Focus on Robin Thomson – Winner of the Second Duncan Gardiner Composition
Competition Award.
Robin Thomson first became interested in the classical guitar as a means to improve his rock
guitar technique in the 1970s. He soon became serious about the classical guitar, attended several
masterclasses with visiting concert artists and eventually studied classical guitar at WAAPA. This
was in the heyday of the classical guitar in Perth, when we were all engaged and enthusiastic,
with input from international artists like John Mills, Alice Artzt, Vladimir Mikulka and Gerald
Garcia. Masterclasses were well attended and competition to play for the artist was strong. At
WAAPA, Robin studied with Stefan Bulmer and also became a member of a viol ensemble – the
viol is a fretted, bowed cousin of the violin family from the Renaissance period. Robin was the
first guitarist to gain the WA Conservatorium’s signature qualification the Diploma of Music
Teaching which was developed specifically to enhance the level of instrumental music teaching
in the state of WA.
Robin moved down south and became a noted teacher and educator in both Albany and
Denmark, where he founded the South Coast School of the Guitar, which evolved into the South
Coast School of Music.
Robin’s began composing music in 1999 while teaching business and IT through regional TAFE.
In 2009 he switched to studying piano and later became a piano teacher and composer with his
own studio, Play Piano Now. He has written some 150 compositions and arrangements so far—
including works for string quartet and choir and jazz, blues and pop rearrangements. Robin is
now studying towards a Bachelor of Music in composition online with the Australian Guild of
Education in Melbourne.
The piece that achieved a first placement in the Duncan Gardiner Composition competition was
entitled Please, Please Rain and is an expression of the deep anguish felt in country Western
Australia as the land becomes drier and bushfires rage in the forests. Tuning all the instruments
in open fourths enables the use of uneasy harmonies, chords and harmonics in the piece.
Complex phrasing and cross-rhythms add to the tension, and contrasting wistfulness is expressed
by the insertion of brief sections in ¾ reminiscent of the traditional work Spanish Romance
(“Jeux interdit”) which is strongly associated with longing. The work combines a formal
segmented structure with deep emotion based on tension and increasing frustration.
The performance of this piece almost 40 years after Robin graduated closed a circle – he was
back at WAAPA for the first time since completing his studies for a premiere of his guitar
composition with two of his former students in the orchestra!
Congratulations on a poignant and relevant achievement, Robin!
(Robin Thomson’s music is available at robinthomson.com.au)