Imagining le Verrier
for solo cello
Performances:
• Premiered by Geoffrey Gartner, Bangara Dance Theatre, Sydney, 5th March 2001. Regular recital performances have included Sydney, Stanford University (California), University of San Diego and Amsterdam.
• Peter Hörr (Germany), Barossa Music Festival, October 2002, Barossa Valley
• Benedict Rogerson (UK), Crash Ensemble series, June 2001, Dublin.
“The most impressive two works were by Australian Damien Ricketson: his piece for solo cello Imagining le Verrier was a sinewy and imaginative piece of writing” The Sunday Tribune, Dublin 24/06/01
About Imagining le Verrier:
The title Imagining le Verrier is an astronomical reference to the discovery of the planet Neptune. In 1845 the English mathematician John Couch Adams proposed the existence of an undiscovered planet beyond the orbit of Uranus. (The planet was initially named Le Verrier after his rival French discoverer.) Adam’s approach was controversial at the time because he did not make his claim based upon direct observation of the physical world, but rather, he applied mathematical modeling to predict the existence of an unseen world. The application of a model to go beyond the realm of the known to discover something new is an analogy that has resonated with many composers: to journey outside the realm of intuition so as to bring about a previously unheard world. In the creation of Imagining le Verrier artificial modeling was applied to the physical actions of the player, not to conventional musical parameters such as pitch. As such, Imagining le Verrier results from the composition of movement rather than sound. Patterns of tactile motions are used to structure the movements of the two hands of the cellist. The act of composition, therefore, becomes one of generating choreographic instructions, with the instrument being the physical landscape in which these movements take place. (Damien Ricketson)
Extended essay by Damien Ricketson
Access Imagining le Verrier:
An audio excerpt and the score of this work may be available to download on the Music page
