The plan of Travel Journal, unusual for a string quartet, resembles that of piano preludes by Chopin or Debussy. More than any other of LeVines’ compositions, Travel Journal reflects the composer’s reverence for the work of poet Matsuo Bashō, (1644-1694), celebrated for his haiku and travel journals. Travel Journal’s aesthetic is layered, fusing literary, musical, and historical associations. Each miniature is a response to a particular haiku of Bashō. Each alludes to a particular piece of music from European tradition. Dates and places given as titles are attached to events in the lives of composers whose music attracted LeVines’ attention while writing Travel Journal. For example, the first miniature invokes the following Bashō haiku -
last night of the month: no moon
thousand year old cedars
besieged by a storm
At the same time, the movement recalls a piano sonata by Beethoven. Lastly, the title -- March 26, Vienna -- is the date and place of Beethoven’s death, when according to tradition a thunderstorm was raging outside of his home.
Musical reference and homage unfolds as follows: Book I - Beethoven, Shostakovich, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Messiaen (Rochberg); Book II - Bach, Rochberg, Chopin, Vivaldi, Ives, Chopin (Beethoven), LeVines; Book III - Bartok, Schönberg, Debussy, Webern (Bach), Crumb (Ravel).
Travel Journal was awarded Tanglewood’s Grant Composition Prize, and won the Triennial Washington International Competition for String Quartet. The work was presented at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. as part of the American Music Festival. Travel Journal was recorded by the Portland String Quartet on Arabesque Records.
The most substantial work on the program was Travel Journal by Thomas Allen LeVines . . . The work was well crafted and imaginative, deserving not only of its prize, but also of subsequent hearings . . . it encompasses a broad range of moods and sounds, all displaying the composer’s obvious affection for the medium.
— The Washington Post, Roy Geunther