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Frank Corcoran ( ; born 1 May 1944) is an Irish composer. His output includes chamber, symphonic, choral and electro-acoustic music, through which he often explores Irish mythology and history.


Life

''"I came late to art music; childhood soundscapes live on. The best work with imagination/intellect must be exorcistic-laudatory-excavatory. I am a passionate believer in "Irish" dream-landscape, two languages, polyphony of history, not ideology or programme. No Irish composer has yet dealt adequately with our past. The way forward – newest forms and technique (for me especially macro-counterpoint) – is the way back to deepest human experience."''
Born in
Borrisokane Borrisokane () is a town in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is 15 km north of Nenagh, at the junction of the N52 road (Ireland), N52 and N65 road (Ireland), N65 roads. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a p ...
,
County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...
, Corcoran studied at
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
,
Maynooth Maynooth (; ) is a university town in north County Kildare, Ireland. It is home to Maynooth University (part of the National University of Ireland and also known as the National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and St Patrick's College, Maynoo ...
(1961–4),
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
(1967–9) and
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
(1969–71), where he was a pupil of Boris Blacher. He was a music inspector for the Irish government Department of Education from 1971 to 1979, after which he took up a composer fellowship from the Berlin Künstlerprogramm (1980–1). He has taught in Berlin (1981),
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
(1982) and
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, where he has been professor of composition and theory in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst (1983–2008). He was a visiting professor and
Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...
at the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...
in the U.S. in 1989-90 and has been a guest lecturer at CalArts,
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
,
Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, and
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
. Corcoran has been a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy of creative artists, since its inception in 1983. He was the first Irish composer to have had a symphony premiered in Vienna (1st Symphony, ''Symphonies of Symphonies of Wind'', in 1981). Corcoran lives in Germany and Italy.


Music

In the late 1970s, Corcoran developed a technique he calls "macro-counterpoint". Related to similar approaches by
Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szymanow ...
and
György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...
, it "refers to the contrapuntal treatment of layers of sound as opposed to the traditional focus of the intervallic compatibility of one line with another" as in traditional
counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...
. The first composition in which he applied this technique was the Piano Trio (1978). Here, the three instruments each form an independent layer of sound, moving at their own speed and in individual time signatures, numbers of bars, etc. The individual lines remain transparent throughout. At specific points in the score, the musicians are asked to pause in order to start again simultaneously.Klein (1996), pp. 289–292; see Bibliography. Corcoran's strong identification with his Irish heritage has led to many compositions inspired by Celtic Irish mythology, and modern Irish literature. A series of works in various genres written between 1996 and 2003 focus on the life of "Mad Sweeney", a minor 7th-century king from the north of Ireland who is the subject of the ancient Irish tale ''
Buile Shuibhne ''Buile Shuibhne'' or ''Buile Suibne'' (, ''The Madness of Suibhne'' or ''Suibhne's Frenzy'') is a medieval Irish tale about Suibhne mac Colmáin, king of the Dál nAraidi, who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity ...
''. Many other works also have an Irish focus, including the choral ''Nine Medieval Irish Epigrams'' (1973), the percussion piece ''Music for the Book of Kells'' (1990) and some works referring to the work of Irish writers
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
,
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
, Gabriel Rosenstock, and
Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
. Another series of works with titles beginning with the word "Quasi ...", written since 1999 (ongoing), highlights and interprets concepts such as visions or musical forms and expressions such as concertino, lamento, fuga, sarabanda, pizzicato, etc. which serve as both inspiration for the music and as creative raw material.


