Peter Rankine

Peter Rankine’s musical senses were awakened during morning twilight, at age 10 in a

canoe on a river in a forest, when birds sang a transcendent counterpoint to the

luminous beauty of dawn. Music subsequently became his primary medium of response

to life and its mysteries.

A love of Celtic music in his youth was subsumed into a broader world on hearing Bela

Bartok in 1980, and soon after his experience as a flute player was absorbed into his life

as a composer during undergraduate and graduate studies and the QCM.

His first freelancing period produced a number of symphonies, concertos and ensemble

works for instruments, as well as music for plays, for dance (modern ballet), for singers,

choirs and opera. Graduate studies (MMus) and some lecturing at QUT were followed

by a BEd and several years teaching classroom music across all ages in various

schools.

A research opportunity (for his PhD at QCGU) yeilded the best possible result of leading

him somewhere he least unexpected to go. With an Australian magpie (specifically

gymnorhina tibicen terraereginae) piercing his ears and giving him exquisite

demonstrations in music invention and sound design, he was introduced to the

elements and possibilities of an analogue synthesizer - specifically of its oscillators and

resonant filters. Today Peter embraces a hybrid model of producing music by

composing, scoring, improvising, performing and recording. In this mix, all of the

elements of his musical life thus far are brought together, in a way that enriches each

element and each mode, rather than excluding any. One ambition he has is soon to

perform in a new work for electronics and orchestra.