The Wanderer for Clarinet Quintet

This work was commissioned by Pembroke College, Cambridge to celebrate the 600th anniversary of' their foundation. It was first performed at St. John's Smith Square, London on the 18th of March 1998 by Emma Johnson and theVanbrughQuartet.

My idea in writing this piece was to depict a journey. The title comes from a poem of that name by W.H. Auden. I have used one or two simple musical ideas and transformed them as the journey progresses throughdifferentmoods and landscapes. I had come across the Auden poem whilst searching out texts for a vocal work, and it was ideal as a programme for this piece because it is a quite dramatic journey, a mini-saga, full of incident andextremecontrast. The music is similarly dramatic, moving between extremes of tempo and dynamics. The clarinet is treated not so much as a solo instrument, more as a member of the ensemble, its timbre either blending orcontrasting withthat of the strings. It is in seven sections, played without a break.