Awards

Corcoran has won a number of awards throughout his career. Recent awards include: *Feis Ceoil Prize, 1973 *Varming Prize, 1974 *Dublin Symphony Orchestra Prize, 1975 *Studio Akustische Kunst, Cologne, in 1995 (for ''Joycepeak Music'') * Bourges International Electro-acoustic Music Competition, 1999 (for ''Sweeney's Vision'') *EMS Prize, Stockholm, 2002 (for ''Quasi Una Missa'') *Sean Ó Riada Memorial Prize at the Cork International Choral Festival, 2011 *First Prize Outright of the International Foundation for Choral Music, 2013 (for ''8 Haikus'')


Selected compositions

Orchestral *Symphony No. 1 (1980) *Symphony No. 2 (1981) *Concerto for String Orchestra (1982) *Symphony No. 3 (1994) *''Mikrokosmoi'' (1994) *Symphony No. 4 (1996) *''Quasi un canto'' (2002) *''Quasi un concertino'' (2003) *''Quasi una visione'' (2004) *''Quasi una fuga'' (2005) *Violin Concerto (2011) *''Variations on Myself'' (2012), chamber orch *Cello Concerto (2014) *''Quasi una storia'' (2015) *''Quasi un concerto per clarinetto ed archi'' (2017) Chamber ensembles *Wind Quintet No. 2 (1978) *Piano Trio (1978), vn, vc, pf *''Shadows of Gilgamesh'' (1988), fl, ob, cl, hn, tpt, trombones, perc, pf, vn, va, vc, db *''Music for the Book of Kells'' (1990), 5perc, pf *''Four Concertini of Ice'' (1993), fl, ob, cl, hn, vn, vc, db, perc *''Trauerfelder'' (1995), 4perc *Wind Quintet No. 3 (1999) *''Sweeney's Smithereens'' (2000), fl, pic, cl+bcl, perc, pf, vn, db *''Quasi un amore'' (2002), fl, gui *''Quasi una Sarabande'' (2008), cl, bn, hn, 2vn, va, vc, db *Clarinet Quintet (2011) *''Rhapsodic Bowing'' (2012), 8vc *''Nine Looks at Pierrot'' (2013), fl+picc, cl+bcl, vn, vc, pf *''Quasi una Storia'' (2014), 8vn, 2va, 2vc, db *''8 Irish Duets for Cello and Piano'' (2015) *Piano Trio (2016), va, vc, pf *String Quartet (2016) Solo instrumental *Sonata for Organ (1973) *''The Quare Hawk'' (1974), flute *''Hernia'' (1977), double bass *''Changes'' (1979), piano *''Variations on 'Caleno costure me (1982), harpsichord *Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet (1987) *Three Pieces for Guitar (1990) *''Ice-Etchings No. 2'' (1996), cello *''Sweeney's Total Rondo'' (2002), piano *''Variations on 'A Mháirín de Barra' (2004), viola *''Nine Pratoleva Pearls'' (2008), piano *''A Dark Song'' (2011), bass clarinet *''In the Deep Heart's Core'' (2011), harp *''Snapshot'' (2012), cello *''Seven Miniatures for Solo Violin'' (2013) Vocal and choral *''Nine Medieval Irish Epigrams'' (1973), satb *''Ceol an Aifrinn'' (1980) *''Gilgamesh'' (1990), 7 soli, satb, orchestra *''Nine Aspects of a Poem'' (1989; rev. 2003), satb, vn *''Carraig aonair'' (1976), soprano, alto, pf *''Kiesel'' (1980), soprano, 2vn, va *''Cúig amhráin de chuid Gabriel Rosenstock'' (1980), soprano, vn, vc, pf *''Dán Aimhirgín'' (1989), soprano, va, bcl, pf *''Buile Suibhne'' (1998), fl+pic+afl, ob, cl+bcl, hn, perc, vn, va, vc, db, spkr *''Quasi una melodia'' (2001), soprano, tsax, va, mar, pf *''Quasi un pizzicato'' (2004), fl, hp, pf, perc, spkr *''The Light Gleams'' (2006), soprano, bcl, vn, vc *''Four Orchestral Prayers'' (2006), mezzo, orch *''Five Lieder'' (2010), tenor, pf *''Songs of Terror and Love'' (2011), bass, fl+picc+afl, cl+bcl, pf, vn+va, vc *''Eight Haikus'' (2012), satb *''My Alto Rhapsodies'' (2014), alto, orch *''An Irish Christmas Carol'' (2014), satb Electro-acoustic *''Balthazar's Dream'' (1980) *''Farewell Symphonies'' (1982), with speaker & orch *''Sweeney's Vision'' (1997) *''Quasi una missa'' (1999) *''Tradurre – Tradire'' (2005)


