Elspeth Brooke

The Application of Cinematographic Techniques and Aesthetics of Proximity and Perspective to Musical Composition

In the first year of her research, Elspeth’s methodology was to analyse the spatial and temporal properties of selected sequences of existing films, and to develop a range of strategies for analogies between these visual qualities and my compositional materials, techniques and formal structures.

Her portfolio pieces have so far focussed on the close-up and depth of field, each in the context of continuity editing.

Antonioni’s 1960 film L’avventura is the starting point for a group of electroacoustic pieces that enact the recurrent feature of surface and depth being framed in the same shot, and the haptic nature of the close-ups in the film.

Reading film analysis and film theory aids her understanding of the cinematographic techniques and aesthetics she is seeking to enact musically, and can provide starting points for her research questions; the analysis of two sequences of l’avventura in Matilda Mroz’s Temporality and Film Analysis forms the basis of a two movement trio for bass clarinet, electric guitar, samples and percussion (a mixture of natural materials and objects amplified by contact mics), for example.

The next step for her research is to collaborate with living filmmakers and to continue to generate new strategies for enacting the cinematographic techniques and aesthetics of perspective and proximity with live instruments, electronics and amplification.

Listen to some of Elspeth’s work here.