la prima ad Orvieto, al Teatro Mancinelli venerdì 31 luglio alle ore 21:15.

La seconda a Bolsena, al Piccolo Teatro Cavour domenica 2 agosto alla stessa ora. Ad entrambi i concerti, sarà presente il maestro Corcoran.

WATCH YOUR STEP , MUSICAL MONK

Music comes from money . False ? Well, all the institutions that carry it along do. Not the lonely creative flame, no. But its transformation into performances, image-making, the baking of the cake, music as ware, yes. ( ” – Give me enough money and I will create your musical canon and its musical icons,  siftings and evaluation procedures and canonisation , recognition, life or death in or of a musical tradition….  I can thus make or break. – Give me! ”  ). Is marketing, then, all? Well,no. No. After all you can’t buy imagination or courage or moral strength or a good composer’s good will-power, can you ?  Well, let’s confuse the categories and muddy the waters and confound creating with making a quick buck ?  Launch bad or good quality works ? Fiddle the definitions ? Manipulate . Money matters. But not in the long run. Who’s ?

8 IRISH DUETTI for Cello and Piano

Tuirseacht an earraigh an leisciúileacht seo ? Pigrizia ottima an anaim,

ar lorg mothúcháin nua . Chun saothar NUA ( Caithréid Téadanna ?  Nó ionstramiocht  na 5 TENORLIEDER  – ach le  h- aghaidh  WAS ? ! )

a thosnú ?

Rud “NUA”  – ní ath-chothaint an dinnéir a bhí againn inné atá mé ag ( agus ar ) lorg.

An SMAOINEAMH nua. Imní orm faoin bhfoirm ? Gan dabht -rithimí agus dathanna; ach an chéad rud ná AN FHOIRM .

M.Sh.   13 caibidil gearra na dtéadanna ? Gach pictiúr go speisialta ; tá s agam, an téama ” Miniature” , níl sé gan baol ar bith .

Cé s maoite é seo, an té nach bhfuil láidir ( mar chumadóir ) , ní mór do bheith

ioldathach ; misneach; moráltach; suim aige sna plainéidí nua.