VERGE

"Whereas many composers have written etudes, lessons in technique dressed up as performance pieces, Currier writes etudes for the mind. ….. [He] does so briefly and brilliantly. His textures are transparent, his harmonies fluid and, though he often has the instruments going separate ways, his sonorities are coherent."   

-Washington Post

                                                  Program Note

Verge was written for and dedicated to the Verdehr Trio. The idea for the work is taken from the title of one of the pieces in Schumann’s Kinderscenen – Almost too serious. Implicit in the title is an aesthetic boundary which, although it may be approached, should not be crossed. If the piece were too serious it would cause it to be out of balance with the simple, childlike world of Kinderscenen as a whole. On the other hand, as long as it does not cross this threshold, it may come as close as possible. It is this idea of being on the verge of some extremity or another that becomes the basis of my piece. Each of the nine movements stands on the edge of excess and I use the phrase borrowed from Schumann to describe them: almost too fast, almost too slow, almost too mechanical, almost too dark, almost too light, almost too fractured, almost too much, almost too little, almost too calm. The nine movements can be divided into cycles of three, each beginning with a pair of movements that oppose one another: fast – slow, dark – light, etc. Almost too much forms the dramatic center of the whole. Almost too fractured presents brief quotations from the other movements.