Elspeth Brooke
Elspeth Brooke is a Research student working on projects for the Experimental/Exploratory Music Research Centre (EEMRC) at the RNCM.
A second year PhD in Composition candidate at the RNCM, her supervisors are Dr David Horne and Dr Larry Goves. Commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, BBC singers and a chamber opera The Commission, co-commissioned by ROH, Aldeburgh Music and Opera North.
Recent Projects
The Application of Cinematographic Techniques and Aesthetics of Proximity and Perspective to Musical Composition
Elspeth’s portfolio pieces have so far focussed on the close-up and depth of field, both in the context of continuity editing.
Antonioni’s 1960 film L’avventura is the starting point for a group of instrumental 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 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 steps for her research are to integrate film into her pieces, and to continue to generate new strategies for enacting the cinematographic techniques and aesthetics of perspective and proximity with live instruments, electronics and amplification.
Pieces
Close-ups for 14 players
Madame Beudet’s Faces for solo piano
L’avventura trio for bass clarinet, electric guitar, percussion and samples
Configurations for string quartet
Locations for piano and electronics (in progress)
Sharp and Murky for 10 players (in progress)
Octet (in progress)
Conference Presentations
17/5/17 RNCM PGR Conference Between mapping and metaphor: the cinematic close-up and the composition of piano miniatures
30/6/17 RNCM Student Research Conference The cinematography of Antonioni’s L’avventura, and composition for piano and pre-recorded soundtrack
28/4/18 Sound Agendas Composers’ Conference, CeNMaS, Sheffield University Applying cinematographic techniques and aesthetics of perspective and proximity in Michelangelo Antonioni’sl’avventura to instrumental composition
9/5/18 RNCM PGR Conference Applying cinematographic techniques and aesthetics of perspective and proximity in Michelangelo Antonioni’s l’avventura to instrumental composition
