Faster Still (2004) was commissioned by CBC Radio for Duo Concertante and the Blue Engine String Quartet. It was premiered in St. John's, Canada in September of 2006, with the composer conducting. The piece is made up of six continuous sections with each section featuring a different combination of the soloists and the quartet.

The work is part of a series of pieces that feature constantly changing tempos. Rather than write music for a steady metronome, I wondered if it were possible to make the change in tempo the normal state of the music. The indications accel (speed up) or rall (slow down) are written over nearly every line of music in these works.

Curiously, I've found that the more continuous the acceleration, the calmer things become. The more it wants to "go", the more it "stays". So, counter-intuitively, much of the speeding-up music is featured in slow, rather than fast, movements. It is for this reason I thought the title Faster Still was appropriate, as it speaks both of things wanting to get quicker and of stillness at the same time.

-Brian Current