Brooks Frederickson
Digital Portfolio for Elon University
I was thinking about the buffalo - 2022
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A commission for a string quartet coincided with a time when I was deeply interested in generative systems, expansive phrases with evolving harmonies, and the original series of Star Trek (the title "I was thinking about the buffalo" comes from the end of the first episode with Captain James T. Kirk).
The piece was commissioned and recorded by the Ciompi Quartet. I worked closely with the recording engineer to capture a close-mic'ed, intimate sound from the quartet, which I mixed with the pre-recorded electronic track. I made the track by stretching and effecting the resampled audio from the MIDI-based mockup of the piece. Other synthesizers and electronic percussion was added in to reinforce particularly poignant moments. For the video, I created an algorithm in the coding language Processing that took color values from a grid of pixels. Each RGB color value was then assigned to a pixel in a grid of boxes whose size and opacity were controlled by slightly-out-of-phase LFOs. Roles: - Composer / Generative system builder - Recording Session Producer - Audio Editor / Mixer - Video Editor - Generative visual algorithm designer |
Here to Hear // Hear to Here - 2020
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Here to Hear // Hear to Here is an interactive audio-based installation that uses the participants' voices as triggers for generative musical events. Participants hear pitches in their headphones, if they match (or get with a generous tolerance range) the pitch with their voice, the system then recombines layers of audio (samples from a recording session with The Crossing, synth layers, digital percussion layers) into unique musical experiences. Six stations were set up in the installation and ran independently.
The installation started as an exercise in thinking how I could create an environment for non-musicians to be active participants in music making. Today's technological landscape allows for nearly anyone to be a music producer. Smartphone apps, web-based audio programs, and free and open-source softwares give easy access to digital music tools. In making installations, I look for ways to give participants a novel way to make music without needing any prior specialized musical training. Roles: - Composer - Recording session engineer - Max application designer - Audio editor / mixer - Installation designer |
MonuMEntal - 2020
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MonuMEntal was created in collaboration with choreographer Stefanie Batten-Bland and members of the American Ballet Theater Studio Company as a part of a multi-year residency at Duke University. The piece uses a slightly edited version of a piece I wrote for pianist Conrad Tao called "from Rising". In the piece, Conrad played piano and used a MIDI keyboard to control a feedback system that was created by pointing a mic down at the strings of a piano, and placing a speaker under the piano, facing up towards the strings and the mic. Conrad would play keys on the MIDI keyboard, frequency bands opened up to allow the speaker and mic to feedback. I created the feedback system using a series of Max for Live plugins that I developed.
During the rehearsal and creation process for the piece, I modified phrase lengths of the recording to suit the choreography. It was an enlightening process to think of a finished piece as raw material to rework in a completely different context. Roles: - Composer (re-composer) - Recording Session Engineer (original session with Conrad Tao) - Audio Editor / Mixer - Live audio engineer (for performance) |
Carson Yoga - 2021
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During COVID, I had the opportunity to write a piece two of Duke's performance faculty. The piece was to premiere on a virtual concert presented by the music department. I had seen enough OVID concerts to be tired of seeing two-camera shoots of chamber pieces, so I decided to enlist the help of my collaborator Julie Rooney to shoot a video of our mutual friend, and yoga instructor, Carson Moody. I asked Carson to develop a short yoga sequence and then to record a narration as if he was leading it in a class. I then re-recorded his narration and used Ableton's Audio to MIDI function to convert my voice to MIDI notes. At each mention of a body part, I fed the corresponding MIDI notes into a generative engine to create gestures that were then set for violin, piano, synthesizers and electric bass. The violin and piano parts were recorded at separate recording sessions that I engineered. The other elements were recorded at my home studio. I created the video elements: phasing RGB versions of Carson and floating circles, and worked with Julie to create the final version of the video.
Roles: - Composer / Generative system builder - Recording session engineer - Narrator - Audio Editor / Mixer - Video asset creator - Video director - Project lead |
River - 2020
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Created in collaboration with choreographer / director Katherine Helen Fisher and videographer Julie Rooney, this video reimagines an archival recording of Rachmaninoff playing one of his own piano concertos. Moments from the concerto were sampled, processed, and rearranged to create an uncanny valley that morphs into an explosive end that includes recordings I made of myself playing guitar, supported by layers of generatively derived rhythmic layers.
Roles: - Composer - Producer - Audio Editor / Mixer |