The Enactment of Cinematographic Techniques and Aesthetics of Perspective and Proximity in Musical Composition

Brooke, Elspeth Mary (2025) The Enactment of Cinematographic Techniques and Aesthetics of Perspective and Proximity in Musical Composition. Doctoral thesis (PhD), The Royal Northern College of Music in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This research is situated in the field of practice-based research in music composition. The research methodology was to select visuals of existing film material, analyze the technical and aesthetic content of stills or short sequences, and develop a range of strategies for enacting components of the visuals in compositional materials, techniques, and formal structures. Working principally with the shot composition and cinematographic and editing techniques and aesthetics of perspective and proximity in the chosen film extracts, key arising compositional areas included variation forms, the subversion of registral hierarchies, and haptic timbres. The literature review offers a wider context for the composition portfolio, examining film theory and analysis relevant to the research and providing an aesthetic survey of pertinent existing musical works. The first films worked with were Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927) and Dulac’s La Souriante Madame Beudet (1922). Matilda Mroz’s Temporality and Film Analysis (2012) provided insights into two short scenes in Antonioni’s 1960 film L’Avventura, which formed the basis of the following compositional case studies. A methodology emerged that combined the compositional strategies generated by engagement with the film and film text materials with practical experimentation on instruments composed for, either by the composer or through workshops with instrumentalists. The result of the research is a coherent portfolio of instrumental and electroacoustic pieces, each composition arising from a filmic starting point. Central to the research methodology was an iterative process of reflecting on the questions arising from the research: these explorations form the basis of the critical commentary.