'Travelogue' was composed in 2008 for the Clarence High saxophone quartet and concert band, and their conductor Lyall McDermott. It was composed following a holiday around my home state of Tasmania and (originally) was to be a set of musical pictures representing some of the remarkable places I visited on this holiday. Events, however, came to make this happy vision less approachable and the image of the 'cave' (both Mole Creek and Hastings were visited on holiday) became important to me. The piece is therefore a journey through dark places - grand, refined but ominous in the case of Hastings, and mysterious, claustrophobic and yet awe-inspiring in the case of Mole Creek (there is a reference to the passage describing the Mole Creek caves in 'Northward the Strait' by Don Kay alluded to in this work - awe inspiring indeed!).

I was greatly assisted in composing this piece by Clair Priest, one of the students in the saxophone quartet for whom the piece was written. I used two phrases drawn from two short compositions she had written as a starting point for my work, and the piece takes the form of a set of variations on these themes. The decision to use my student's compositions as the thematic material for this work is also symbolic - the way out from the dark 'caves' is through new energy and new experiences. I call the piece 'Travelogue' then, not because it represents my physical journey (on holiday) - rather it documents an ongoing spiritual one.

'Travelogue' was first performed in November 2008 by the Clarence High Saxophone Quartet: Jess Taylor, Hannah Marmion, Julian Cook and Clair Priest accompanied by the Clarence High Combined Concert Bands conducted by Lyall McDermott. In 2009 the piece was revised for a concert of new Tasmanian compositions and performed by the Island Saxophone Quartet: Jabra Latham, Ben Price, Mitch Ellis and Derek Grice and the Derwent Valley Concert Band conducted again by Lyall McDermott to whom the piece is dedicated.

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