SEBASTIAN CURRIER (b.around 1960): Verge for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, Static for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano, Night Time for Harp and Violin, Variations on Time and Time Again for Flute and Piano

Description: These works exemplify Currier's eclectic idiom and his love of wildly contrasted juxtaposition, alternative viewpoints and ambiguity of meaning. Verge (as in, on the verge of being too much something-or-another) consists of nine movements, which explore extremes of velocity, dynamics, fragmentation, and so on. Typically, Currier's basic material is far from avant garde; one feels the tug of tonality throughout, rendering the music accessible; but then the multi-faceted approaches to which the music is subjected reject any classification,while simultaneously embracing if not quite all, many of them, not excluding fleeting suggestions of non-classical idioms. Static plays with possible meanings of the title; the piece is grounded in an immobile matrix, against which interference patterns - some melodic and consonant, some chaotic - emerge. In all four Currier achieves an unusually successful synthesis of immediate approachability and a thorough exploration of the widest range of modern styles. Music from Copland House.