Recordings

*Piano Trio; ''The Quare Hawk''; String Quartet No. 1; ''Gestures of Sound and Silence'', ''Mythologies'', performed by Hesketh Trio, Madeleine Berkeley (fl), Testore Quartet, Aisling Drury-Byrne (vc), Frank Corcoran (pf), Roger Doyle (perc), on: Self Help 101 (LP, 1980). *''Mikrokosmoi'', performed by Irish Chamber Orchestra, Fionnuala Hunt (cond.), on: Black Box Music BBM 1013 (CD, 1998). *Symphonies No. 2, 3, and 4, performed by National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Colman Pearce (cond.), on: Marco Polo 8.225107 (CD, 1999). *''Mad Sweeney''; ''Music for the Book of Kells''; Wind Quintet; ''Sweeney's Vision'', performed by Das Neue Werk NDR Ensemble, Percussion Modern, Stuttgart Wind Quintet, on: Black Box Music BBM 1026 (CD, 1999). *''Trauerfelder'', performed by Modern Percussion, Joachim Winkler (cond.), on: Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg o label code(CD, 2000). *''Quasi una missa''; Piano Trio; ''Balthasar's Dream''; ''Five Rosenstock Lieder''; Wind Quintet No. 3; ''Sweeney's Farewell'', performed by Hesketh Trio, Sabine Sommerfeld (soprano), Hamburg Trio, Daedalus Quintet, on: col legno WWE 1CD 20214 (CD, 2003). *''Sweeney's Smithereens''; ''Five Trauerfelder''; ''Tradurre – Tradire''; Concert for String Orchestra; ''Five Songs Without Words'', performed by Ensemble für Neue Musik München & Dieter Cichewicz (cond.), Percussion-Ensemble München & Dieter Cichewicz (cond.), Die Maulwerker & electronics, Irish Chamber Orchestra & David Robertson (cond.), Das Neue Werk NDR Ensemble & Dieter Cichewicz (cond.), on: Composers Art Label cal-13017 (CD, 2003). *''Quasi una visione''; ''Ice-Etchings No. 2''; ''Quasi un concerto''; ''Quasi Variations on 'A Mhárín de Bharra; ''Quasi un pizzicato''; ''Quasi Aspects of an Irish Poem'', performed by Ensemble Modern & Sian Edwards (cond.), David Stromberg (vc), Cantus Kammerorchester & Beroslaw Sipus (cond.), Wireworks Ensemble & René Gulikers (cond.), National Chamber Choir & Celso Antunes (cond.), Constantin Zanidache (va), on: Composers Art Label cal-13021 (CD, 2006). *Cello Concerto; ''Rhapsodietta Joyceana''; ''Rhapsodic Bowing''; ''Duetti Irlandesi'', performed by Martin Johnson (vc), Fergal Caulfield (pf), RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Gavin Maloney (cond.), on: RTÉ lyric fm CD 154 (CD, 2017).


References


Bibliography

*Annette Kreutziger-Herr: "Frank Corcoran", in ''
Komponisten der Gegenwart The ''Komponisten der Gegenwart'' (KDG) is a music encyclopedia in the German language about composers of the 20th and 21st century. It is a looseleaf service with information on currently about 900 composers. Editors Hanns-Werner Heister and Wa ...
'' (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), pp. 134–149. *Hazel Farrell: "Corcoran, Frank", in: ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. by Harry White & Barra Boydell (Dublin: UCD Press, 2013), pp. 243–5. *Benjamin Dwyer: "An Interview with Frank Corcoran", in: B. Dwyer: ''Different Voices. Irish Music and Music in Ireland'' (Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2014), pp. 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); . {{DEFAULTSORT:Corcoran, Frank 1944 births 20th-century Irish classical composers 21st-century Irish classical composers Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Electroacoustic music composers Irish classical composers Living people Irish male classical composers Modernist composers Musicians from County Tipperary 20th-century Irish male musicians 21st-century Irish male musicians People from Borrisokane